The Universal Patching and Remediation for Autonomous Defense (UPGRADE) tool suite from a Department of Health and Human Services agency has the chance to help hospitals improve their patch management plans, i.e., how facilities apply necessary software fixes to their (many) internet-connected devices.

One minor issue with the UPGRADE proposed this spring: It doesn’t exist yet.

In May, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) called for ideas to build “a semi-autonomous cyber-threat mitigation platform that enables proactive, scalable, and synchronized security updates, adaptable to any hospital environment, and across a wide array of the most vulnerable equipment classes.”

The core of the UPGRADE effort relies upon a digital replica, or “twin,” of a hospital’s cyber environment—a kind of “gym” for testing the effects of any proposed device changes, according to Andrew Carney, program manager at ARPA-H.

“You can move through the multiverse of modifications you might make to your network before you deploy. And then ideally, UPGRADE will assist with that deployment,” he said.

Read the rest here.—BH

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Winning a championship takes a winning team—and so does taking care of company IT. Aptly surnamed Boston Red Sox CTO Brian Shield said as much in a recent interview with CIO.com, emphasizing the importance of assembling the right talent in order to spark innovation.

“Effective CIOs are always scouting out new talent—or should be,” Shield told CIO.com’s Dan Roberts. “They have a plan to develop young talent by recruiting capable interns and early-career resources. They have a pipeline into colleges and universities, like baseball scouting organizations.”

Team development. To Shield, veteran leaders and skilled employees eager to advance in their careers are key to helping well-put-together IT teams manage challenges. But, he added, all too often companies don’t invest in talent retention and training—a necessary step for positive growth.

“If development’s done right, you’ll have a high-performing team of diverse, complementary talent that can grow, evolve, and mature to allow the team to win well into the future,” Shield told the outlet.

Read more here.—EH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].