Philadelphia-based Main Line Health has made "chaos engineering" a cornerstone of its cybersecurity strategy, CSO Online reported Aug. 23.
This approach involves intentionally introducing vulnerabilities into the system to test its resilience, with the aim of identifying and fixing potential failure points before they can cause disruptions.
The health system began piloting this initiative in January 2023, with plans for a full rollout within six months.
"We've challenged our staff to be prepared for adversity during digital downtimes, ensuring they can maintain the same level of excellent patient care, even under analog conditions," Aaron Weismann, chief information security officer of Main Line Health, told the publication. "Our research suggests that the greatest risk to patient safety during a ransomware attack occurs during the transition from digital to analog care. Our goal is to eliminate that risk."