In this era of heightened focus on cyber security, patch management is an increasingly popular and urgent subject of discussion among IT leaders and their teams. In fact, some argue that patch management is most, if not all, of the asset management their organizations need.
Patch Management: Essential, but Not Sufficient
Patch management is an essential element of any comprehensive, effective IT management strategy. But it is only a part of the set of challenges referred to as IT Asset Management (ITAM).
Patch management addresses the need for software to receive timely updates as new protections are released in response to new threats. It has its own set of significant challenges. IT and cyber security leaders must keep track of update releases, and get timely access to them.
That’s just the beginning. Each update must then be tested to make sure installing it doesn’t break anything. If it does, that must be addressed before the update can be deployed in production. And of course, it’s also necessary to make sure the deployment can be rolled back as non-disruptively as possible, in case issues arise that testing didn’t discover.
The vast majority of successful cyber security breaches exploit vulnerabilities for which patches and updates were available at the time of the exploit. In some cases, patches for exploited vulnerabilities have been available for months or years, yet have gone uninstalled.
This is not an indictment of IT or cyber security leaders. Instead, it’s a solid indicator of how challenging effective patch management is at many enterprises.
ITAM: Patch Management, Plus a Lot More
Clearly, patch management should be a critical component of every ITAM program. But true ITAM intends to provide complete management of every critical IT asset across its entire life cycle, from deployment through retirement and disposal.
Comprehensive ITAM must therefore focus more broadly than software updates and patches alone. Management of a critical IT asset must, at minimum, include acquisition and management of every important piece of information about that asset.
That information should, at minimum, include the applications that depend upon and affect that asset, who’s responsible for its oversight, and details about what users and applications are authorized to access it. It should also include information about each asset’s operating system and application software, including an accurate history of applied patches and updates.
For maximum business value, ITAM efforts should also map and maintain detailed information about the relationships and interconnections that link assets to each other, and to specific business applications, services, and users. This information can improve both ITAM and cyber security efforts, by highlighting unexpected interdependency shifts that may indicate new or emerging vulnerabilities.
Patch Management and ITAM
There are a few things you can try implementing to better patch management. They are as follows:
Implementing a Patch Management System
This is an immediate necessity to protect your business. If nothing else, make sure someone on your team subscribes to the security updates provided at least monthly by leading software vendors. Then, get those updates for your most critical IT assets tested and deployed as quickly as possible.
Microsoft and other vendors often release new patches on the first Tuesday of every month, which many IT and cyber security folks refer to as “Patch Tuesday.”
Solid Patch Management Processes
Make sure your IT and cyber security management teams know which assets are most critical to your business. Then, make sure those teams have documented, repeatable processes in place for being notified when patches are available, and for testing and deploying those patches in as timely a manner as possible.
A Comprehensive ITAM Plan
Ensure that your team has the tools and processes necessary to discover, map, and manage all the information your business needs about every critical asset in your IT estate.
Whether those assets are owned or leased, on your premises or in the cloud, you need to know all you can about them, including when they’ve been patched and when they need to be, to achieve effective, comprehensive ITAM.
Wherever possible, make sure your ITAM solutions and processes include automated checks and alerts to ensure that your critical IT assets are patched in a timely manner.
An ITAM Solution With a Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
To succeed with ITAM, your business needs a central repository of accurate, complete, and timely asset information. A CMDB provides that repository and can be tailored and extended to include all the asset information your business needs to make the best possible decisions about all of its critical IT assets, today and tomorrow.
Regarding patch management specifically, your ITAM/CMDB solution should include automated processes to check regularly for new assets, hardware configurations, software versions, and operating system patches and updates. These will provide assurances that your patch management efforts are as effective as possible, and can help bridge any coverage gaps.
The best ITAM solutions can also automate the process of remediating patch management system issues, such as missing agents on endpoints.
Virima: Your Partner for Comprehensive ITAM
Virima’s solutions for IT Discovery, ITAM, ITSM, and IT Operations Management (ITOM) can help your business improve management and security of your critical IT assets. Virima features can automatically discover and map those critical IT resources and the interconnections that link them to one another, your applications and services, and your users.
Virima’s tools are easy to use and configure, and designed to work well with each other. They also produce useful, actionable reports about your IT environment, reports that can help you identify and resolve challenges before they become disruptive problems.
Virima is here to help. To get started, contact us today to schedule a demo and explore the possibilities!
