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The UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has announced a £500,000 funding boost for hundreds of vital healthcare firms in the country for enhancing their cyber security.
According to the department, the announcements comes in the wake of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) detecting an increased cyber threat to the UK health sector in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NCSC has warned that cyber crime groups have been trying to steal sensitive intelligence, intellectual property, and personal details from pharmaceutical firms and medical research organisations.
To address the impending threat to the cyber security of healthcare firms, the DCMS is inviting small and medium-sized businesses to apply for a portion of the latest funding for the initiative.
The funding will be applicable to primary care providers, medical suppliers, and others with the government committing to cover all consultancy and certification costs.
Furthermore, participants can get guidance and support for getting accreditation from the Cyber Essentials certification of the government. This covers training which will ensure that all phones, tablets, computers or laptops are kept up-to-date, proper firewall usage to make internet connections of devices secure, and user access controls to handle employee access to services.
UK Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman said: “We know there is a heightened cyber threat for healthcare businesses at the moment so we are releasing new funding to help those playing a vital role in the pandemic response to remain resilient.
“I also urge all organisations to sign up to the government’s Cyber Essentials programme which contains a number of simple steps firms can take to get the fundamentals of good cyber security in place.”
The DCMS said that companies can choose to get support from one of the cyber experts of the programme, who will look at the organisation as a whole, study its cyber security risks, and help develop and put in place a business continuity plan.
NCSC operations director Paul Chichester said: “Protecting healthcare has been our top priority during the Covid-19 pandemic and we have been working hard to ensure organisations can keep themselves secure.
“While we will continue to support them, signing up to initiatives such as Cyber Essentials is an excellent way for organisations to help themselves.” |
