It’s no secret that keeping software up to date is one of the key best practices in cybersecurity. Software vulnerabilities are being discovered almost weekly these days. The longer it takes IT teams to apply updates issued by developers to patch these security flaws, the more time attackers have to exploit the underlying vulnerability. Once threat actors gain access to corporate IT ecosystems, they can steal or encrypt sensitive data, deploy ransomware, damage systems, and more. When there’s a known exploit for a critical vulnerability, the need to deploy patches becomes critical.
At the same time, while IT teams race to keep their operating systems, business applications, and web browsers up to date and fully patched, they have to exercise caution, since applying patches without proper testing can introduce more problems than it solves.
The reality is, many organizations are struggling to maintain the upper hand against threats. According to Action1’s 2021 Remote IT Management Challenges Report, 78% of organizations admit that they failed to patch critical vulnerabilities in a timely manner during the past year, and 62% said they suffered a breach due to a known vulnerability for which patch was available but not yet applied.
Fortunately, effective and continuous patch management is within reach. This article explains the challenges and the key best practices for overcoming them.
images from Hacker News
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