NHS Digital, the information and technology arm of the U.K. National Health Service, entered into a three-year partnership with IBM to improve its cybersecurity services, Computer Weekly reports.
Here are three things to know about the partnership:
1. Under the contract, IBM will support security monitoring pilots across NHS facilities to proactively identify threats and vulnerabilities. Successful pilots may be deployed across the entire health service.
2. IBM will also help NHS Digital expand its Cyber Security and Operations Centre, which provides information security services like vulnerability scanning and malware analysis to NHS facilities.
3. NHS Digital will have access to IBM X-Force, the company's commercial security and threat intelligence research team.
Dan Taylor, program director for the data security center at NHS Digital, told Computer Weekly the agreement will give NHS the ability to "draw on a pool of dedicated professionals from IBM" when needed.
"This will ensure that we can evolve our security capability in line with the evolving cyber threat landscape," he added.