Category Archives: HCCIC

HHS faces flak over new cyber center

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The Department of Health and Human Services’ new national cybersecurity intelligence-sharing clearinghouse appears to duplicate the role of similar entities in the federal government and in the private sector, say key lawmakers and some leaders in the health care industry. Critics say the creation of the Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, or HCCIC, is moving the goalposts for the industry, which was answering the U.S. government’s call to create a private-sector cyberthreat-sharing ecosystem. HCCIC is being modeled after the Department of Homeland Security’s 24-hour watch center, the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, or NCCIC — and some fret it may duplicate its functions. Defenders of the new clearinghouse are playing down the idea that HCCIC might be redundant. They argue it can provide a depth of specialist knowledge about the health care sector DHS lacks, and that the industry’s own membership-based information sharing organizations cannot match the universal service HCCIC will provide. The health care industry “feels […]

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WannaCry outbreak was first big test of HHS’s new cybersecurity center for health sector

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When the WannaCry computer worms crippled the British National Health Service last month, the response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was led by a new cybersecurity watch center, lawmakers heard Thursday. The Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, “coordinated the response to WannaCry,” Steve Curren, director of resilience in the HHS Office of Emergency Management, told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. When the WannaCry worm struck, crippling dozens of British hospitals, HHS officials “took immediate action to engage [the] broader U.S. health sector and ensure that IT security specialists had the information they needed to protect against, respond to and report intrusions,” Curren said. The HCCIC, (pronounced “aitch-kick”) came online in May is modeled on the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center — a 24-hour watch center that pulls in real-time data from vital national industries like banking and telecommunications and distributes warnings and other information. […]

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