HHS Launches 405(d) Program Website Providing Resources to Help Mitigate Healthcare Cybersecurity Threats

By | December 3, 2021

The Department of Health and Human Services has launched a new website that offers advice and resources to help the healthcare and public health sector mitigate cybersecurity threats.

The website was created as part of the HHS 405(d) Aligning Health Care Industry Security Approaches Program, which was established in response to the Cybersecurity Act of 2015. The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 called for the HHS to establish the program and a Task Group to enhance cybersecurity and align industry approaches by developing a common set of voluntary, consensus-based, and industry-led cybersecurity guidelines, practices, methodologies, procedures and processes that healthcare organizations can use.

More than 150 individuals from industry and the federal government have collaborated under the program and provided insights into how best to mitigate cyberthreats. The new website supports the motto, Cyber Safety is Patient Safety, and provides videos and other educational material to raise awareness of pertinent threats along with vetted cybersecurity resources to drive behavioral change and move toward consistency in mitigating key threats to healthcare organizations. Through the website, organizations in the HPH sector can subscribe to a bi-monthly 405(d) newsletter and will have easy access to threat-specific products to support cybersecurity awareness and training efforts.

“The new 405(d) Program website is a step forward for HHS to help build cybersecurity resiliency across the Healthcare and Public Health Sector. This is also an exciting moment for the HHS Office of the Chief Information Officer in our ongoing partnership with industry,” said Christopher Bollerer, HHS Acting Chief Information Security Officer.

“This website is the first of its kind! It’s a unique space where the healthcare industry can access vetted cybersecurity practices specific to the HPH sector on a federal government website,” said Erik Decker, 405(d) Task Group Industry co-lead. “I think it’s a great resource for the HPH sector to turn to and will surely be a go-to site for organizations that want to better protect their patients and facilities from the latest cybersecurity threats.”

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