eBCVG: Defending IT Infrastructure Through Effective Patch Management

[ Thanks to Scott for this link. ]

Imagine that you are the IT Director of a large retail bank with an active and highly visible Internet banking service. While driving into the office, half-listening to the radio news, you hear your bank's name being announced, immediately followed by the words 'hacker,' 'massive system failure' and 'identity theft.' As you take the news in, you recall an earlier email concerning a patch that needed to be applied to your web servers. Two thoughts pass through your mind: 'Surely those patches were deployed properly' and 'Should I bother driving to the office?'

"According to Gartner, patches are defined as 'a software fix made or distributed in a quick and expedient way--typically, via a separate piece of software that users can download and run to modify an application already installed on their computers...'"

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