Announcing the HC3 Website!

By Greg Singleton, HC3 Director, Department of Health and Human Services
Twitter: @HHSGov

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is very excited to announce the launch of the Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) website, www.hhs.gov/HC3. The HC3 website is the next step in milestone on our mission to support the defense of the healthcare and public health sector’s information technology infrastructure, by strengthening coordination and information sharing within the sector and by cultivating cybersecurity resilience, regardless of an organizations’ technical capacity.

The healthcare and public health (HPH) sector is a prime target for cyber criminals, and state-supported hackers.

Malicious actors are increasingly targeting the highly-sensitive, data-rich HPH sector, threatening the safety and privacy of American citizens.​ The attack surface is growing and cybercriminals are developing more sophisticated tools and techniques to attack healthcare organizations, gain access to data, and hold data for ransom.

To address these threats to the sector, HHS has developed a “coordination center” in the HC3 to coordinate the activities across the sector and report to DHS threats, profiles, and preventive strategies. The HC3’s role is to work with the sector, including practitioners, organizations, and cybersecurity information sharing organizations to understand the threats the HPH sector faces, learn the threat actor patterns and trends, and provide information and approaches on how the sector can better defend itself.

The launching of the website is a major milestone for HHS and HC3 as it will unlock another channel for the HPH Sector to receive products, tools, and information that they can leverage to better protect their organizations and, ultimately, all American citizens. With the launch of this website, HC3 products will be available 24/7 for our sector partners who need to access information quickly, or find other critical information they may need, it allows us to engage on a new level with our sector partners and reach further into the sector to assist more people. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the HC3 has been working with the sector to identify misleading information, and support our hospitals and front line workers with information on new phishing scams related to COVID-19 and upticks in instances of malware that could affect patient care, or lead to ransomware attacks.

“The HC3’s site will become a key resource for the sector to obtain new cyber threat information and engage with the department on these critical issues” – Greg, Singleton, HC3 Director.

In addition, the website will host all of HC3’s sector resources including new and archived products. HC3 releases a host of different types of products which include:

• Threat Briefings: A briefing presentation that highlights relevant cybersecurity topics and raises the HPH sector’s situational awareness of current cyber threats, best practices, and mitigation tactics.
• Sector Alerts: A document designed to assist the sector with defense of large scale and high level vulnerabilities.
• Sector Notes: A document that provides high level situational background on active threats and protection strategies from the perspective of the HC3 analysts.

The website serves as a focused repository of knowledge for information security professionals, as well as a library for small health practices to assist them with their security. HHS and the HC3 are committed to strengthening the cybersecurity posture of the Health and Public Health sector, we look forward to engaging with our constituents, expanding our existing knowledge base and securing the sector together.

This article was originally published on the HHS blog and is republished here with permission.