Best practices: patch management

Overview

Patch and vulnerability management is a core component of your risk mitigation strategy. It is the first and last line of defense against existing and new exploits - laying the foundation from which your AV and other security technologies work. As the sophistication and sheer volume of exploits targeting operating systems and major applications increases, the speed of assessment and deployment of security patches is key to mitigating risks and remediating vulnerabilities - and reducing costs.

In this best practice guide, we are going to take a deep dive into a best practice process for patch and vulnerability management, developed by Lumension over thousands of customer engagements.

This process - which is flexible and simple enough to be adapted into your environment - revolves around the well-known monthly release of security updates from Microsoft known as Patch Tuesday.

With the sophistication and sheer volume of exploits targeting major applications and operating systems, the speed of assessment and deployment of security patches across your complex IT infrastructure is key to mitigating risks and remediating vulnerabilities. Here are the Lumension-recommended steps to cure your patch management headache.