SANS Institute and the National Health Information Sharing & Analysis Center Partner to Advance Healthcare Cyber Security

BETHESDA, Md., Sept. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With an ever-evolving threat landscape threatening  to wreak havoc on the healthcare industry, SANS Institute and the National Health Information Sharing & Analysis Center (NH-ISAC) today announced a partnership to help healthcare organizations overcome today's complex cyber security issues through greater awareness and information sharing. The partnership combines SANS' world-class cyber security training and expertise with NH-ISAC's growing healthcare information sharing network.   

To foster greater collaboration and education within the healthcare industry, SANS and NH-ISAC will host the second annual Healthcare Cyber Security Summit in San Francisco on December 3^rd, followed by an extensive seven day security training program. This unique event brings together security experts from leading healthcare organizations to discuss proven approaches for securing healthcare entities.

"The healthcare industry has long relied on information security programs driven by compliance requirements. But compliance alone is not enough, given the frequency of breaches and a threat landscape that changes every 30 days, it is clear this approach is no longer sufficient. To successfully defend against attackers, the industry must move to a risk-driven approach based on evolving threats," said Jim Routh, NH-ISAC board member & Chief Information Security Officer, Aetna. "New threats in healthcare are escalating, and the most effective security approach for the industry is to share information. NH-ISAC and SANS are joining forces to educate the industry on these threats and  best-practice techniques and tools available to help the healthcare industry protect intellectual capital and consumer health information."

The Healthcare Cyber Security Summit will detail how healthcare organizations can balance the security, compliance, and innovation required to thrive in today's quickly changing market. Senior information security leaders will share their experiences dealing with nation- state sponsored threat actors from the pharmaceutical industry.  Attendees will also learn the facts behind supply chain security risks with medical devices for health providers and hear what CISOs from other industries entering health care are concentrating on. Topics that will be discussed at the summit include:

• Emerging health care security threats;
• Security of medical devices;
• State of incident response;
• Information sharing frameworks;
• Mobile and digital care;
• Challenges with using the cloud;
• Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) security; and
• User case studies.

For additional details on the summit, including a complete overview of presentations and training courses, or to register for the event, please visit: http://www.sans.org/info/167847

About NH-ISAC
The National Health Information Sharing & Analysis Center (NH-ISAC) is nationally recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Council of ISACs for the healthcare and public health sector. NH-ISAC's mission is to enable, foster and preserve the public trust by advancing the physical and cyber security protection of the nation's healthcare and public health critical infrastructure from threats and vulnerabilities. NH-ISAC's established information sharing programs with the US Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement and intelligence agencies support nationwide prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery.

About SANS Institute
The SANS Institute was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. SANS is the most trusted and, by far, the largest provider of training and certification to professionals at governments and commercial institutions world-wide.  Renowned SANS instructors teach over 50 different courses at more than 200 live cyber security training events as well as online.  GIAC, an affiliate of the SANS Institute, validates employee qualifications via 27 hands-on, technical certifications in information security.  The SANS Technology Institute, a regionally accredited independent subsidiary, offers master's degrees in cyber security.  SANS offers a myriad of free resources to the InfoSec community including consensus projects, research reports, and newsletters; it also operates the Internet's early warning system--the Internet Storm Center. At the heart of SANS are the many security practitioners, representing varied global organizations from corporations to universities, working together to help the entire information security community. (www.SANS.org)

SOURCE SANS Institute