Mitigating Software Release Impacts for Business Resiliency

Recent events in the IT world abruptly halted many major systems, and healthcare is no exception. We saw the latest outage have perhaps the greatest impact on healthcare operations, causing healthcare providers to resort to paper charts, canceling medical procedures, and finding themselves locked out of their computers entirely in some health and hospital systems.

We often put our energy into preventing cyber criminals from causing widespread disruptions (as we should), but right now, we’re all reminded that there are many other factors that can cause widespread outages – and we can’t predict them all. This is exactly why taking measures to ensure business continuity is critical to every healthcare organization.

How to Mitigate the Impacts of Software Release Issues

First, make sure you have business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) plans ready and updated. When incidents like these occur, test your BCDR plans against such scenarios, whether you were impacted or not, to understand any risk exposure and react accordingly.

Second, when deploying software or infrastructure, you need resilient change management processes. Quality control is important, but there is always the unintended impact of change that we can’t always anticipate or replicate in a testing lab.

Companies should look at the maturity of their change processes and for those critical systems, implement progressive rollout strategies coupled with tight monitoring of the infrastructure to methodically introduce change into their environment and watch for any adverse reaction. These processes may not prevent issues from happening but can certainly minimize their impact.

Progressive rollouts involve deploying a feature to a small geographical area before a wider launch. Along the way, collecting user feedback through surveys or direct interviews during the rollouts provides valuable insights to improve the overall process.

At ClearDATA, this is exactly the approach we took this year as we rolled out enhanced Managed Detection & Response (MDR) features in the ClearDATA CyberHealth™ Platform. These updates were rolled out to our customers progressively within small, controlled groups, so we could closely monitor the impact and make any needed changes along the way.

Cybersecurity as a Shared Responsibility

Operational resiliency also reminds us why we need collaboration and shared responsibility, not only in mitigating external cyber threats but also in identifying internal vulnerabilities. No single entity can tackle all potential cyber risks alone; it requires a culture of teamwork to strengthen defenses against operational downtime, disruptions, and internal issues.

Regular communication and information sharing is key, not just about emerging external threats, but also about internal bugs and system weaknesses that could lead to significant outages. Implementing joint training sessions can foster a security-first mindset across all levels of an organization while also equipping teams to identify and address internal issues proactively.

Establishing cross-functional security committees is essential to facilitate ongoing dialogue and share best practices for both internal and external threats. These committees can conduct regular audits and vulnerability assessments, ensuring that systems are thoroughly vetted for potential internal weaknesses before they escalate into major problems.

As always, healthcare organizations should invest in robust security measures like multi-factor authentication, regular software updates, and comprehensive threat detection systems, while also incorporating tools that specifically help in discovering internal anomalies. Encouraging employees to report suspicious activity and providing them with the resources to recognize potential internal threats can empower everyone to contribute to a stronger cybersecurity posture.

Building a Collaborative Cybersecurity Framework for a Safer Cloud Environment

By promoting a culture of shared responsibility and vigilance, it’s possible to create a cloud cybersecurity framework that proactively identifies both external attacks and internal vulnerabilities, reducing the likelihood of significant outages. Together, these actions form a collaborative approach that enhances the overall security landscape.