The White House announced their collaborative efforts with Microsoft and Google that will provide a range of free or discounted cybersecurity services to rural hospitals across the country to help them in their efforts to prevent cyberattacks.
Microsoft has committed to working in close collaboration with The White House, the National Rural Health Association (NRHA), and the American Hospital Association (AHA) to coordinate the rollout, adoption and effectiveness of the program.
“Rural hospitals face a unique challenge in cybersecurity, balancing limited resources with the increasing sophistication of cyberthreats, which puts patient data and critical healthcare infrastructure at risk,” said Alan Morgan, chief executive officer of NRHA. “This important partnership with Microsoft will help ensure that rural hospitals are prepared in the future to meet this rising threat in small rural facilities.”
As part of this initiative to improve security and resilience of our rural hospital system, these private sector partners have committed to the following:
- For independent Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Emergency Hospitals, Microsoft is extending its nonprofit program to provide grants and up to a 75% discount on security products optimized for smaller organizations.
- For participating larger rural hospitals already using eligible Microsoft solutions, Microsoft is providing its most advanced security suite at no additional cost for one year. Additionally, Microsoft will extend security updates for Window 10 to participating hospitals for one year at no cost.
- Microsoft will also provide free cybersecurity assessments by qualified technology security providers and free training for frontline and IT staff at eligible rural hospitals throughout the country to deepen our resiliency to malicious cyberattacks.
- Google will provide endpoint security advice to rural hospitals and non-profit organizations at no cost, and eligible customers can get discounted pricing for communication and collaboration tools and security support and a pool of funding to support software migration.
- In addition, Google is committing to launch a pilot program with rural hospitals to develop a packaging of security capabilities that fit these hospitals’ unique needs.