In Indiana, large health systems are joining forces to assist smaller healthcare providers with cybersecurity. The collaborative initiative, called Healthcare Cyber in a Box, was created in partnership with the Indiana Executive Council on Cybersecurity. This program, led by the council’s healthcare cybersecurity committee, aims to equip smaller organizations with tailored cybersecurity tools and expert guidance, leveraging resources from major health systems like IU Health, Franciscan Alliance, Parkview Health, Eskenazi Health, and Community Health Network.
The primary goal of the initiative is to offer actionable cybersecurity resources to organizations with limited infrastructure.
Many smaller providers lack the time or expertise to research cybersecurity measures independently, according to Mitchell Parker, IU Health’s chief information security officer. By providing these resources, the program enables smaller organizations to easily implement necessary cybersecurity steps without starting from scratch.
The initiative offers cybersecurity guidance at three levels: basic, intermediate, and mature, covering 23 critical areas. These resources are available for free download, with practical tools such as charts that provide step-by-step instructions. The program’s previous versions, including 2.0 and 2.1, have already been downloaded over 1,200 times, with an upgraded 3.0 version in the works.
This new version may include alerts for organizations facing cybersecurity incidents, further enhancing the program’s responsiveness to emerging threats.
Rural hospitals, which are often targeted due to outdated IT systems and limited resources, stand to benefit greatly from this initiative. Smaller healthcare providers, those with fewer than 500 employees, are particularly vulnerable to cyber threats. As Mitchell Parker explains, protecting patient information is a priority, and by working together, all health systems in the state can help ensure the security of healthcare data. This collaboration demonstrates the importance of collective effort in safeguarding the healthcare ecosystem against cybercrime.
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