Patch or Be Hacked

At a glance

• The main takeaway: A successful automated patching program needs to be augmented with a vulnerability management program that has visibility to all computer assets in the organization, yet most companies are unable to keep up with the demand to detect, rank and prioritize vulnerabilities.
• Impact on your business: Many businesses lack proper patch management and then unknowingly leave a door open for hackers to exploit their organization and degrade their network performance.
• Next steps: Aprio’s Cybersecurity Advisory Team can help leverage automation to identify vulnerability risks across your entire systems.

Let’s discuss how Aprio can simplify your patch management.

The full story:

It’s easy for businesses of all sizes to fall short on patch management. While implementing a plug-and-play solution has its perks, patch management is not as straightforward as one might assume. In fact, poor prioritization of patching can lead to increased cyber risks and degrade your network performance.

Augmenting your patching program with a successful vulnerability management program with total endpoint visibility and automation capabilities can scan your entire organization to detect, rank and prioritize your patching.

Why do so many businesses lack proper patch management? 

Patching is a time-consuming and often tedious process that can pull resources from higher-value work. Good patch management is critical to protecting your technology assets, yet most companies lack the staff and the accurate inventory of all the systems and applications used throughout the enterprise to effectively patch and stay ahead of today’s cybersecurity risks. According to a survey from Help Net Security, “only 17% of companies believe they are well-staffed and able to do security right, and nearly 73% report being stretched too thin even if they are mostly keeping up with the demand.” ¹

Leveraging automation has its advantages

Hackers most commonly use the scan-and-exploit tactic to gather sufficient information to infiltrate a network and launch a more sophisticated attack, such as malware. By scanning for unpatched vulnerabilities, hackers can exploit and enter your network with ease.

Some of the best vulnerability tests scan all endpoints for possible exposure, not just servers and infrastructure. However, the struggle many companies face is prioritizing and removing vulnerabilities fast enough once they are discovered. Leveraging automation not only relieves the manual burden on your staff, but it also decreases the time between discovering the vulnerability and deploying the patch. In conjunction with an automated patching program, a vulnerability management program can perform a thorough scan for vulnerabilities across all endpoints, prioritize risks based on the criticality to your organization, determine the best route to remediate the vulnerability and test its effectiveness before deploying the patch.

Bottom line

Like everything in the cybersecurity realm, patching programs and vulnerability management will continue to evolve. However, creating a meaningful patch management program by leveraging automation can greatly reduce your risk of critical vulnerabilities in real time, and a prioritized vulnerability management program that considers organizational context will focus your limited resources on higher-value activities. Aprio’s Cybersecurity Advisory Team can help you implement a vulnerability program to give you total endpoint visibility and reduce your risk.

Let’s discuss how Aprio can simplify your patch management.

Related resources

• Ransomware: King of Cybersecurity Threats
• Is Your Company Equipped for a Ransomware Attack?
• 5 Ways to Close the Labor Gap in Cybersecurity
• Aprio’s Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity Services

[1] Help Net Security, “Employees know vulnerabilities exist, but they can’t resolve them quickly enough,” November 2019, accessed February 2022.