Unpatched flaws continue to be a major security issue for many organizations.

9 Slides

Organizations are under growing pressure to implement effective vulnerability and patch management practices: In numerous recent data breaches, attackers have shown a tendency to exploit unpatched software flaws to gain access to critical enterprise applications and systems. Even relatively old and long-ago patched vulnerabilities continue to be exploited.

One example is EternalBlue, a leaked NSA exploit targeting a flaw in Microsoft's SMB protocol. Though Microsoft patched the remote code execution vulnerability in early 2017, nearly 1 million systems — over 400,000 of them in the US alone — remained unpatched as recently as June. Attackers are actively exploiting the flaw to deliver banking Trojans and other malware.

Digital transformation initiatives and trends such as cloud migration and enterprise mobility have also significantly expanded the attack surface at many organizations, underscoring the need for better vulnerability prevention, detection, and mitigation strategies. The adoption of DevOps, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), and other application development and delivery models in recent years has similarly focused attention on integrating vulnerability scanning and remediation much earlier in the software development life cycle.

For organizations seeking to implement formal vulnerability and patch management programs, here are eight key trends to keep an eye on.

About the Author(s)

Jai Vijayan, Contributing Writer

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics, including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting, and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree in Statistics and lives in Naperville, Ill.

Keep up with the latest cybersecurity threats, newly discovered vulnerabilities, data breach information, and emerging trends. Delivered daily or weekly right to your email inbox.

You May Also Like


More Insights