[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 14 (Friday, January 22, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3803-3805]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-01172]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. FDA-2015-D-5105]
Postmarket Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices; Draft
Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff;
Availability
AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing the
availability of a draft guidance entitled ``Postmarket Management of
Cybersecurity in Medical Devices.'' This draft guidance informs
industry and FDA staff of the Agency's recommendations for identifying,
addressing, and monitoring cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exploits
for postmarket management of medical devices. This draft guidance is
neither final nor is it in effect at this time.
DATES: Although you can comment on any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR
10.115(g)(5)), to ensure that the Agency considers your comment of this
draft guidance before it begins work on the final version of the
guidance, submit either electronic or written comments on the draft
guidance by April 21, 2016.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments as follows:
Electronic Submissions
Submit electronic comments in the following way:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Comments submitted
electronically, including attachments, to http://www.regulations.gov
will be posted to the docket unchanged. Because your comment will be
made public, you are solely responsible for ensuring that your comment
does not include any confidential information that you or a third party
may not wish to be posted, such as medical information, your or anyone
else's Social Security number, or confidential business information,
such as a manufacturing process. Please note that if you include your
name, contact information, or other information that identifies you in
the body of your comments, that information will be posted on http://www.regulations.gov.
If you want to submit a comment with confidential
information that you do not wish to be made available to the public,
submit the comment as a written/paper submission and in the manner
detailed (see ``Written/Paper Submissions'' and ``Instructions'').
Written/Paper Submissions
Submit written/paper submissions as follows:
Mail/Hand delivery/Courier (for written/paper
submissions): Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug
Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
For written/paper comments submitted to the Division of
Dockets Management, FDA will post your comment, as well as any
attachments, except for information submitted, marked and identified,
as confidential, if submitted as detailed in ``Instructions.''
Instructions: All submissions received must include the Docket No.
FDA-2015-D-5105 for ``Postmarket Management of Cybersecurity in Medical
Devices.'' Received comments will be placed in the docket and, except
for those submitted as ``Confidential Submissions,'' publicly viewable
at http://www.regulations.gov or at the Division of Dockets Management
between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Confidential Submissions--To submit a comment with
confidential information that you do not wish to be made publicly
available, submit your comments only as a written/paper submission. You
should submit two copies total. One copy will include the information
you claim to be confidential with a heading or cover note that states
``THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.'' The Agency will
review this copy, including the claimed confidential information, in
its consideration of comments. The second copy, which will have the
claimed confidential information redacted/blacked out, will be
available for public viewing and posted on http://www.regulations.gov.
Submit both copies to the Division of Dockets Management. If you do not
wish your name and contact information to be made publicly available,
you can provide this information on the cover sheet and not in the body
of your comments and you must identify this
[[Page 3804]]
information as ``confidential.'' Any information marked as
``confidential'' will not be disclosed except in accordance with 21 CFR
10.20 and other applicable disclosure law. For more information about
FDA's posting of comments to public dockets, see 80 FR 56469, September
18, 2015, or access the information at: http://www.fda.gov/regulatoryinformation/dockets/default.htm.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
the electronic and written/paper comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov and insert the docket number, found in brackets in
the heading of this document, into the ``Search'' box and follow the
prompts and/or go to the Division of Dockets Management, 5630 Fishers
Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
Submit written requests for single copies of the guidance to the
Office of the Center Director, Guidance and Policy Development, Center
for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration,
10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 66, Rm. 5431, Silver Spring, MD 20993-
0002 or the Office of Communication, Outreach, and Development, Center
for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration,
10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 71, Rm. 3128, Silver Spring, MD 20993-
0002. Send one self-addressed adhesive label to assist that office in
processing your requests. See the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section for
electronic access to the draft guidance document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Suzanne Schwartz, Center for Devices
and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New
Hampshire Ave., Bldg. 66, Rm. 5418, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 301-
796-6937; or Stephen Ripley, Center for Biologics Evaluation and
Research, Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Ave., Bldg.
71, Rm. 7301, Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002, 240-402-7911.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
This draft guidance proposes to inform industry and FDA staff of
the Agency's recommendations as it relates to monitoring, identifying,
and addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exploits as part of
manufacturers' postmarket management of medical devices. A growing
number of medical devices are designed to be networked to facilitate
patient care. Networked medical devices, like other networked computer
systems, incorporate software that may be vulnerable to cybersecurity
threats. The exploitation of vulnerabilities may represent a risk to
the safety and effectiveness of medical devices and typically requires
continual maintenance throughout the product life cycle to assure an
adequate degree of protection against such exploits. Proactively
addressing cybersecurity risks in medical devices reduces the patient
safety impact and the overall risk to public health.
For the majority of cases, actions taken by manufacturers to
address cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exploits are considered
``cybersecurity routine updates and patches,'' for which the FDA does
not require advance notification or reporting under 21 CFR part 806.
For a small subset of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exploits that
may compromise the essential clinical performance of a device and
present a reasonable probability of serious adverse health consequences
or death, the FDA would require medical device manufacturers to notify
the Agency.
In February 2013, the President issued Executive Order 13636 (E.O.
13636), ``Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity,'' which
recognized that resilient infrastructure is essential to preserving
national security, economic stability, and public health and safety in
the United States. Furthermore, Presidential Policy Directive-21 (PPD-
21) tasks Federal Government entities to strengthen the security and
resilience of critical infrastructure against physical and cyber
threats such that these efforts reduce vulnerabilities, minimize
consequences, and identify and disrupt threats.
In addition, Executive Order 13691, released in February 2015,
encourages the development of Information Sharing Analysis
Organizations (ISAOs) to serve as focal points for cybersecurity
information sharing and collaboration within the private sector and
between the private sector and the government.
FDA believes that, in alignment with E.O. 13636 and PPD-21,
stakeholders should collaborate to leverage available resources and
tools to establish a common framework among the information technology
community, healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs), clinical user
community, and medical device community. These collaborations can lead
to the consistent assessment and mitigation of cybersecurity threats,
and their impact on medical device safety and effectiveness.
FDA plans to hold a public workshop entitled ``Moving Forward:
Collaborative Approaches to Medical Device Cybersecurity'' on January
20-21, 2016 (80 FR 76022, December 7, 2015). FDA, in collaboration with
the National Health Information Sharing Analysis Center, the Department
of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Homeland Security,
seek to bring together diverse stakeholders to discuss complex
challenges in medical device cybersecurity that impact the medical
device ecosystem. The purpose of this workshop is to highlight past
collaborative efforts; increase awareness of existing maturity models
(i.e., frameworks leveraged for benchmarking an organization's
processes) which are used to evaluate cybersecurity status, standards,
and tools in development; and to engage the multi-stakeholder community
in focused discussions on unresolved gaps and challenges that have
hampered progress in advancing medical device cybersecurity.
In the last few years, Healthcare and Public Health Critical
Infrastructure Sector stakeholders have been engaged in many
collaborative activities that seek to strengthen medical device
cybersecurity and, therefore, enhance patient safety. FDA has
contributed to these efforts through guidance, multistakeholder
engagement, outreach, and by hosting a 2014 public workshop on
cybersecurity entitled ``Collaborative Approaches for Medical Device
and Healthcare Cybersecurity'' (79 FR 56814, September 23, 2014). The
2016 public workshop will build upon previous work by featuring some of
the collaborative efforts that address medical device cybersecurity
through education and training, information sharing, standards, risk
assessment, and tools development.
II. Significance of Guidance
This draft guidance is being issued consistent with FDA's good
guidance practices regulation (21 CFR 10.115). The draft guidance, when
finalized, will represent the Agency's current thinking on postmarket
management of cybersecurity in medical devices. It neither creates nor
confers any rights for or on any person and is not binding on FDA or
the public. An alternative approach may be used if such approach
satisfies the requirements of the applicable statutes and regulations.
III. Electronic Access
Persons interested in obtaining a copy of the draft guidance may do
so by downloading an electronic copy from the Internet. A search
capability for all Center for Devices and Radiological Health guidance
documents is available at http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/
DeviceRegulationandGuidance/
[[Page 3805]]
GuidanceDocuments/default.htm. Guidance documents are also available at
http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/default.htm or http://www.regulations.gov. Persons unable to download an electronic copy of
``Postmarket Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices'' may send
an email request to [email protected] to receive an electronic
copy of the document. Please use the document number 1400044 to
identify the guidance you are requesting.
IV. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
This draft guidance refers to previously approved collections of
information found in FDA regulations. These collections of information
are subject to review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). The
collections of information in 21 CFR part 803 (medical device
reporting) have been approved under OMB control number 0910-0437; the
collections of information in 21 CFR part 806 (reports of corrections
and removals) have been approved under OMB control number 0910-0359;
the collections of information in 21 CFR part 810 (medical device
recall authority) have been approved under OMB control number 0910-
0432; the collections of information in 21 CFR part 814 (premarket
approval) have been approved under OMB control number 0910-0231; the
collections of information in 21 CFR part 820 (quality system
regulations) have been approved under OMB control number 0910-0073; and
the collections of information in 21 CFR part 822 (postmarket
surveillance of medical devices) have been approved under OMB control
number 0910-0449.
V. Other Issues for Consideration
The Agency invites comments on the ``Postmarket Management of
Cybersecurity in Medical Devices'' draft guidance, in general, and on
the following questions, in particular:
What factors contribute to a manufacturer's decision
whether or not to participate in an ISAO?
In the draft guidance, the FDA is proposing its intention
to not enforce certain regulatory requirements for manufacturer's that
are ``participating members '' of an ISAO. Should FDA define what it
means to be a ``participating member'' of an ISAO and if so, how should
such participation be verified?
What are the characteristics (participation, expertise,
policies, and practices) of an ISAO that would make it qualified to
participate in the sharing and analysis of medical device cybersecurity
vulnerabilities? What are the benefits and disadvantages of FDA
``recognizing'' specific ISAOs as possessing specialized expertise
relevant to sharing and analysis of medical device vulnerabilities and
what should such recognition entail?
When cybersecurity vulnerability information is not
reported to FDA, what information should be reported to the ISAO, and
when?
How should the FDA interact with ISAOs, manufacturers,
HDOs, security researchers and other stakeholders to maximize the
sharing of information concerning cybersecurity threats while
maintaining confidentiality and protecting commercial confidential
information?
Dated: January 15, 2016.
Leslie Kux,
Associate Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2016-01172 Filed 1-21-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4164-01-P