White House, tech giants offer rural hospitals cybersecurity help

The White House is teaming with Microsoft and Google in a bid to help hospitals strengthen their cybersecurity in the face of escalating hacks.

The tech firms have agreed to offer some hospitals free or discounted services, with a focus on rural facilities, the White House said Monday.

Related: White House to push cybersecurity standards on hospitals

The American Hospital Association praised the announcement and said the organization had played a key role in advising the stakeholders involved. It has previously joined other hospital organizations and advocates in criticizing White House and Capitol Hill proposals to set minimum security standards for all players in the healthcare sector, saying providers should not pay the price for third-party failures to secure data and networks.

The White House said in a statement that it secured commitments from the tech giants that will provide reduced-cost or free services to at least 1,800 rural hospitals in the United States.

Microsoft is making free training and support available to rural hospitals, the company said in a news release. It is also offering hospitals designated as critical access or rural emergency institutions a discount of up to 75% on security products designed for smaller organizations. Some larger rural hospitals already using Microsoft will get its most advanced security suite for free for a year, the company said. 

Google intends to offer free endpoint security advice to rural hospitals and nonprofits and create a funding pool to support software migration, said Taylor Lehmann, director of the office of the CISO at Google Cloud, in a statement. It is also launching a pilot program with four or five rural hospitals to develop security packages that meet their specific needs, according to Lehmann. Lehmann additionally pointed to a 75% discount on endpoint management software for nonprofit organizations.

The company will share updates as they're available, Lehmann said.

The AHA did not respond to questions about whether Monday's announcement allays concerns about possible future crackdowns. The most recent White House budget includes provisions that would level fines on hospitals that fail to meet minimum standards starting in 2029. Officials said last month that the administration would pursue standards "in the near term." Some congressional plans would tighten requirements sooner.

AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said in a statement that the association believes addressing cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. 

“While hospitals and health systems have invested significant resources to guard against cyberattacks, they cannot do it alone, which is why these commitments from Microsoft and Google are important," Pollack said.

"The AHA appreciates the White House’s support of rural hospitals and health systems and looks forward to continuing to work with them and other stakeholders across government, law enforcement and the technology sector to expand these resources to all hospitals,” Pollack said.