Virus protection: it's time to patch things up!

Research firm Gartner estimates that through 2005, 90% of viruses and cyberattacks will exploit known vulnerabilities for which a patch is available. Governments are reacting to cyberattacks by passing legislation to require security measures. Businesses also face revenue loss or legal action should their operations be disrupted by an attack. Often vulnerability advisories and patch releases are timely and well publicized, yet flaws are exploited even after major viruses have made them headline news. However, applying patches can be made difficult by the number of systems under a manager's domain--for example, patching 2,000 workstations can take a long time. Patch management can help alleviate such difficulties by applying a consistent process to acquire, test, distribute, and install patches. The author provides several criteria for judging the performance of patch management, including: integration with multiple patch libraries; systems inventory and patch auditing functions; stages for testing a patch without delaying deployment; testing for multiple configurations; and the ability to 'roll back' a patch if problems are discovered later. Patch management solutions should also work over multiple operating systems and devices.

http://www.biosmagazine.co.uk/op.php?id=70