White House, Tech Giants Join Forces to Bolster Healthcare Cybersecurity for Rural Hospitals

The White House has teamed up with tech giants Microsoft and Google to improve healthcare cybersecurity for rural hospitals across the U.S. It comes amid an increase in the number of cyber threats to health facilities, which has grown by 128% between 2022 and 2023, as estimated by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

As one of the earliest responders, Microsoft has extended discounts of up to 75% on its security solutions tailored for smaller organizations. Such independent critical access hospitals and rural emergency hospitals that have been using Microsoft products will be entitled to a complimentary year of their advanced Microsoft cybersecurity resources. The larger rural hospitals will also get access to discounts of up to 75% on Microsoft cybersecurity resources which they are still in the process of implementing.

Microsoft has announced that, besides offering discounted software, it will provide rural hospitals with free Windows 10 security updates for one year or more. Additionally, the company will deliver cost-free cybersecurity assessments, as well as training of the facility’s personnel. Interested organizations can access the program effectively immediately, and to learn more, as well as register, they can visit the website: https://aka.ms/Microsoft_Security_Rural_Hospitals.

Google, in particular, is contributing in the form of offering free advice on endpoint security to rural hospitals and nonprofit organizations. In addition to that, the company is establishing a pool of money that hospitals would be able to use to back the migration of software. Therefore, hospitals could switch to more secure approaches leveraging this funding. In addition, Google has announced that it is going to establish a pilot program with several rural hospitals. This initiative aims to help create customized healthcare cybersecurity solutions that would address the specific needs of these entities.

The American Hospital Association also reports that it has been involved in working with the White House, Microsoft, and Google to see what problems hospitals and health systems may be facing. The organization stresses that cybersecurity is particularly important for hospitals as, in most of the rural areas, they are the only providers of medical care. The American Hospital Association also states that it endeavors to ensure that the resources that hospitals will get from Google and Microsoft would be truly valuable and would address the issues faced by those entities in this sphere.

There has never been a more urgent necessity for improved healthcare cybersecurity. A series of recent attacks, most notably UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare got hurt in a ransomware attack, struck the sector and served to demonstrate its weakness. Those incidents compromise patient care by causing surgeries and other procedures to be postponed and ambulances to be sent to other hospitals in many instances. White House’s initiative shows that the government acknowledges the importance of rural hospitals for their communities and the problems they experience when defending their systems against cyber attacks. It also implies that significant efforts are being made to ensure the safety of patient data and healthcare infrastructure.

The collaboration between the White House, Microsoft, Google, and the AHA represents a major advancement in healthcare cybersecurity. By providing affordable and accessible cybersecurity resources, this initiative aims to empower rural hospitals to protect themselves against cyberattacks, ultimately ensuring the continuity of essential healthcare services for millions of Americans.

Source:

  1. https://healthitsecurity.com/news/microsoft-google-offer-cybersecurity-resources-for-rural-hospitals
  2. https://therecord.media/microsoft-google-rural-hospital-cybersecurity
  3. https://www.aha.org/2024-06-10-aha-helps-secure-new-cybersecurity-resources-microsoft-and-google-assist-rural-hospitals

 

 


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