As cybersecurity threats become a persistent problem, robust network security has become essential to alleviate the risk of data breaches and maintain the clients’ confidence in your business. Many establishments are using different security methods to mitigate their vulnerabilities’ risk, including patch management. Continue reading to know more about patch management and how it can benefit your business.
Understanding patch management
To understand patch management well, you need to know what a patch is. Generally, a patch refers to a piece of code used to improve an application that’s already installed into your computer network. When you discover a bug in a program, you can create a patch to fix the problem without recreating the program. Software providers are always working to fix any problems in their products and continuously provide their users with either a patch or an update to the program’s version.
Patch management refers to the process of tracking these patches and ensuring that the products used are updated with appropriate patches and secure to use. Many businesses have largely ignored patch management as a part of information security, but its significance cannot be overlooked. Here are the common benefits of incorporating patch management into your network security.
Improved security
Enhanced network security is one of the most obvious reasons many establishments practice patch management. Software providers release some new patches from time to time to fix data security vulnerabilities that malicious applications or cybercriminals can exploit. Patches are mainly created after an organization has experienced a network breach to ensure that the other company’s data remains safe.
Applying patches as fast as possible alleviates the risk of your organization becoming affected. By securing your company network before cybercriminals exploit a program’s security vulnerabilities, you can avoid legal issues, legal penalties, data theft, and reputation problems.
Compliance
Nowadays, compliance has become a crucial driver for establishments to implement patch management solutions. Due to the increased security breaches, governments have increased business regulations that require organizations in different sectors to adhere to security best practices.
Some of the highly regulated sectors include financial institutions, healthcare services, and government institutions, but other sectors are also developing their security compliance guidelines and rules. Failure to comply with the set guidelines can result in losing your business, legal issues, financial penalties, or even losing business opportunities. Patch management ensures your business remains in compliance with the set rules.
Ensures device health
According to statistics, approximately 70% of employees across the world work remotely at least once every week, and more businesses are still encouraging part-time remote employment. You can use patch management solutions to safeguard the information stored on your remote employees’ mobile gadgets.
You can implement patch management programs as part of your remote staff support solution to safeguard all of your organization’s gadgets, regardless of where they are located. These programs can help you know what gadgets pose the highest level of risks to your company, where they’re located, and help target those gadgets in time.
Manages feature updates
Nowadays, technology is moving pretty fast, and new digital developments are being released every day. As software developers introduce a certain feature in the market, a newer and better version gets released to take its place with time. Patches contain the functionality and new features, and without the capacity to install the feature updates, they can get rolled back, and your gadgets will be vulnerable.
Patch management enables you to keep up with the current technological advancements and enhance your services without entirely purchasing the new software.
Increases productivity
If you or your workers have ever had to stop working due to a network error or computer crash, you already know it results in a waste of labor hours and time. Bugs in your IT infrastructure can lead to business downtime and major inconveniences in your business.
Implementing patch management solutions can efficiently help you get the most out of your installed programs and mitigate downtime outage. Patches can significantly boost network productivity and also transform the effectiveness of your entire organization.
Conclusion
Businesses require more efficient approaches to eliminate or mitigate their exposure to network vulnerabilities due to the growing cyber threats and an increasingly expanding attack surface. As we have seen, implementing patch management solutions can help ease your security concerns and increase your organization’s productivity. Working with a reputable patch management service will help you make sure your computer network is up-to-date and incredibly safe from the growing security concerns.
