HSCC Issues Guidance on Cyber Governance Frameworks for Secure AI implementation
The Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) AI cybersecurity governance task force has published new guidance for healthcare CISOs and other leaders to help them establish cybersecurity governance frameworks for secure AI implementation.
Adoption of AI-based technologies in healthcare is progressing at a pace, with AI tools increasingly embedded into critical healthcare functions; however, these tools introduce new and often poorly understood cyber risks into already complex ecosystems. AI-specific cyber risks, such as data poisoning, model drift, and bias, can threaten successful implementation and HIPAA compliance, and the tools can create vulnerabilities that can be exploited by threat actors in attacks that impact patient privacy, safety, and care.
Healthcare organizations should implement a strong governance structure that integrates cybersecurity principles into the full AI product lifecycle, from assessment, design, development, deployment, and decommissioning of AI systems. The guidance can be used to implement a cybersecurity governance framework for identifying and mitigating AI-specific cyber risks associated with all AI technologies, from traditional machine learning systems to generative AI and agentic AI systems capable of autonomous action.
The AI Cyber Governance Framework Implementation Guide guidance establishes core AI cybersecurity governance objectives for enterprises, ecosystems, and third-party adoption scenarios, and includes AI cyber-specific industry best practices and protocols for secure data handling, model protection, continuous monitoring, and threat detection, including model evasion, model inversion, data leakage, and data poisoning. The guidance provides practical tools for organizing roles and responsibilities, inventory management, contractual language for vendor relationships, and includes a five-level AI autonomy framework and an AI-specific incident response playbook.
Get The FREE
HIPAA Compliance Checklist
Immediate Delivery of Checklist Link To Your Email Address
Please Enter Correct Email Address
Your Privacy Respected
HIPAA Journal Privacy Policy
The 87-page guidance document is focused on establishing a governance framework for addressing AI-specific cybersecurity risks, and while the guidance covers clinical safety, ethics, and patient engagement when they intersect with cybersecurity risk, a broader AI governance program should be maintained for addressing the full spectrum of AI-related risks beyond cybersecurity, and should therefore be used in combination with existing organizational governance activities.
The playbook is part of a series of AI-specific documents for the healthcare industry, with previous publications including a guide for addressing supply chain risk. Further publications are expected in the coming months to address other healthcare-specific AI considerations.
