New national speakers have been added to the programme for the first Digital Health Cyber Security Summit later this month at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

The new Digital Health event is the UK’s first dedicated summit focused on cyber security in the NHS, and specifically designed to enable participants to confidentially share their real-world experience of managing threats and attacks. 

Sponsored by Westcon, the event offers a unique chance to better understand current cyber threats in UK health care, the types of attacks being carried out against trusts, how NHS IT leaders are responding, and their lessons to date.

The event will also provide a chance to get an update from the national leaders on NHS cyber security on latest developments, available support and emerging policy.

Daniel Taylor, head of the cyber security programme at NHS Digital, will set the scene nationally on enabling the objectives of Dame Fiona Caldicott’s latest ‘Review of Data Security, Consent and Opt-Outs’.

David Knight, information policy lead at the Department of Health, will speak about the importance of data security underpinning trust in health and care, and the threats to trust.

Front-line NHS IT directors and chief information officers will then take centre stage in the NHS-only Chatham House Rule event, providing first-hand accounts sharing their experiences and lessons learned from attacks on their organisations.

Jane Berezynskyj, ICT director at Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which has worked extremely closely with NHS Digital on countering cyber security threats, will present on dealing with a zero-day attack.

Adrian Byrne, chair of the Health CIO Network and director of informatics at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, will present on dealing with email vulnerabilities and threats

Christine Walters, CIO at St Helens and Knowsley Health Informatics Service, will present on her experience of managing CryptoLocker attacks in the NHS.

The first Digital Health Cyber Security Summit is taking place on 25 August at the Royal Society of Medicine. The NHS-only event will operate under the Chatham House Rule to encourage free discussion and debate on this highly sensitive area.

The full programme has been published and registration for final places is here.  Registration is free and exclusive to NHS attendees.