Patch management is a vital part of network and endpoint security, yet it is often overlooked. When an update reminder appears in the middle of the workday, employees are quick to click “Remind Me Later” and forget about it. After all, installing updates takes time out of the day, and are the risks of delayed patching really that bad?
In reality, delays in patching can leave vulnerabilities exposed, which can potentially lead to data breaches and other cyberattacks. IT teams need to ensure patches are installed quickly and efficiently, but without the right tools, patch management can be a challenge.
With that in mind, let’s explore the risks of delayed patching, effective strategies to prevent patch delays, and how Splashtop AEM makes patch management painless.
Why Do IT Teams Struggle with Timely Patching?
First, we need to understand what can cause patching delays. Several different causes can contribute to delayed patching, including:
Timing: Employees are busy, and even a short period of downtime can cause significant setbacks. Not only does installing patches take time and often requires system reboots, but there’s always the risk of an unforeseen error causing additional downtime (hence the need for thorough staged testing).
Lack of resources: Manual patching can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive process. If an organization has a large number of remote endpoints and limited IT resources, patching each one can take a long time.
Compatibility issues: Unexpected compatibility issues are among the most common patching setbacks. Sometimes a new patch creates compatibility issues with older operating systems, legacy software, or other applications, which can create unexpected problems and bring work to a halt.
Patching complexity: Not all patches are a simple matter of clicking “install” and waiting. Some are more complex processes, requiring validation and staged testing before they can be reliably deployed. Without a good strategy in place, this can slow down patching considerably.
Lack of visibility: Sometimes patches get skipped due to a lack of visibility, either of the patch itself or the device it’s meant for. Without an accurate, real-time inventory of endpoints, servers, devices, and apps, it’s easy for IT teams to miss a device that needs an update, but doing so leaves a vulnerability exposed.
6 Significant Risks of Delayed Patching
So, what happens when you delay a patch? Cybersecurity is not something that can just be put off until later, because every moment your endpoints and systems go without the latest security patch is another opportunity for bad actors to strike. The risks of delayed patching include:
1. Unpatched Vulnerabilities Create Opportunities for Exploits
Security patches are usually designed to close vulnerabilities, which hackers and other cybercriminals could otherwise exploit. Leaving these vulnerabilities unpatched creates an easy point of entry for attackers that they can use to gain unauthorized access.
2. Ransomware and Lateral Movement Risks
Ransomware is another common cyber-threat, wherein attackers use malware to take control of an organization’s network, lock everyone out, and hold it for ransom. These often exploit software flaws for access, but proper patching can keep security high and block ransomware before it can connect.
3. Cybersecurity Threats and Targeted Attacks
Once a vulnerability is disclosed, organizations must act fast to patch it before attackers can exploit it. Failure to patch can lead to targeted attacks and similar threats, which could compromise networks, devices, and data.
4. Non-Compliance with Regulatory Patch Requirements
Even if you aren’t targeted for cyberattacks, failing to keep your patches updated can still have significant consequences. Most IT compliance and security regulations require timely patching that is appropriate to risk. For PCI DSS, critical security patches are expected to be addressed within one month of release. HIPAA compliance requires a documented risk analysis and mitigation plan, which typically includes timely patching of systems that handle ePHI.
5. Operational Disruptions Due to Delayed Patches
Patches often do more than address security vulnerabilities. Many also fix bugs, provide needed updates, and generally improve performance. When users or IT teams neglect to install these patches, they allow bugs and errors to continue unabated, which can cause disruptions and otherwise set work back.
6. Damage to Customer Trust from Delayed Patching
Poor patch management can have far-reaching consequences. If a company suffers a data breach due to unpatched systems, that will cause a significant loss in customer trust, which can take years to rebuild.
Effective Strategies to Prevent Patch Delays and Improve Security
Now that we understand the dangers of missed patches, how can companies ensure they’re keeping all their endpoints and operating systems up to date?
Strategies that can reduce patch delays include:
Patch management software: Patch management doesn’t have to be a time-consuming manual process. Organizations can use a patch management solution to automate the process, making it more efficient and requiring little to no manual intervention.
Risk-based prioritization: Not all patches are high-priority, but some absolutely are. Taking a risk-based prioritization approach based on CVSS severity scores, exploit availability, asset criticality, and network exposure can help ensure that you focus on the most important patches immediately, while allowing more flexibility with less vital issues.
Establish a process: A good patch testing pipeline, clear SLAs, and a well-trained team can make the patching process efficient and complete.
Tracking and reporting: Maintaining an inventory of all your assets will help ensure you don’t miss a device when a patch rolls out. At the same time, regular patch compliance reports let you track the progress of your patch management and demonstrate IT compliance, providing a stronger cybersecurity posture.
Role of Real-Time & Automated Patching in Eliminating Delays
Real-time automated patching is one of the best ways to eliminate delays and streamline the patch management process. Real-time automation removes manual labor from patch management, automatically detecting, testing, scheduling, and installing patches when they become available.
This ensures a fast and efficient deployment, since there’s no need for an IT agent to manually update each device, one at a time, and it can schedule updates for a convenient time. It also reduces human error by tracking each connected endpoint and maintaining real-time inventory, so it won’t miss a device or an update.
As a result, organizations can ensure they stay up-to-date on their patches with a continuous patching process, without needing the resources or time investment that traditional, manual patching takes. This makes it easier for IT teams to stay ahead of vulnerabilities without taking time out of busy workdays.
How Splashtop AEM Accelerates Patch Management with Real-Time Automation
When you’re looking for powerful, efficient, scalable, and affordable patch management, you can find that with Splashtop AEM (Autonomous Endpoint Management). Splashtop AEM uses real-time patching and automation to streamline the patch management process, monitoring each endpoint and ensuring it gets the updates it needs.
With Splashtop AEM, you can automatically detect new patches, test them in small groups, and deploy them across your endpoints. IT teams can efficiently monitor and manage patches from a single console, even across remote endpoints, BYOD environments, and Internet of Things devices.
Splashtop AEM helps organizations address zero-day vulnerabilities and other security risks as quickly as possible by automating updates for operating systems and third-party applications alike. IT teams can customize and enforce security policies across endpoints, keeping networks safe and compliant, while monitoring endpoint health, patch statuses, and compliance from a centralized dashboard.
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 managers and device managers without interrupting users.
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