Patching is a critical method to isolate risks and to ensure workflows are not interrupted due to allowing software to fall out of supportable versions.
The security risk resulting from unpatched vulnerabilities is substantial — Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations report found around 70% of successful cyberattacks exploited known vulnerabilities with available patches.
Too often, however, IT teams must choose which urgent items get their attention, which creates a scenario where the urgent tasks get in the way of important tasks. By outsourcing patch management, also known as patching-as-a-service, organizations can shift the burden of ensuring that the patch process completes consistently to a third party.
Control, Transparency Must Be Maintained
Outsourcing patching can save an organization time and money. It can also lead to improved security. The outsource model provides security leaders with a verifiable service level agreement (SLA) to guarantee that the investment protects the organization.
“There are some challenges that come with outsourcing patching,” cautions Darryl MacLeod, vCISO at Lares Consulting, an information security firm. “For example, an organization may…
