Dive Brief:
- HSS is in the process of building a Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force.
- The agency is seeking nominees with specific qualifications: served in a position of influence in a healthcare or public health organization; experienced with technical, administrative, management of legal aspects of health IT security; knowledge of major health IT security policies, best practices, and trends, and capable to participate in task force meetings.
- Nominations were accepted through March 9. HHS will notify those selected within a week, and the first teleconference of the new task force is scheduled for March 17.
Dive Insight:
Overall, the task force will hold four in-person meetings, eight teleconferences, and will be focused on reviewing and contributing to documents.
"From the beginning of the Administration, the President has made it clear that cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges we face as a nation," HHS said in a statement.
There has been an increasing number of hospital data breaches, and now ransomware is becoming more prevalent, Healthcare Dive reported.
Last year saw huge data breaches with Anthem's breach affecting close to 80 million people.
Healthcare data contains personal information that sells at a high price on the black market - more so than credit card numbers. And Experian's annual data breach report from 2015 estimated data breaches could potentially cost the healthcare industry $5.6 billion every year.