Managing Cybersecurity Risks in Healthcare: Key Insights for Hospital Executive Steering Committees

The Importance of Regular Reporting on Cybersecurity Risks in Healthcare

Question

A hospital's executive steering committee is concerned about the increasing number of cyber attacks on patient data systems across the industry.

The committee has asked the CIO to provide regular reporting with information that will help provide better oversight of cyber-related risk to the hospital.

Including which of the following in the report would be MOST helpful to the committee?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

B.

The most helpful information that the CIO should include in the regular report to provide better oversight of cyber-related risks to the hospital is the status of key risk indicators (KRIs).

Key risk indicators are metrics that are used to monitor and measure the level of risk in an organization. These metrics are used to provide early warning signs of potential problems and to help management make informed decisions about risk mitigation strategies. KRIs are an important part of an organization's risk management program and should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that they remain relevant and effective.

In the context of cybersecurity, KRIs can include metrics such as the number of security incidents, the severity of those incidents, the time it takes to detect and respond to incidents, the number of vulnerabilities in the organization's systems, and the level of compliance with security policies and standards.

By including the status of key risk indicators in the report, the CIO can provide the steering committee with a clear and concise overview of the organization's cybersecurity risk posture. The committee can use this information to make informed decisions about the level of risk they are willing to accept, and to prioritize risk mitigation activities based on the severity of the risks.

While the other options (B, C, and D) may also be important for the committee to consider, they are not as directly related to the oversight of cybersecurity risk.

Option B, which refers to current business impact levels, could be helpful to the committee in understanding the potential consequences of a cybersecurity breach, but it does not provide any insight into the likelihood of such an event occurring.

Option C, which refers to IT operations gap assessment, may be helpful for identifying areas of weakness in the organization's IT operations, but it does not specifically address the risks associated with cyber attacks.

Option D, which refers to cybersecurity risk benchmarks, may be helpful for comparing the hospital's cybersecurity risk posture to that of other organizations, but it does not provide any insight into the specific risks faced by the hospital or the effectiveness of the hospital's risk mitigation strategies.