Cybersecurity

A group of Senate Republicans led by Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) has introduced legislation to give consumers choices and control over how their personal health, device, geolocation and proximity data can be collected.

Cyber policy pros are urging operators of industrial control systems and other critical infrastructure to be particularly alert to cyber threats following the U.S. attack that killed Iran's top general, amid intense discussions on whether the right cyber policy tools are in place for a potentially unprecedented confrontation in cyberspace.

FDA notified device manufacturers, providers and patients on Tuesday (Oct. 1) that connected medical devices and health care networks that use certain communication software are vulnerable to potential cybersecurity attacks.

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council has issued a list of information-sharing organizations as a resource for assisting hospitals, physicians, drug and device makers, and others within the healthcare industry to defend against cybersecurity threats, with additional guidance expected to come.

FDA on Tuesday (July 2) announced that it will meet with patients to come up ideas for how FDA, the medical device industry and health care providers should tell patients and the public about cybersecurity risks associated with devices.

An official in FDA’s medical device center announced the agency has launched a new project intended to encourage device stakeholders to partner with cybersecurity researchers -- also called white hat hackers -- as a means of boosting the resilience, transparency and trustworthiness of medical devices and the health care system overall.

Greg Garcia, executive director for cybersecurity of the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council, says the group will be gearing up over the next few weeks to encourage widespread adoption of recently issued cybersecurity guidelines, as it also develops a process for measuring the effectiveness of the voluntary guidance for reducing cyber risks for hospitals, patients and the rest of the medical community.

HHS and the healthcare industry issued cybersecurity “best practices” that focus on baseline measures such as protecting emails, limiting system access and developing incident response plans -- based on a pre-testing process intended to assess the effectiveness of the security guidelines.

FDA and the HHS Office of Inspector General are butting heads over whether the agency is equipped to address postmarket cybersecurity risks to medical devices.