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"With SUM, we run a report listing all the versions of an application that are installed in the entire enterprise. It saves a huge amount of hours when you can patch 500 servers at a time with three clicks of a mouse."

Novo Nordisk IT - Jesper Buhl
Systems Specialist

 
 
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Patch Management Zone

How do you lock down security while minimizing downtime and risk to your business?

The Patch Management Zone provides practical knowledge to SUM users while supporting organizational policies, processes and best practices.

 
Customer Use Study Customer Use Study:
Malware Detection and Eradication
Datasheet Datasheet:
Center for Policy and Compliance
Datasheet Datasheet:
Security Update Manager (SUM)
Case Study Case Study:
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group
 

Latest News

Microsoft Security Bulletin Release for February

On February 09, 2010, Microsoft issued 13 new security updates fixing vulnerabilities in Office, Hyper-V, and Windows. Five of these updates are rated by Microsoft as critical, meaning that these bugs could be exploited by attackers running unauthorized software on a system without user action. This critical update should be accelerated through testing to ensure it does not cause additional problems. Seven are rated Important, meaning a vulnerability whose exploitation could result in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of users data, or of the integrity or availability of processing resources. The remaining update is rated Moderate, meaning exploitability is mitigated to a significant degree by factors such as default configuration, auditing, or difficulty of exploitation.

The definition of the ratings by Microsoft can be found here.

Learn More Read the full security bulletin from Microsoft

 
Customer Use Study Customer Use Study:
Malware Detection and Eradication
Datasheet Datasheet:
Center for Policy and Compliance
Datasheet Datasheet:
Security Update Manager (SUM)
Case Study Case Study:
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group
 

Best Practices

A patch management program sustains operational efficiency, shores up security vulnerabilities, and maintains the stability of your enterprise. It starts with having sound, repeatable processes that ensure your systems are properly configured and continuously compliant.

Failure to institutionalize these processes across your enterprise leaves your organization open to exploits that will not only cost you lost revenue, but possibly lost intellectual property too.

Be sure to consider some of the following items when you look at the real cost of poor patch management:

  • Downtime - not only in terms of lost productivity, but lost opportunity as well
  • Remediation time - resources required for patch assessment, delivery and verification
  • Data recovery - not only how long it will take, but the process to determine data integrity
  • Lost credibility - with your employees, your boss, and most important, your customers
  • Legal implications - new regulatory mandates now require public disclosure when customer information is exposed
  • Stolen data - the cost of losing confidential company information could be phenomenal

Patch Tuesday Release Cycle Metrics

CURRENT PROGRESS INDICATOR – Finished

Release Period # of Bulletins Time to Completion
March 2010 2 6 hours
February 2010 13 20 hours
MS10-002 Out of Band 1 5 hours
January 2010 1 5 hours
December 2009 6 20 hours
November 2009 6 9 hours
October 2009 13 28 hours
September 2009 5 13 hours
August 2009 11 35 hours
July 28 2009 2 36 hours
July 2009 6 11 hours
June 2009 10 15 hours
May 2009 1 7 hours
April 2009 8 16 hours
March 2009 5 10 hours
Security Advisory KB967940 1 19 hours
February 2009 5 10 hours
January 2009 1 5 hours
MS08-078 Out of Band release 1 6 hours
December 2008 8 26 hours
November 2008 3 12 hours
MS08-067 Out of Band release 1 5 hours
October 2008 12 24 hours

Patch Tuesday News

Content of Patch Tuesday News is available to registered users only. If you do not see the Current Progress Indicator and Patch Tuesday Cycle Metrics below, please log in or register using the links in the upper right corner of this page.