Over the last three years, the Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), Singapore’s HealthTech agency, has worked closely with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and public healthcare institutions (PHIs), to strengthen cybersecurity across public healthcare. The Cyber Defence Transformation Programme (CDTP) was established in 2019 to shore up cyber defence capabilities for the sector. Brief details of the programme were shared by Mr Bruce Liang, Chief Executive Officer of IHiS during Cybersecurity Week for public healthcare.
2. Organised annually as part of International Cyber Awareness Month in October. IHiS organised a series of activities from 18 to 22 October 2021 to increase the cyber awareness of public healthcare staff. Activities include webinars by cybersecurity experts from the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) and the industry, as well as a panel discussion with the Group Chief Security Information Officers in public healthcare. Awareness was also boosted with sharing of cybersecurity tips via screensavers, humorous videos and contests including crossword puzzles, quizzes, and meme creation.
3. At the opening of cybersecurity week, Mr Liang shared: “Public healthcare has adopted a layered Defence-In-Depth approach, with multiple control points in each layer across four domains: Governance, Technology, Process and People. To date, we have completed more than 190 cyber defence initiatives, with around 70 in progress. Implementation of the new initiatives has translated to a three-fold increase in cybersecurity measures for public healthcare since the start of the CDTP journey. With ever-evolving and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, we are committed to continuously improve our cybersecurity posture. More initiatives are being planned to uplift our cyber defence capabilities.” (Please refer to the annex for more details of the four domains).
4. “Healthcare is one of Singapore’s Critical Information Infrastructure sectors. We are heartened to see public healthcare’s efforts taking root with the implementation of various initiatives under the CDTP. In a pandemic world, securing our healthcare systems and data has become even more critical. As outlined in the updated Singapore Cybersecurity Strategy 2021, CSA will continue to work with CII sectors to build up their cyber resilience,” said Mr David Koh, Chief Executive, CSA.
5. As one of the key initiatives, IHiS has established a new Advanced Security Operations Centre (ASOC) to better detect and respond to threats in a timely manner. More modules and tools for ASOC will be added progressively and as technology advances.
Conclusion
6. As cyber threats evolve and become increasingly advanced, sophisticated, and persistent, IHiS will continue to work with MOH, the public healthcare institutions, CSA, industry cybersecurity experts, and regulators to continually strengthen security measures for our public healthcare system.Media Factsheet: Defence-in-Depth Approach – Enhancing Cybersecurity of Public Healthcare in Four Domains: Governance, Technology, Process and People
About Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS)
IHiS is a multi-award-winning healthcare IT leader that digitises, connects, and analyses Singapore’s health ecosystem. Its ultimate aim is to improve the Singapore population’s health and health administration by integrating intelligent, highly resilient, and cost effective technologies with process and people.
IHiS played a key role in helping all major public healthcare institutions become amongst the first in Asia Pacific to achieve HIMSS EMRAM Stage 6 and 7, international benchmarks for advanced technology used in patient care.
Transforming healthcare through smart technology, IHiS has garnered more than 150 awards for its innovations. It supports more than 50,000 healthcare users in Singapore’s health ecosystem through the application of clinical informatics, computer science, data science, mechatronics, standards based IT that enables information exchange and cross boundary workflows, analysis, statistical and machine learning techniques to discover insights.
