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Cyber security in NHS trusts

Dan Taylor, head of cyber security at the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), soon to be NHS Digital, discusses the importance of cyber security and the development of CareCERT.

Many of you may be thinking that this piece isn’t for you, because you aren’t an IT professional. You would be wrong, and this perception is the single biggest threat to keeping health information safe and secure. Good cyber security is the responsibility for every member of staff in an organisation, and good ‘cyber hygiene’ is as important and can be as simple as good hand hygiene in an NHS organisation. 

The move to electronic records, the digitisation of patient services and the advent of technology-enabled care has saved time and resources for the NHS, and has huge potential to play a key role in delivering excellent patient care in the future. But alongside the benefits of digitisation there are risks, and with risks come responsibilities. These responsibilities aren’t just for your IT or security team, they belong to every member of staff in your organisation. 

Cyber security starts on the frontline 

Effective security has to start with people. Estimates vary, but official figures from HSCIC show that around 1.3 million people work within health, the vast majority of those delivering care. 

Security starts on the frontline, not in the IT department. Does everyone have basic training in cyber security? Do they understand their personal responsibility to keep data safe? This ‘cyber hygiene’ includes simple things such as keeping passwords safe and changing them regularly; never letting anyone other than the named person use a Smartcard; not clicking on unverified links; keeping mobile devices safe and secure; and ensuring that individuals log off or lock screens when they move away from a device. 

So if cyber security is so important to the NHS, what is happening at the centre to support organisations to practice what I am preaching? 

CareCERT support 

CareCERT Broadcast is an HSCIC service that gathers known threats and intelligence and broadcasts them appropriately across health and care organisations, along with advice about how to mitigate those threats. This enables organisations to make informed decisions about protectively fixing vulnerabilities before they become an issue. 

CareCERT Broadcast has been live for many months now [NHE reported on this in the Jan/Feb 2016 issue] and we’ve received useful feedback about other cyber services the sector would like to see us provide. As a result, CareCERT Broadcast will soon have some cyber siblings including CareCERT Assure; a set of CareCERT training modules; and a range of other services to be announced later this year.

CareCERT Assure will allow health and care organisations to take a free assessment of their cyber strengths and weaknesses. We want to use our experience to learn lessons on behalf of the sector, benchmark what good looks like and then share that, whilst also helping individual organisations to pin-point areas for improvement and investment, maximising the limited resources available. 

We are also in beta testing for a national cyber security training platform. This will cover a number of basic areas for all staff and a second, more complex module, will be available for specialist staff. Freely available to all health and care organisations, the training will enable organisations to develop colleagues, whilst ensuring our people form the first line of defence in securing information. 

CareCERT services will enable health and care organisations to benefit from the expertise at HSCIC, but without dictating a one-size-fits-all approach. Ultimately, the security of information is the responsibility of the organisation where it is held. We want to support organisations to safely look after that information, whilst allowing them to make appropriate local decisions about what works for their individual needs.

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