We’re two weeks out from Patch Tuesday. Chances are, an IT admin and/or CISO spent the day battening down the hatches while his staff furiously tested and rolled out patches. Chances are also that by this time, only two weeks later, the patches are wearing thin and the system is vulnerable.
While the monthly patching system has served as a reliable security fix for years, cyber criminals are finding ways to penetrate the system, exploiting vulnerabilities in a matter of days, if not hours. Since this month is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, we thought we’d share some of the problems we’ve discovered with patches.
You can avoid many of these pitfalls if you keep all software up-to-date, run newer versions of Windows, and ditch the legacy apps. However, many businesses are stuck using older software because of budget or deployment constraints. Also, the latest software won’t stop cyber criminals from reverse-engineering patches.
One of the best ways to ensure total protection is to invest in a strong endpoint security system that includes both anti-malware and anti-exploit technology. Cyber security that can ward off attacks before they even happen, stopping malicious code from being delivered to the system, will protect gaps in your security that monthly patches are no longer able to stop.
