Bipartisan Bills Would Promote Cyber Security Efforts in Healthcare

The Senate has passed, and in late summer the House introduced, legislation aimed at improving cyber security in healthcare. Congress' efforts in this regard would put the efforts of two agencies together, in an attempt to share resources including threat intel.  

WHY IT MATTERS

The healthcare sector is a frequent target for cyber threats, including a massive breach of a payment processing platform early this year that impaired healthcare delivery for weeks.  Under the new bills in Congress, HHS (which regulates healthcare) and CISA (the federal cyber watchdog agency) would be directed to coordinate efforts before and during any cyber attack in the healthcare sector. The two agencies have cooperated on cyber issues in the past.  The pending bills would formalize and expand their working relationship.