The best patch management strategy for 2019

You don’t want to spend the next year doing all your network patches manually.

Your time is valuable and you’d better if focus on your business.

On the other hand, security threats will not stop coming in 2019. As always, this is a battle that you will have to keep fighting to protect your place.

But we have a plan to make it more efficient, more reliable and faster.

In this article we discuss 6 steps to deploy an effective patch management strategy on your network.

Follow these tips to stop worrying about worms in 2019:

1. Know what you’ve got

This is number one on my list for a reason. If you don’t know what you’ve got, how do you know what you need to patch?

Scan your network and create an inventory of all your machines, software and devices. Periodically re-scan your environment to make sure the inventory is up to date.

Additionally, consider working towards a streamlined and standardized environment. The less you have, the less you have to worry about patching and the easier your life will be.

2. Assess the risk

Once you know what you’ve got, you need to assess the risk associated with each identified vulnerability that is applicable to the systems and software in your inventory. Think about the severity, the scope and the cost of mitigating or recovering from the threat. 

3. Prioritize deployments

After assessing the risk, you’ll be in a position to determine the patch deployment lifecycle and prioritize which systems should be patched first. Systems that are mission critical and patches that fix major vulnerabilities should be top of the list.

4. Draw up a patching policy

A policy that documents who is responsible for the patch management process, what should be patched, when they should be patched, and how they should be patched plays an important role in your strategy.

The policy should cater for a formal change management process for the deployment of patches but be flexible enough to accommodate ad-hoc patching needs. This will allow for there to be a formalized consistent process that IT staff can follow and also cover your back if something goes wrong during the patch deployment process. Change management means there is an audit trail that you can go back to.

5. Test the patching policy

Perform a dry run of the entire policy to make sure everyone knows the what, who, when and how of your organization’s patch management strategy. Iron out any issues that you discover during the testing phase.

Before deploying into production, always test the patches in an environment that mirrors your production environment.

6. Execute the patching policy

Finally, execute the patch management policy and document the lessons learned so you know what you can do better next time. Remember to continuously review and maintain the policy.

7. Tools to use

GFI LanGuard is an award-winner solution that manages and secures your network, systems and software, condensing many important IT security tasks into one easy-to-use platform.

GFI LanGuard provides a detailed analysis of the state of your network.

It includes:

• a complete picture of installed applications
• hardware on your network
• mobile devices that connect to the Exchange servers
• the state of security applications (antivirus, anti-spam, firewalls, etc.);
• open ports
• and any existing shares and services running on your machine.

Thousands of IT admins worldwide use GFI LanGuard to scan networks for vulnerabilities, automate patching, and achieve compliance.

And now it’s your time to try its benefits on your business.

Download your 30-day free trial now and have peace in 2019.

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