Best Practice Guide to Patch Management
For any business, large or small, maintaining the integrity of your business communications is of the utmost importance. Here at Defended Solutions we’re committed to protecting your business’s security, which means not just creating and implementing a bespoke strategy based on your individual requirements, but also ensuring you’re able to maintain that protection.
What is Patch Management?
There is an ever-present need for protection against daily growing threats to your data, technology and networks. ‘Patch management’ is the process of applying regular and timely updates (patches) to security software, in order to provide the assurance a business needs that its communications are as secure as possible. This includes correcting errors that are identified in software, commonly called ‘bugs’. Areas that may require patch management include network equipment, operating systems and applications. Quite often these issues are discovered once the software is already on the market and it’s common practice to use patches to solve them.
But knowing this and having the patches isn’t enough - they have to be implemented in order for them to work. Understanding why it’s so important and then following best practice guidelines will ensure your business communications remain secure, compliant and up to date.
Why is it Important?
Patch management can quite often be forgotten by IT staff and end-users so it’s very important there’s a clear designation and understanding in terms of who is responsible for regular updates. Here at Defended Solutions, we provide full training on any solutions and infrastructure we implement, so we can make sure an effective patch management process is in place.
Apart from the vital security aspects mentioned above there are several other reasons it’s an important part of maintaining the security of your communications.
Compliance: Because the risk of cyber-attacks is so high these days, there are often compliance measures in place by industry regulatory bodies. Making sure your patch management is in place will ensure your business doesn’t inadvertently fall foul of compliance.
Optimal functionality: It’s not just bug fixes, patches are important to make sure that you get optimal performance out of a product in terms of updates to improve functionality and features.
Reduce downtime: It makes sense that if your software and applications are as up to date as they can be (in both functionality and security), there’ll be less chance of any downtime occurring in the system and networks due to unexpected problems arising.
New and serious threats: As technology is ever-evolving, so too is the sophistication and reach of cyber-threats and attacks. In fact, the very presence and announcement of new patches alerts potential attackers to possible vulnerabilities on the many businesses who neglect to implement them. The quicker a patch is applied the better, so unless you have an effective process in place you’ll be susceptible to more attacks.
It’s expensive to come back from a system breach: This is most definitely a case where prevention is better (and far less expensive) than a cure. The risk of complete system and network failure from a cyber-attack is very real, so it’s extremely important to remain on top of security by staying up to date with patches. By the same token, the price of not coming back properly from a cyber-attack (and just fixing the problem superficially or, worse, ignoring it altogether and carrying on as before without an update) can be even more costly to your business’s operations and reputation.
How to Ensure Best Practice
Keeping on top of this is an ongoing challenge and one that needs to be taken seriously. But it can certainly be achieved and maintained to a high level as long as you put in place certain protocols, identify responsibilities and embed these processes and practices into your management strategies.
Accountability and Expectation
Set out your expectations and accountabilities clearly from the outset to provide peace of mind to teams and individuals, ensure every part of the job is being done and ascertain nothing has been missed. Clear common language and comprehensive and consistent agreements are vital to keep the system working smoothly.
Consolidate, Update and Mitigate
Keep on top of operating systems updates and ensure all applications used as part of your communications are included. It’s also important to note that the more versions of a piece of software you run, the bigger the risk. Ensure whatever version you’re using is standard companywide, then keep it up to date. This will mean regular reviewing and inventory, and the assigning of risk level for your software, but it’s worth the time investment. Make sure you also keep abreast of new patch announcements.
Another aspect to be mindful of is that a patch cannot always be applied immediately and there may be certain other modifications required in order for it to work. In these cases you should have plans in place to be able to mitigate the risk as much as possible to ensure your network is not left exposed in the meantime, by locking down users if necessary.
Be Timely, Be Cautious and Have a Backup Plan
While it’s imperative that patches are applied as quickly as possible, caution is also key. A patch can actually cause its own problems in certain system configurations, so they should be tested on a small section first before being applied to the entire network. You can also make use of automated open source patching.
Finally, make sure you include a disaster management plan in the event that your patch management processes are breached or fail due to unforeseen circumstances.
Want to know more and stay on top of your business’s data and communication security?Defended Solutions can help.Get in touch with one of our friendly and experienced team to discuss the range of services we offer to maintain the security and safety of your business communications. We can create a bespoke strategy for your business based on your individual requirements.
