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The new partnership will provide general practitioners with zero-trust security at no cost under Project Secure Health.

Cloud connectivity firm Cloudflare and the Australian Critical Infrastructure-Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (CI-ISAC) have announced a new initiative to provide general practitioner clinics with free cyber security tools.

The initiative – Project Secure Health – is aimed at protecting GPs from a range of cyber threats, including phishing, insider threats, and ransomware.

Under the initiative, GPs will gain access to Cloudflare Gateway to protect themselves from ransomware and phishing attacks, Cloudflare Access to manage user security and enforce multifactor authentication, and CI-ISAC’s threat intelligence assets so they can stay ahead of the bad guys.

“Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better internet, and part of that mission includes protecting vulnerable entities from the ever-increasing, malicious cyber attacks,” Steve Bray, head of ANZ at Cloudflare, said in a statement.

“GP clinics are the first points of call to care for our health, yet are often left unprotected with limited resources available to safeguard the significant amounts of patient data they hold. With this program, Cloudflare is ensuring that zero-trust capabilities are accessible to smaller organisations that are most relied upon by their communities.”

David Sandell, CEO of CI-ISAC, said that protecting GPs was a foundational aspect of protecting the wider community.

“Australia’s GP clinics are the foundation of local communities’ health. These small and vitally important organisations fulfil our society’s primary healthcare needs and, as such, are the point where a vast amount of sensitive patient information is collected,” Sandell said.

“However, despite their criticality, GP clinics are typically under-resourced and struggle to provide even basic cyber security resources, which is where CI-ISAC’s collective approach can empower GPs to improve their cyber resilience and protect patient data.”

Project Secure Health is limited to GPs with less than 50 staff. Clinics interested in learning more about the program can contact CI-ISAC at [email protected].

David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.