Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria (HI NENC) has opened an early engagement opportunity for a gamified scenario based cyber security exercise, designed to enhance preparedness for cyber events amongst senior leaders in health and social care.
Engagement is sought to tackle what HI NENC refers to as the “current prevalence of cyber-attacks and especially ransomware attacks” and the resulting “significantly increasing business risk” across health and social care, noting the variability in digital maturity and resilience between organisations.
Details shared by HI NENC at this point include that a supplier will be called upon to develop two BETA modules with scope to develop future modules. Initially, senior leaders will be the primary users, and that gamification is intended to offer “an accessible learning experience in a complex and stressful space” across a range of different learning types such as visual, read, write, auditory and kinaesthetic learning.
The prior information notice highlights experience in developing gaming software as essential for any organisation making an application, with SMEs also welcome to engage in the opportunity, which is set to close on 1 August 2024. To learn more about this opportunity, please click here.
NHS cyber security in focus
NHS cyber security was recently highlighted following a cyber attack on pathology supplier Synnovis, which resulted in significant disruption to a number of NHS organisations, and the online publication of patient data relating to a yet unknown number of individuals.
In June, NHS England published an opportunity for services to support a cyber security focused programme and assurance model, as part of efforts to appoint a call-off contract with one provider, worth an estimated £4,290,000. The procurement highlighted the need for education and training support, as well as a “critical supplier approach”, alongside the piloting of an assurance model.
For the latest news and resources on cyber security in healthcare, visit HTN’s cyber security channel here, which inlcudes guidance on network segmentation for cyber security and the Department of Health & Social Care’s “Defend as one” Strategy released to protect the NHS from cyber attacks.
