“The COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for data sharing and security as agencies quickly pivoted to remote environments, and health officials say information sharing will remain a critical component in federal health care after the pandemic. With the increased data services, agencies are looking at a multi-tiered approach to technology to prevent unwanted access and intruders.”
“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has a robust set of policies to share data with the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, CMS built dedicated servers for COVID analysis alone, said Andy Shatto, deputy director of CMS’ Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics, during FedInsider’s Enhancing Patient Data Sharing virtual event.”
“But during the pandemic, health data became increasingly susceptible to ransomware and data breaches — unleashing a new set of IT challenges. This prompted agencies like the Veterans Health Administration to implement new security protocols while ensuring data to still be readily available.”
“Joe Ronzio, deputy chief health technology officer at VHA, recommends federal health care officials start from a FISMA high data protection standard to eliminate vulnerabilities and increase security of sensitive federal information.”
“’Most people are coming in at the FISMA moderate level,’ Ronzio said. ‘That makes it very difficult for us to interoperate, as well as interact and purchase commercial-off-the-shelf software because we’re expecting a higher level of security…'” Read the full article here.
Source: Evolving Cyber Threats Prompt Agencies to Hone in on Data Security – By Sarah Sybert, June 3, 2021. GovernmentCIO.
