Importance of Patching

Each year we see security reports from dozens of companies about how the sky is falling – mainly because the people sponsoring the reports are in the umbrella business. However, some data in a recent Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report was of some concern. Unpatched vulnerabilities are still a huge opportunity for threat actors.

The report looked at over 100,00 incidents with only 3% recognised as actual breaches. An enormous 99.9% of the exploited vulnerabilities took advantage of a reported Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures weakness that had been patched at least a year ago.

Most crucially, the report noted that it’s not just about patching, but also about ensuring you prioritise patching of your most critical and vulnerable systems.