Cybersecurity vs Cyber Resilience: The HSE's Strategic viewpoint
In today's digital age, safeguarding the HSE’s patient information, clinical systems and patient services is paramount. Two critical concepts often come into play: cybersecurity and cyber resilience. While they are interconnected, they serve different purposes in protecting the HSE from cyber threats.
Cybersecurity: The First Line of Defence
Cybersecurity focuses on preventing cyberattacks and protecting digital assets from unauthorised access, damage, or theft. It involves implementing a range of protective measures, such as firewalls, encryption, antivirus software, and access controls, to create a secure environment. The primary goals of cybersecurity are to detect, prevent, and respond to potential threats before they can cause harm.
Key aspects of cybersecurity include:
- Threat Prevention: Identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities to prevent cyber threats from occurring.
- Detection and Response: Monitoring systems for suspicious activity and responding promptly to potential incidents.
- Policy Implementation: Establishing comprehensive security policies and procedures to guide employee behaviour and safeguard data.
Cyber Resilience: Beyond Prevention
Cyber resilience, on the other hand, goes beyond prevention. It focuses on ensuring our organisation can continue to operate and recover quickly in the event of a cyberattack or other disruptive incidents. Cyber resilience encompasses the ability to maintain essential functions and services, even when faced with adverse conditions.
Key aspects of cyber resilience include:
- Incident Response Planning: Developing and regularly testing response plans to effectively manage and mitigate the impact of cyber incidents.
- Business Continuity: Ensuring that critical operations can continue or quickly resume following a disruption.
- Recovery and Adaptation: Implementing strategies to recover from incidents and adapt to new threats, continuously improving resilience over time.
Complementary Roles
While cybersecurity and cyber resilience serve different purposes, they are complementary. Strong cybersecurity measures help prevent incidents, while robust cyber resilience ensures that the HSE can withstand and recover from them. Together, we use both strategies ensuring a comprehensive approach to managing cyber risks, safeguarding our digital infrastructure, and maintaining operational stability.
In summary, cybersecurity acts in our the first line of defence, focusing on protection and prevention, whereas cyber resilience ensures the ability to endure and recover from cyber incidents. By integrating both concepts, we can enhance our overall security posture and and be better prepared for the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats.
Should you have wider cybersecurity questions and/or learn more about how to become more cyber resilient, please reach out to my team at CISO@hse.ie.
Be cyber aware, be cyber safe
Neal Mullen
HSE CISO