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Vulnerability and Patch Management

Patches are corrective fixes for errors in your software. Modern software is extremely complex and very difficult to make. As a result, mistakes can happen! When those mistakes happen and cause challenges for your business, you want an effective patch management solution you can rely on to get your systems back up and running.

Choose from a range of vulnerability and patch management solutions to suit your business needs with Defensive.

Vulnerability and Patch Management
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What is Vulnerability and Patch Management?

When you see the notification that your operating system needs to update, that’s because the operating system needs to apply a retroactive fix to the software. It has identified some kind of bug and needs to ‘patch’ to ensure the system runs smoothly.

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However, in modern company environments with vast software networks and diversity of assets, that’s where businesses often need a bit of help to outsource their patch management solutions to experts.

Perhaps there was an error in the code that led to performance issues.

All forms of software have potential errors waiting to obstruct workflows. Therefore, having the failsafe of patch management solutions at the ready is integral to limiting those obstructions.

If you have an issue with your personal software, like managing your updates on laptops and routers at home, this is manageable, and you can probably manually handle it yourself.

Why is Vulnerability and Patch Management Important?

Patch management is essential for modern businesses:

  • Security: patch management identifies and fixes vulnerabilities within software and applications that are at risk of cyber-attacks. By remediating these risks, your organization stays secure.
  • System uptime: Ensures your software and applications stay up to date to keep systems running smoothly.
  • Compliance: As legislation keeps up with modern threats to software, patch management is often required by regulatory bodies.
  • Feature improvements: It’s not just about identifying vulnerabilities and fixing issues; patch management also ensures you have the best-updated version of your products.
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Best Practices for Vulnerability and Patch Management

Here are some best practices to keep top of mind when it comes to engaging with patch management:

  • Set clear expectations and ensure accountability: Make sure agreements are in place so that the work of reducing risk actually gets done.
  • Establish a common language: When people talk about vulnerabilities, risks, patches, and fixes, it can get confusing. Make sure security teams and IT/DevOps teams are on the same page when identifying these issues by establishing clear language around risk.
  • Implement a disaster recovery process: Backup plans are always good to have. Have plans in place for if your patch management processes fail.

Vulnerability vs Patch Management

Vulnerability management and patch management are sometimes treated synonymously, but there is a difference.

Both mitigate risk, but in different ways.

Patch management is the process of managing software updates, and nothing more.

Vulnerability management is a continuous process of monitoring systems to report on and remediate security vulnerabilities to get a deeper understanding.

As such, patch management is one vital part of vulnerability management.

The process is as follows:

  • Asset management: do an audit of your assets and their associated vulnerabilities.
  • Evaluate vulnerabilities: There are many vulnerabilities out there, so prioritization is critical.
  • Remediate vulnerabilities: Where possible, proactively remediate the identified vulnerabilities.
  • Measure success: Find ways to work out the ROI on your investment in vulnerability management.
  • Develop support networks: Build rapport with the team responsible for protecting your systems. This makes it easier when troubleshooting is needed.

Legacy Processes Limit Performance

If you’re still using old systems or outdated applications, this could be very bad for your IT infrastructure.

Of the many potential issues with legacy systems, one is the issue of increased risk.

Legacy systems are especially prone to malware and security breaches, and it can be challenging to find modern patches for these legacy systems. The point is that though they may still ‘work’, they often have vulnerability gaps,

These vulnerability gaps often mean they aren’t legally compliant.

Ultimately, those legacy systems will lead to damaging security setbacks that leave your organization exposed.

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Consider Cloud-based Alternatives for Vulnerability Patching

Major companies around the world are switching to cloud-based vulnerability management. This enables businesses to worry less about physical data storage, revolutionizing storage and efficiency.

Better Security

24/7 cloud-based protection and identification of vulnerabilities with immediate action if necessary. New security solutions for the cloud platform make storing and transmitting data safer.

Cost-effective

Quick detection and remediation mean that less tie is wasted on fixing vulnerabilities. Proactively identifying threats also means you avoid the fallout from the potential exploitation of these vulnerabilities. Seen this way, cloud-based vulnerability patching offers a substantial ROI.

Highly preventative

Can prevent many forms of attacks on a company’s most sensitive data with up-to-date remediation techniques.

A Solution for the Future

IT and security professionals find that on-premises patch management is time-consuming and complex.

Cloud-native patch management solutions provide visibility into all your environment’s endpoints to gain a holistic view of all your software vulnerabilities.

In addition, sophisticated cloud-based technology leverages data to effectively prioritize your risks for you.

And, even after it prioritizes risks, these solutions will also implement proactive remediations, allowing for faster fixes and seamless workflows.

These cloud-based solutions are always improving their processes too to stay ahead of the curve and protect businesses, making them future-proof solutions for your organization.

Defensive Technology Partner Spotlight

At Defensive, we have a range of patch management solutions to offer your organization:

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  • Rapid7 InsightVM offers a six-sigma accuracy scanning engine with flexible hybrid deployment capabilities- either an endpoint agent or a scanning engine.
  • Vulnerability reporting goes beyond traditional CVSS, with additional tailored threat intelligence and system posture context giving you real-time exploit risk within your environment.
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tenable
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  • The Tenable One Platform combines the e-discovery of assets and attack surface management with its next-generation suite of vulnerability tools.
  • Offers a suite of vulnerability management tools to assess risk across endpoints, systems, web apps, public cloud, and Active Directory.
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  • Automox is the only cloud-native patching platform with automatic compatibility for patch management across Windows, macOS, Linux, and third-party software—including Adobe, Java, Firefox, Chrome, and Windows.
  • Designed especially for remote workforces.
  • Acts in real-time to provide better security outcomes for businesses.
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crowdstrike
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  • Real-time scans visibility of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) into your endpoints on and off the network.
  • No additional agents, hardware, scanners, or credentials- Falcon Spotlight is built natively into the single, lightweight and powerful Falcon agent.

Featured Vulnerability and Patch Management Partners

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Why Defensive Networks?

Defensive is a Next Generation Solution Provider for a Cloud-First World. We exist to take the guesswork out of Cybersecurity and Information Technology procurement and adoption.

Defensive of your Brand.

We are trusted by leading enterprises around the globe.​

Defensive of your People.​

Let’s create harmony between Infosec, IT, Executives, End Users, and Finance.​

Defensive of your Time.

We’re straight to the point with technologies and strategies that work.

Defensive of your Budget.

Eliminate wasted expenditure and maximize the value of every dollar.

TRUSTED BY

87 of the Fortune 1000
Over 1,400+ small, medium and large enterprises.

As Seen In

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A Defensive Identity Access Management Solution

Identity is the foundation of a modern security program, and as such, we partner with the best. We use technologies from Okta, Microsoft, and CrowdStrike to create a fool-proof access management solution. With an IAM system, your organization will see increased security and productivity. We use real-time threat detection, prevention, and valuable analytics that produce actionable insights to enhance your organization’s security.

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Additional Areas of Expertise

Vulnerability and Patch Management

Cloud Native Security

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