“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) today announced two cooperative agreement funding opportunities for an Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (ISAO) for the Healthcare and Public Health sector.  “Establishing robust threat information sharing infrastructure and capability within the Healthcare and Public Health Sector is crucial to the privacy and security of health information, which is foundational to the digital health system,” said Karen DeSalvo, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., national coordinator for health IT. “This coordinated resource will focus on sharing the most up-to-date threat information across the health and public health sectors and will better equip health systems to identify potential threats and further protect electronic health information.” “Keeping health IT up and running is critical to health system preparedness. Not only do we need to worry about natural disasters, but also increasingly we must combat—and prevent—cyber threats. Many parts of the healthcare system don’t have access to the information they need to protect themselves from these threats,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response. “Using an ISAO to exchange cyber threat information with these healthcare organizations, bi-directionally between HHS and the Healthcare and Public Health sector, we hope to build the capacity to better prevent, detect and respond to cyber attacks.” The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 directs the Department of Homeland Security, Sector-Specific Agencies (including HHS), and private industry to develop tools that can help with the sharing of cybersecurity threat risks. Even before CISA, Executive Order 13691, signed on February 13, 2015, encouraged the development of information sharing and analysis organizations to collaborate and share cybersecurity information and best practices among government and the private sector…”