Security regulations are not optional. Businesses must comply with multiple industry and government regulations, such as SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA, to ensure their cybersecurity meets standards. This includes timely security updates and proof of ongoing patching activity.
However, providing proof can be difficult without the proper tracking and reporting tools. If you can't prove patch compliance through audits and reporting, you're at risk of failing to meet your compliance regulations, even if your endpoints really are patched.
With that in mind, let's examine why patch compliance matters, the challenges with manual tracking, and how Splashtop AEM can help IT teams simplify tracking and reporting while keeping devices across their networks up to date.
What Auditors Expect for Patch Compliance
Each security regulation has different guidelines and expectations, although each has specific rules around patch compliance. Common regulations and their patching requirements include:
ISO 27001: ISO/IEC 27001 is a standard for information security management, setting guidance for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving information security management systems. It requires the timely application of security updates to reduce vulnerabilities and maintain an effective ISMS.
SOC 2: A security framework that guides companies in protecting customer data from vulnerabilities, security incidents, and unauthorized access. SOC 2 compliance requires evidence that systems receive updates and that the organization consistently enforces security controls.
GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information. Its policies include taking appropriate measures to protect customer information, including patch management to prevent data breaches.
PCI DSS: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires businesses that process credit card transactions to implement specific security measures to protect cardholder data. Part of PCI DSS is establishing a vulnerability management process, including a timely application of patches.
HIPAA: Healthcare organizations must comply with HIPAA by protecting patient information through secure systems and documented patching activities.
If an organization fails to meet its regulatory requirements, such as by missing patches, inconsistently deploying updates, or lacking documentation or demonstrable patch timelines, it can face severe consequences. As such, patch management and the ability to properly track patch compliance are both essential.
Why Manual Tracking Creates Audit Gaps
While the importance of patch management and tracking is evident, the question remains: what's wrong with manual tracking?
The fact is that manual tracking is not only time-consuming but also error-prone. Spreadsheets and manual logs can quickly become outdated, and it's easy to forget to log an update.
Additionally, remote and hybrid work environments introduce complications, especially when IT teams lack visibility across devices. This can make it difficult to confirm which endpoints have received the patches they need, and in BYOD environments, IT teams have even less visibility.
While some tools can track OS patches, not all include updates for third-party applications. Yet vulnerable, unpatched apps also create vectors for cyberattacks, so tracking app patches is equally essential.
Without a proper automated patch management solution, organizations can have gaps in their records that can lead to failed audits and higher risk exposure, not to mention the time and resources spent on remediation.
How Splashtop AEM Simplifies Patch Compliance
Fortunately, there are tools that make patch compliance simple. Splashtop AEM (Autonomous Endpoint Management) automates real-time patching, detecting and deploying new patches across endpoints as soon as they're available, and tracks patch statuses to clearly demonstrate IT compliance for audits.
Splashtop AEM includes:
Real-time visibility across all your endpoints, including remote devices, to ensure patch compliance.
Automated OS and third-party patching to quickly and consistently install new patches upon release.
Policy-based automation that enforces consistent patching and compliance rules through customizable policies, reducing reliance on manual approvals and rigid patch windows.
CVE insights and smart actions to identify threats, prioritize vulnerabilities, and document remediation.
Centralized reporting that encompasses patch history, status, device details, and compliance posture in an audit-ready form.
Unified dashboard that shows IT teams what devices are fully patched and if any patches failed to install, ensuring they're ready for audits.
Step-by-Step: How to Track Patch Compliance With Splashtop AEM
If you're using Splashtop AEM, tracking patch compliance can be a simple task. You can get set up with Splashtop AEM and automate patch management in a few simple steps:
Deploy the Splashtop AEM agent to all endpoints you want to manage.
Review patch visibility on the Splashtop AEM dashboard and inventory reports with real-time information.
Confirm OS and third-party software status to ensure all applications meet their required patch levels.
Use CVE insights to identify unpatched vulnerabilities and compliance risks.
Monitor automated policies to ensure that critical and high-severity updates are deployed promptly.
Generate compliance reports that show patch statuses by device, app, or severity tier.
How to Report Patch Compliance for Audits
Audits are never fun, but they are necessary. As such, Splashtop AEM makes the audit process more efficient and less painful with monitoring and reporting features designed for audits.
With Splashtop AEM, you can generate and export reports showing patch statuses across devices and environments. These include patch timestamps and deployment logs to demonstrate that patches are being installed within your required timeframe, and historical records that show consistent patching over time.
These reports can be generated in audit-ready documentation, complete with formalized records of patch workflows. Additionally, CVE-based reports demonstrate that vulnerabilities are identified and addressed in accordance with your regulatory requirements and internal policies. All of these features make it easy to create reports that show auditors how you're meeting your compliance requirements.
Benefits of Using Splashtop AEM for Patch Compliance
Of course, Splashtop AEM does more than just generate reports. Splashtop AEM can automatically monitor endpoints for threats and vulnerabilities using AI-assisted CVE insights to help summarize and prioritize identified risks, detect new patches, and deploy updates across endpoints using policy-based rules.
As a result, Splashtop AEM can improve cybersecurity and patch compliance while reducing the administrative burden on IT teams. It provides a faster, more consistent patch cycle across all devices, including remote endpoints, and monitors devices in real time so you never miss an update.
With Splashtop AEM's patch reporting, IT teams can create a clear map between vulnerabilities and remediation actions, while decreasing the risk of patch or documentation gaps. This helps them prepare for audits quickly and reduces the need for remediation follow-ups.
As a result, IT teams can work more efficiently, focus on pressing tasks instead of manual updates and reports, and proactively maintain security and IT compliance across endpoints.
Get Started with Splashtop AEM to Automate Patch Compliance Tracking & Reporting
Cybersecurity regulations require more than just patching systems. If you want to meet your ISO, SOC 2, or HIPAA compliance requirements, you need visibility, automation, documentation, and continuous enforcement.
Fortunately, Splashtop AEM provides all of that from a single platform. With it, IT teams can manage remote endpoints, reduce risk exposure, monitor patch compliance from a single dashboard, and pass audits with ease.
Splashtop AEM gives IT teams the tools and technology they need to monitor endpoints, proactively address issues, and reduce their workloads. This includes:
Automated patching for OS, third-party, and custom apps.
AI-powered CVE-based vulnerability insights.
Customizable policy frameworks that can be enforced throughout your network.
Hardware and software inventory tracking and management across all endpoints.
Alerts and remediation to automatically resolve issues before they become problems.
Background actions to access tools like Task Manager, Registry Editor, and Service Manager without interrupting end users.
Ready to streamline compliance and protect your endpoints? Get started with a free trial of Splashtop AEM today.
