HITEQ Center, June 2025
The Health IT Emergency Response Plan Assessment Tool helps health centers evaluate and enhance their emergency plans, focusing on optimizing Health IT use during crises.
HITEQ Center, June 2025
This article uses the 2020 incident at the Family Health Center of Worcester (FHCW) to explore innovative strategies to bolster health centers' cybersecurity, including leveraging group purchasing organizations (GPOs) for discounted solutions and implementing bug bounty programs to proactively strengthen systems. Ultimately, it investigates how these approaches can protect vital community health resources from the escalating tide of cyber threats.
HITEQ Center, March 2025
The exercise cards in this set present scenarios and response-related questions designed to provide a quick (5–10 minute) method for health center staff to: Refresh knowledge of the content in their emergency and cyber incident response plans; Examine and troubleshoot procedures in their emergency and cyber incident response plans; Identify improvements to their emergency and cyber incident response plans; and Increase staff capacity to operationalize the actions outlined in their emergency and cyber incident response plans. The scenarios and questions on these cards can serve as a starting point to spark discussions amongst your team about scenarios and responses that are specific to the context of your health center (e.g., what extreme weather events are most common in your area?). The first five cases describe environmental scenarios, and the last two cases describe cybersecurity scenarios.
A Case Study of the Family Health Center of Worcester’s Ransomware Incident, February 2024
The use of ransomware — malicious software that restricts access to computer systems with financial demands — has escalated, targeting health centers and putting countless lives at risk. This dire reality came to the forefront during the alarming ransomware attack on the Family Health Center of Worcester, Inc. (FHCW), where the personal health information and care continuity for thousands of patients were compromised. This resource uses FHCW's experience as a case study to demonstrate the imperative of preparedness and the strength of a community-centered response in ensuring the continuity of healthcare services amidst the ever-growing tide of cyber vulnerabilities.
HITEQ Highlights webinar
Healthcare continues to be the sector most targeted globally by ransomware and related malware attacks and leads in the average total cost of data breach across industries. The FY 2021 American Rescue Plan Funding provides an excellent opportunity for Health Centers to make strategic investments in cybersecurity infrastructure and services. This HITEQ Highlight, presented by Adam Kehler of Online Business Systems provides an overview of assets that can increase Health Center cybersecurity. Topics covered include cybersecurity infrastructure and services that can increase defense-in-depth for health IT, including EHRs, telehealth tools and services, mobile medical devices, patient portals, and related health information software applications.
Note: You can view our American Rescue Plan: Budget Your Cybersecurity Investments guidance document in the Documents to Download section below. An accessible version of the handout is is also available in the Documents to Download section.