Software updates and patches help protect your company’s data. But this critical task is often ignored, put off, or disregarding as an important task.
Just like your health, taking care of your technology infrastructure needs the same proactive care. Some business owners think cybersecurity breaches won’t happen to them – they may think their company is too small, that they are safe because they have an IT person, that they are taking all the precautions they need to be taking, etc. But they are sadly mistaken. Sometimes it’s that one little update that you put off or are unaware of, that brings your company to a screeching halt.
Software companies are consistently issuing patches and updates to address different issues – such as fixing a specific bug or flaw – which can be critical. Other reasons updates are issued are to improve the applications’ performance, improve the security or to add or change features and benefits.
Software updates and patches help protect your data. It is one of the most important tasks that needs to take place on your network. They need to be installed as soon as they are released. Otherwise, your company could become a victim of a ransomware attack.
Updating your systems help keep hackers out.
Updates patch security flaws.
Updates help your software run efficiently.
Having a patch management system as part of your IT service pays for itself. Think about how much it would cost if your business fell victim to a ransomware attack. Thousands of dollars? Tens of thousands of dollars? The average ransomware paid in 2021 was $170,404 according to Sophos, “State of Ransomware 2021”. According to “2022 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report”, ransomware increased 105% in 2021. The report further noted that “unpatched vulnerabilities were a factor in more than half of all data breaches and over 60% of those surveyed said they were unaware of vulnerabilities before they were breached.”
According to NIST, 20,136 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) were published in 2021. This marks the fifth year in a row that a record number of vulnerabilities have been discovered, and the first time in history that the number of CVEs has passed the 20,000 mark.
Patch management is one way to mitigate your security risks. There are also other ways to help reduce your security exposure and become more proactive in protecting your data. Phishing attacks and Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks are both areas of concern. Although we
