04.09.15
New national service to manage security threats in health sector
A new national service to provide guidance and advice on cyber security threats to the NHS is planned to go live in January 2016, the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has stated.
The CareCERT – Care Computing Emergency Response Team – will be run by experts at HSCIC to enhance “cyber resilience” across the health and social care system.
Functionality of the CareCERT project, which has been funded by the Cabinet Office National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), is being launched in a phased approach from autumn 2015.
Rob Shaw, HSCIC director of operations and assurance services, said: “CareCERT will be a valuable resource for the health and social care sector, providing best practice guidance to support organisations to keep their information safe and secure.
“The service will monitor for system wide threats and will then ensure that appropriate actions are developed, supporting continued security across the sector.”
HSCIC added that CareCERT will provide incident response expertise for the management of cyber security incidents and will be a “central source” of security intelligence for health and care.
Earlier this week, health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced that the Care Quality Commission will now begin reviewing the standards of data security for patients’ records across the NHS. He added that the breach was “completely unacceptable”.