Vulnerability Management

Patch Smarter, Not Harder

How do you ensure that your patching strategy aligns with your specific business needs? The secret lies in taking a risk-based approach—tailoring your patch management process based on your line of business (LOB), asset criticality, and potential business impact.

Introduction

In the high-stakes game of cybersecurity, patch management is often where the battle is won or lost. If you’re patching without a plan, you’re playing with fire—rushing to patch every vulnerability can be as disastrous as leaving them unpatched, leading to downtime and even revenue loss.

Let’s dive into how you can design a patch management strategy that prioritizes security without putting your operations in jeopardy.

1. Align Patch Priorities with Your Business Goals

One of the critical lessons from past patching mishaps is that not all patches are created equal. Patching everything immediately is not always the best move, especially if a patch hasn’t been fully tested in your environment. As we like to say, “Jumping on every patch like it’s the last slice of pizza might seem tempting, but not every slice is worth the indigestion—some need a little more time in the oven.”

But here’s the kicker: The key to any system is mitigating risk to an acceptable degree—not making every system perfect. Chasing perfection often leads to wasted resources and, worse, unnecessary downtime. Studies show that 80% of vulnerabilities are linked to less than 20% of systems​. Focusing on patching every single vulnerability can result in diminishing returns, whereas concentrating on high-risk areas offers the greatest protection with the least disruption.

Using tools like vRx by Vicarius, you can employ a risk-based approach that evaluates vulnerabilities not just by technical severity but by their potential impact on your business. vRx’s advanced vulnerability assessment helps you zero in on the issues that pose the greatest risk to your critical business functions, ensuring your patching efforts are laser-focused on protecting your revenue-generating systems.

For example:

  • A finance company might prioritize patching vulnerabilities in systems handling customer financial data.
  • A healthcare provider will focus on vulnerabilities that could compromise patient data or disrupt critical care services.

With vRx, you can automate the prioritization process, so your team can focus on what matters most without the guesswork.

2. Patchless Protection: When Patching Isn’t an Option

In an ideal world, you would patch every vulnerability as soon as a fix becomes available. But in reality, that’s not always possible—whether due to business-critical applications that can’t tolerate downtime or unsupported legacy systems. That’s where patchless protection comes in, allowing you to mitigate risk even when patching isn’t an immediate option.

vRx by Vicarius provides patchless protection through its x_protect feature, enabling you to secure high-risk applications without applying a patch. Whether you’re dealing with legacy systems, end-of-life software, or proprietary applications that can’t be touched, patchless protection serves as a compensating control. You reduce the vulnerability risk to an acceptable level while maintaining system functionality.

Imagine you’re a retail company using an outdated inventory system that’s too integrated to be taken offline for patching. With vRx’s patchless protection, you can reduce the risk of a vulnerability being exploited, giving you breathing room to plan for a more permanent fix—without halting your business operations.

3. Automation with Granular Control: Finding the Perfect Balance

Automation is the cornerstone of modern patch management. It helps streamline the process, ensuring timely updates and minimizing human error. But here’s the catch: Blind automation can backfire. Aggressive, one-size-fits-all automation without proper oversight can lead to downtime and other disruptions.

The key is to have automation with granular control. You need the ability to automate routine patches while maintaining full control over when and how updates are applied—especially when dealing with mission-critical systems.

vRx by Vicarius shines here, offering customized scheduling and staged deployments. This means that your IT team can test patches in a sandbox environment, gradually roll out updates across your infrastructure, and fine-tune the patching process to meet your business’s unique needs.

For example, if you’re running a 24/7 operation like a manufacturing plant, you can schedule patches for non-critical systems during low-activity periods while ensuring that high-priority systems are only updated after extensive testing. This way, you avoid any business interruptions and stay ahead of threats.

4. A Risk-Based Approach: From Vulnerability to Remediation

No two businesses are alike, and the risk posed by a vulnerability can vary dramatically depending on your line of business. A vulnerability that could cripple an e-commerce site may have far less impact on a legal services firm. That’s why it’s crucial to take a risk-based approach to patching, where the decision to patch is based not only on the technical severity of the vulnerability but also on the business impact of potential downtime or exploitation.

Here’s how vRx helps you adopt this approach:

  • Contextual Risk Assessment: By analyzing vulnerabilities in the context of your business, vRx enables you to make informed decisions about which patches to prioritize.
  • LOB-Specific Mitigation: vRx understands that a patch for a low-priority HR application is not as urgent as one affecting your revenue-generating systems. It lets you focus on high-impact areas first.

A recent study by Ponemon found that organizations focusing on critical systems reduce their overall cyber risk by 67%, even though only 30% of their systems are patched immediately. This data reinforces the need for a risk-based approach where mitigating risk is more important than achieving perfection.

5. Comprehensive Coverage with Scripting Support

Not all vulnerabilities can be patched with a simple software update. Sometimes, vulnerabilities are embedded deep in the configuration or require more complex fixes, such as registry changes or scanning for hidden files.

vRx by Vicarius includes a powerful scripting engine that allows you to handle these more complex vulnerabilities. Whether it’s remediating configuration-based vulnerabilities like those found in log4j or addressing complex security issues through custom scripts, vRx provides the flexibility to fix problems at their core. You can even leverage pre-built scripts from their library or create your own for maximum efficiency.

This is particularly useful for large enterprises where vulnerabilities might be buried in legacy systems or custom-built applications. The scripting engine helps to ensure that no vulnerability goes unchecked, even when a standard patch isn’t available.

Conclusion: The Future of Patch Management is Risk-Based

Patch management isn’t just about fixing vulnerabilities—it’s about mitigating business risk. By adopting a risk-based approach that prioritizes your LOB, employing patchless protection when necessary, and automating with control, you can create a patch management strategy that not only secures your systems but also ensures business continuity.

With advanced solutions like vRx by Vicarius, you gain the power to tailor your patch management process to your unique business needs—whether that’s keeping your customer-facing apps secure, protecting legacy systems, or ensuring your operations stay up and running.

Don’t let patch management be the weakest link in your cybersecurity strategy. Patch smarter, protect continuously, and keep your business moving forward.

William Laukaitis

Subscribe for more

Get more infosec news and insights.
1000+ members

Turn security converstains into remediation actions