Jon Husted Asks Expert About Working With Educational Institutions To Build Domestic 'Cyber Talent'

6 months ago

During a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) spoke about encouraging young people to pursue careers in cybersecurity.

Transcript

00:00I want to just start by saying that I understand Medicaid is a state-federal partnership.

00:07For the last 24 years, I've worked in state government

00:10in funding nursing homes and hospitals and providing for care in our state.

00:17I have a letter, Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit for the record from rural hospitals in Ohio

00:22talking about how the most recently passed legislation is so helpful to them.

00:27Without objection.

00:28It will increase funding for rural hospitals in Ohio by 24%.

00:35Previously, they were receiving 91% of the Medicare rate after the passage of the bill,

00:42and by subsequent actions by our partners at the state level,

00:46they will be receiving 115% of the Medicare rate.

00:51That does not mention the fact that we also have a $50 billion rural hospital fund that's available,

00:57even though rural hospitals only received $10 billion in funding total, according to CMS last year.

01:03So I just want to submit that information and make sure we have those facts available.

01:08Now, Ms. Stevens, we've talked a little bit briefly about cybersecurity breaches

01:15and the challenges that are faced.

01:20I know that we talk a little bit about rural hospitals and the fact that really it's, in some cases, a talent issue.

01:28You know, can you find the people with the cybersecurity skills to be able to accomplish the defense that's necessary?

01:36What suggestions do you have on how we can help?

01:41Because I know some of the things that we've done in Ohio have been establishing cybersecurity as a high school program,

01:48at our career centers, and in partnership with business.

01:51So do you, are you working with any of those collaborations at the local level with our educational institutions

01:59to build the cyber talent that you need to help serve you?

02:03Thank you for that question.

02:04Yes, absolutely.

02:06One of the things we focus on in Norwalk is connection to our local colleges, high schools,

02:13and even to two-year colleges, to engage them at the intern level so they get exposure to healthcare

02:20and get experience in the real world, whether that be IT or cybersecurity.

02:25We very much agree with that approach and want to take a thought back to when Meaningful Use came out years ago

02:33and we put out there grants and programs to provide more education on Meaningful Use in informatics back then,

02:41and is that an opportunity for us to try that again with cybersecurity, given the new focus going forward,

02:47to encourage young people to go into that path?

02:50But yes, we absolutely are partnering with every education opportunity that we can.

02:55And you had also mentioned the need in your remarks to move away from punitive policies

03:01that punish providers when they have a hack or a cybersecurity breach,

03:07and then a vetted directory of third-party vendors would make it easier for rural hospitals to enhance cybersecurity.

03:14Could you expound on that a little bit?

03:16Absolutely.

03:17One of the challenges we have as we partner with, whether it's a vendor or an external consultant

03:22or any organization that we might work with,

03:25is ensuring that they have as much protection around the data that we do,

03:29because the patient's information flows through all those places.

03:34The burden right now is on each of us to vet that.

03:37So I need to submit system assessments to a particular vendor,

03:41ensure that they complete the information,

03:43and they have a robust program before I can even contract with them to do the work.

03:47And that is very burdensome for us to have to do that,

03:50and every other health care organization in the area have to do the same thing.

03:54So if there was a standard set of privacy and security rules or regulations that they all needed to follow,

04:03we could have more trust in that and remove the burden from everyone doing duplicate work.

04:08And where should that home be for that list?

04:13Who should be responsible for it?

04:15That is a great question, and I don't think that I have an exact proposal for that.

04:19I think we have some amazing cybersecurity groups in the works right now,

04:24whether that's Health ISAC or CISA or any of those organizations.

04:30I think that would be a recommendation of the senators, Congress.

04:35Well, it's interesting.

04:37I mean, you know of the resources that we created in our state with the cyber range,

04:41and we literally have at the National Guard a cyber militia.

04:45We think of militia as people carrying weapons.

04:50Well, this is a group of cyber militia that's literally trained to help respond in times of crisis.

04:57I think it's probably underreported, underutilized,

05:00but those are the kind of resources that I think we can all help and create.

05:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:05Absolutely.

Jon Husted Asks Expert About Working With Educational Institutions To Build Domestic 'Cyber Talent'

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended