Sophisticated cyberattacks are a top concern of IT security professionals. However, many cybercriminals take a decidedly unsophisticated approach by exploiting known vulnerabilities. According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, the number of attacks involving the exploitation of vulnerabilities increased 180 percent year-over-year in 2023.
The report also notes that cybercriminals are exploiting vulnerabilities faster than ever. On average, cybercriminals begin scanning for a vulnerability within five days after it’s added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) list. Yet 85 percent of vulnerabilities remain unpatched 30 days after listing. Half are unpatched after 55 days, and 20 percent after 180 days.
Clearly, organizations aren’t patching vulnerabilities fast enough to keep up with today’s threat environment. There are several reasons why that’s the case and one great solution: automated patching.
What Is Patch Management?
Patch management is the process of repairing vulnerabilities in an organization’s IT infrastructure to maintain security. Software fixes, or patches, are strategically deployed to applications, servers and other components of the IT infrastructure to help protect against cyberattacks. Hardware must also be updated with the latest firmware.
Because patch management requires time and resources that many small to midsize enterprises (SMEs) lack, security holes are often left unplugged. Today’s increasingly complex IT environments have brought an escalating number of patches, which should be prioritized based on the vulnerability’s potential impact on the organization.
However, patches are often buggy, have installation problems or cause incompatibilities. As a result, they require comprehensive testing to ensure that they’ll actually work in the IT environment without causing system problems or impacting performance. Needless to say, patch testing and management can be complicated.
Why Automation Is Needed
While most organizations understand the importance of patching, their processes are woefully outdated. It is still common for organizations to track patch status manually, fixing holes on the fly. That’s why it takes weeks or months to remediate vulnerabilities that may be exploited within hours or days.
Attempting to patch vulnerabilities on the fly increases risk because it’s virtually impossible to apply patches fast enough using manual processes. That’s why it’s essential to automate the process using patch management tools.
Automated patch management makes it possible to push out patches to every applicable system reliably and in the shortest amount of time. Automation reduces the risk of errors, misconfigurations and inconsistencies that can leave some systems more vulnerable than others. Best-in-class patch management tools can identify which systems need to be patched and scale to handle hundreds or even thousands of devices.
Other Benefits of Automated Patch Management
Automated patch management offers other benefits as well. In addition to patching vulnerabilities, automated tools can push out bug fixes and software updates to improve system performance and reliability. Patches can be pushed out after hours to minimize disruption. Dashboards and reporting enable IT teams to monitor the patching process and ensure that all systems are up to date. Automated patch management also improves regulatory compliance by ensuring that systems and data are protected.
Some IT pros argue that automated patch management is complex, requiring IT teams to configure policies for patch deployment. Automated tools can’t make decisions about various settings and options, so humans must take over when patches are complicated. Then there’s cost — automated tools can be expensive and require ongoing maintenance and license renewals.
How Verteks Can Help
SMEs can eliminate these negatives by outsourcing patch management to a managed services provider (MSP) such as Verteks. Verteks uses automated tools with human oversight to ensure that patches are prioritized, tested and promptly applied. You can rest assured that your organization is protected against the latest threats.
Don’t put patch management on the back burner. Let Verteks help you implement a patch management strategy that keeps your organization protected.
