Is HHS’s cyber center redundant?
Some leaders in the health care and technology industries say 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.
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 that they answered the rallying cry” from the government to share cyberthreat information, and are now “getting the rug pulled out from under them,” Daniel Nutkis, CEO of HiTrust Alliance, told CyberScoop.
Read more on the new HCCIC and the debate on its redundancy on CyberScoop.
