Known vulnerabilities are one of the biggest threats to company networks today: They are the leading cause of data breaches, and studies have shown that those who are not up-to-date on patching are three times as likely to experience a breach. This is especially concerning when considering the high costs associated with data breaches, ranging from loss of revenue to remediation expenses to potential lawsuits.
Known vulnerabilities come from a variety of sources, as they are present in all operating systems and 3rd party applications. Those systems with high market share, including Windows, Linux, and Mac, in addition to software such as Adobe and Java, are especially at risk of attack, as exploits are quickly developed as soon as new vulnerabilities are discovered
The only way to fully protect your company from the exploitation of known vulnerabilities is to maintain 100% patched status, meaning all systems and applications are patched within hours of a patch release.
Over the past few years, the danger of failing to patch quickly has become clear, with high-profile data breaches including the Equifax hack and the fast-spreading ransomware WannaCry for which a patch had been available for two months. These attacks could have been prevented had companies applied necessary patches quickly, but unfortunately patching is often seen as a time-consuming and tedious task and not prioritized. This contributes to a long average time-to-patch, demonstrated by the fact it has been found 69% of endpoints run on outdated operating systems.
The difficulty of patching all systems in a timely manner has increased as the number of endpoints has grown. Today, companies have to patch both on-premise servers and workstations in addition to cloud servers and remote devices. In addition, operating systems have become more diverse in recent years. While many companies used to operate with a Windows-only infrastructure, Linux and Mac devices are now common.
The same is true of 3rd party applications which have proliferated as software-as-a-service applications become the norm. Employees can often install their own applications on laptops and phones that are used for business, and these applications each have a large number of vulnerabilities themselves.
The days of manually patching are over. You simply can’t keep up with patch releases for multiple operating systems and 3rd party software applications. In the past, companies have turned to vendor-provided solutions such as WSUS or legacy, on-premise patch management tools to improve their patching process. However, these systems are ineffective at applying patches across multiple operating systems, cloud-hybrid environments, and 3rd party applications. Most are built for a single system, and require complex scripting and troubleshooting for patches to be fully applied.
About Automox
Facing growing threats and a rapidly expanding attack surface, understaffed and alert-fatigued organizations need more efficient ways to eliminate their exposure to vulnerabilities. Automox is a modern cyber hygiene platform that closes the aperture of attack by more than 80% with just half the effort of traditional solutions.
Cloud-native and globally available, Automox enforces OS & third-party patch management, security configurations, and custom scripting across Windows, Mac, and Linux from a single intuitive console. IT and SecOps can quickly gain control and share visibility of on-prem, remote and virtual endpoints without the need to deploy costly infrastructure.
Experience modern, cloud-native patch management today with a 15-day free trial of Automox and start recapturing more than half the time you're currently spending on managing your attack surface. Automox dramatically reduces corporate risk while raising operational efficiency to deliver best-in-class security outcomes, faster and with fewer resources.
