NHS Digital 'must be prepared for the inevitable'

NHS Digital is planning to work closely with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to improve security for hospitals and other healthcare units.

The role was revealed days before the NCSC, a UK government-run national cyber incident response bureau, opens its door for business next month.

“NHS Digital, along with other healthcare organisations, must be prepared for the inevitable – we will see a rise in cyber-attacks on our health system,” said Stephen Love, EMEA security practice lead at security consultancy Insight.

Rob Norris, director of enterprise & cyber security in EMEIA at Fujitsu, also welcomed the tie-up as a necessary response against hacker and malware-related threats.

“While data stolen from a bank can quickly become useless once the attack has been discovered due to the changing of passwords and other security details, data from the healthcare industry can live a lifetime and as such it is one of the most sought after data sets that hackers look to steal,” he said. ®