Preventing ‘Unexpected Change Syndrome’ with Change Management
According to the Mayo Clinic, plaque in your arteries and inflammation are usually to blame for coronary artery disease. Left unchecked, plaque buildup narrows arteries, decreasing blood flow to your heart and eventually causing chest pain (angina) and other symptoms. Because this develops over decades, you might not notice a problem until you have a significant blockage or a heart attack (#nothanks).
Are we doomed to this outcome, or are there things we could do that will reduce the likelihood of coronary artery disease? Health experts say there are several changes we can make, including to:
- Stop smoking
- Control high blood pressure
- Eat healthy
- Exercise
- Use low-dose aspirin
- Reduce stress
That’s great, but can we watch the changes happening in our arteries to see what’s going on with plaque buildup? Can we monitor changes in the build-up and take corrective action prior to calling 911?
Not so easily, it turns out. According to the National Institute of Health, no single test can diagnose coronary heart disease. Echocardiography, stress testing, blood tests and more can all help your doctor determine if there is a problem, but you would be hard pressed to do that every day/week/month (#darnit).
With that scary preamble, let’s talk about IT systems and how they suffer from a similar malady – let’s call it “UCS” for Unexpected Change Syndrome. UCS can also be life-threatening (digital life, anyway). Security breaches, system downtime, exfiltrated data … they can all result from UCS.
UCS can be difficult to diagnose, as these changes can happen slowly over time and be cumulative just like coronary artery disease. But there is one major difference.
UCS can be prevented with proper change management hygiene. We’re not talking about putting your IT systems on a vegan diet or (please no) eliminating beer from (Read more...)
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from The State of Security authored by David Jamieson. Read the original post at: https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/risk-based-security-for-executives/risk-management/preventing-unexpected-change-syndrome-with-change-management-hygiene/