Tech Impact a Trust Partner for Microsoft’s Rural Hospital Initiative

PHILADELPHIA, June 27, 2024 - As cyberattacks continue to devastate organizations world-wide, the ability to mitigate their effects and resolve the problem in a timely matter is becoming more and more difficult. Particularly devastating to nonprofits and the communities they serve, these entities may not have the manpower or resources to combat an attack. In 2024 alone, a cyberattack on a nonprofit healthcare network in the mid-west forced ambulances to divert patients to other hospitals and took over a month to fully resolve and a busy hospital in London canceled thousands of operations and procedures following an attack on its network.

In response, Microsoft Corp. recently announced a new cybersecurity program to support hospitals in rural America with evaluating, fortifying, and increasing their security posture to thwart attacks. Tech Impact is proud to be a trusted partner working with Microsoft to deliver Cybersecurity Assessments (SecCheck) to hundreds of rural hospitals across the county with costs fully funded by Microsoft. The assessments will help the hospitals identify areas of cyber risk and provide recommendations to reduce vulnerability to cyberattacks. Announced in collaboration with The White House, the American Hospital Association, and the National Rural Health Association, multiple agencies will provide a range of free or discounted cybersecurity services to rural hospitals across the country to help their efforts in preventing cyberattacks.

“The ability to help critical infrastructure, particularly in areas of the country where one hospital can serve thousands of residents, is vitally important in this age of increased cyber threats. With support from Microsoft, our customized assessments account for the unique intricacies that healthcare systems require. We ensure our data and evaluations can provide clear recommendations and follow-up services that can create a bigger and better defense, protecting employees, patients and the community at large.”  Says Linda Widdop, Chief Innovation Office at Tech Impact. 

Tech Impact supports hundreds of nonprofits with their cybersecurity efforts and is well-versed in the disruptive and potentially devastating impact from these attacks, particularly in smaller organizations that don’t have the expertise or budget to invest in updated and more secure systems. Coupled with the critical nature of the resources that some nonprofits provide their communities including healthcare, food, interventions, and more, a robust security plan is essential. 
After the initial cohort of qualified hospitals complete the SecCheck Assessment program which includes vulnerability scans, penetration testing, audits, evaluations and more, Tech Impact will continue its work with up to 750 critical access and rural emergency hospitals funneling through Microsoft’s program. By late 2024, data reports and stories around the first cohort from SecCheck Assessment program will be published on https://www.techimpact.org.

To learn more about Microsoft’s Critical Access and Rural Hospitals initiative, visit https://news.microsoft.com/2024/06/10/microsoft-to-help-rural-hospitals-defend-against-rising-cybersecurity-attacks/