The attack surface of any organization has significantly expanded in recent years. Unlike in the past, where organizations secured their assets in on-prem servers, today\u2019s business environment consists of various technologies extending far beyond the enterprise\u2019s perimeter. Unfortunately, securing enterprise assets \u2014 especially operating systems (OSs) and applications \u2014 is not a one-and-done event but rather an ongoing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of this, IT teams must continually monitor and deploy security patches to safeguard multiple entry points from hackers. The process of discovering security vulnerabilities and applying the appropriate patches and updates to fix them\u2014 also called vulnerability and patch management<\/a> \u2014 is critical for the company\u2019s overall bottom line, and every IT professional should understand it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The terms patch management and vulnerability management are often used interchangeably, albeit with different meanings. While patch management and vulnerability management have a compatible relationship, they are distinct processes with different goals. Patch management focuses on applying software updates to correct specific flaws or enrich the application feature sets. In contrast, vulnerability management is a much broader process that incorporates the discovery and remediation of risks of all kinds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more about patch management versus vulnerability management to understand their core differences in this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vulnerability management is a cyclic process of discovering, prioritizing, reporting, and remediating security vulnerabilities across an organization\u2019s endpoints, workloads, and systems. When implemented alongside other security measures, vulnerability management can help organizations prioritize possible threats and minimize their attack surface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n IT teams must conduct this process continuously to keep up with new applications that are added to the network, changes made to systems, and the discovery of new security threats over time. Vulnerability management solutions<\/a> can help organizations streamline and automate this process. These tools largely rely on business operations and threat intelligence to prioritize risks while addressing vulnerabilities as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though vulnerability management tools have varying strengths and feature sets, the majority of them largely incorporate the following processes in their operations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vulnerability management solution continually identifies and categorizes each corporate asset in a networked environment and stores the attributes in a database during this stage. It also includes discovering security threats associated with assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The vulnerability management solution ranks the known risks and vulnerabilities at this stage. For example, the tool can rank vulnerabilities as high, medium, or low depending on their impacts on the corporate assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The system generates links to information about the identified vulnerabilities, including the recommendations for vendor patches where applicable. A vendor can decide to maintain its own vulnerability database information or publish links to third-party resources such as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) or Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Patch management is a process that IT teams often use to logically update applications and operating systems. The primary goal of the patch management process<\/a> is to highlight, categorize, and prioritize any missing patches for a particular asset. For specificity, a patch is a software update from the vendor. It can include anything from security fixes to new software features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, not all patches contain security fixes. Likewise, not all patches will fix the security bugs you\u2019ve identified in a particular asset. This explains why having a patch management solution isn\u2019t enough to secure your enterprise resources. You still need to incorporate an effective vulnerability management strategy to address all security risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While patch management and vulnerability management overlap a lot, they\u2019re definitely not the same. Vulnerability management deals with security issues of all kinds; software and operating system vulnerabilities can include issues with the underlying code as well as configurations pertaining to permissions and network capabilities. While you can resolve most software security issues with a patch, this certainly isn\u2019t always the case. For example, you could (or might have to) fix some security issues by changing firewall policies, re-configuring the network, purchasing new hardware, or even training employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like vulnerability management, you can also conduct patch management via an automated, centralized management solution. Such a solution allows IT teams to set policy-based rules that automatically apply patches rather than a manual process. For example, you can schedule the patching process around off-peak times to ensure that the activity does not result in downtime or productivity loss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The bring-your-own-device (BYOD<\/a>) phenomenon is now a familiar trend<\/a>, as employees yearn for greater mobility and flexibility in their workplaces. However, adopting BYOD also means that IT teams have to protect endpoints that the organization didn\u2019t specify, procure, or even configure. These endpoints are often laden with unknown and unpatched vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, most organizations are now multi-platform oriented, blending in macOS and Linux OSs with their mainstay Windows client and server operating systems. Besides heterogeneous endpoints and multi-platform environments<\/a>, the network is increasingly growing to incorporate cloud-based services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unless regularly inspected, maintained, and protected, these endpoints, OSs, and applications become increasingly vulnerable, making them easy targets for cybercriminals. This problem can become even more complex for regulated sectors such as healthcare and finance that demand strict adherence to how users access, use, and distribute information. This is because the organization\u2019s compliance liabilities extend to employees\u2019 personal devices that are not part and parcel of its IT infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Responding to cyber threats fast enough is the new urgency in today\u2019s fast-paced and ever-changing digital landscape. On average, organizations disclose more than 22,000 new security vulnerabilities annually<\/a>. This translates to about 60 new vulnerabilities being revealed each day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A sluggish infrastructure makes it nearly impossible to keep up with patching workloads, let alone get ahead of the security threats. In an ideal scenario, the race to secure OSs and applications through patching should start immediately after a vulnerability is disclosed. Security updates provide IT teams with details on new exposures and how to resolve vulnerabilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, it also gives hackers a specific focal point and codebase to plan future attacks. According to HP Wolf Security, the average time it takes for a hacker to weaponize a known vulnerability has significantly reduced in recent days, with many threats like zero-day exploits<\/a> increasing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Conversely, companies without effective patch management solutions<\/a> take a staggering 102 days<\/a> to deploy just one patch. This is a worrying trend because unpatched vulnerabilities can lead to lost or stolen data, fraud, lawsuits, and violation of compliance regulations. The company won\u2019t just lose money, but it can be sued or even go out of business. Learn more about the true costs of patch management<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The JumpCloud Directory Platform\u00ae<\/sup> is an out-of-the-box solution businesses can use to streamline patch management processes. IT teams can easily create and manage patch schedules from a single pane of glass, allowing them to achieve enhanced visibility and application version control with JumpCloud. Test drive the platform\u2019s functionality, including comprehensive System Insights<\/a>, with a free trial of JumpCloud<\/a> to see first-hand how JumpCloud simplifies and improves your company\u2019s overall security posture!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Curious about the difference between patch management and vulnerability management? Learn more about the two related terms in this article. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":58916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"collection":[2778,2775],"platform":[],"funnel_stage":[3016],"coauthors":[2568],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCompatible \u2014 But Not Interchangeable \u2014 Terms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Is Vulnerability Management?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Discovery<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Prioritization<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Remediation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Patch Management vs. Vulnerability Management: Distinctive Features<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How Do Patch Management and Vulnerability Management Overlap?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why BYOD and Multi-Vendor Networks Are Raising the Patch Management and Vulnerability Management Ante<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Are the Security Costs of Not Using a Patch Management Solution?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
JumpCloud Directory Platform: An Inclusive, Easy-to-Use Automated Patch Management <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n