HHS to Accept Nominations for Cybersecurity Task Force

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the formation of a new Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force as called for in the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015.

In December, President Obama signed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 into law, with the goal of increasing cybersecurity information sharing between the private sector and the Federal Government. The Act provides various protections to non-federal entities that share cyber threat indicators (CTIs) with the federal government.

According to an HHS release, “From the beginning of the Administration, the President has made it clear that cybersecurity is one of the most important challenges we face as a nation. That is why the Administration has led a broad strategy to enhance the federal government’s cybersecurity, including both our defensive and offensive capabilities, to tackle today’s increasingly sophisticated cyber actors…Establishment of this Task Force will build on our work to keep our systems secure and to provide information to improve preparedness for cybersecurity threats affecting the healthcare industry.”

As such, HHS has invited healthcare partners to submit nominations for membership on the task force, suggesting the following qualifications:

•   Service in a position of influence in an organization that is representative of a component of the broad healthcare and public health sector
•     Experience in dealing with technical, administrative, management, and/or legal aspects of health information security
•     Knowledge of major health information security policies, best practices, organizations, and trends
•     Ability to participate actively in Task Force meetings and contribute to Task Force products (expected to be 4 in-person meetings and 8 teleconferences, in addition to time reviewing and contributing to documents)

Nominations will be accepted until 5:00 p.m. ET, March 9, 2016. Successful nominees will be notified within one week of their selection. The first teleconference of the Task Force will be held on March 17, 2016, HHS said.