NHS Digital has entered a new deal with Microsoft to support health and care organisations in protecting against cyber threats.
Microsoft’s Enterprise Threat Detection Service allows NHS Digital’s Data Security Centre to provide targeted alerts to organisations that enable it. The alerts use Microsoft’s combined cyber security expertise to provide organisations with detection of issues,down to individual computers and other devices. They provide a full description of the problem and expert remediation advice.
The contract for the service was agreed following a successful pilot with NHS Digital and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust.
The service has already been deployed on over 30,000 machines and it will eventually cover up to 1.5 million devices within health and care settings such as hospital trusts and GP practices.
Dan Taylor, Director of Security at NHS Digital, said: “This deal will further bolster protection against cyber security issues in the NHS. It is our role to alert organisations to known cyber security threats and advise them of appropriate steps to minimise risks; this marks a step change in our capability to provide high quality, targeted alerts to allow organisations to counter these threats and ensure patients’ needs continue to be met.”
