Part One: Patch Management

By: Sam Geary, Marketing Executive

Recently we’ve been focusing our efforts around five of our fully managed products and services:

Patch Management
Cyber Essentials
Backup and Disaster Recovery
Antivirus
Encryption

The points above are fundamental for the security of your business and all help aid your GDPR journey.

*Technical quote alert*

Article 32 of the new regulation highlights the importance of implementing technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to risk.

It also highlights the importance of encrypting and backing up personal data in the result of a physical or technical accident.

To read Article 32 click here.

I’m not going to go into the specifics of GDPR as you’re all probably bored to death of the term. But unfortunately, there’s no escaping the new regulation as the deadline approaches.

Anyway… back to points mentioned above. These are five very important things you should invest in to keep your business safe. That’s not to say that if you don’t have them your business will crumble, but there will always be a ‘what if’ and why risk the safety and data of your business when you can protect it?

So ask yourself…

What if your IT infrastructure was infected with ransomware?

What if your offices were flooded and your entire infrastructure was ruined?

What if a key member of your team left their laptop on the train?

All the above scenarios would cause your business an immense amount of disruption. So, it’s all about putting measures in place to reduce the amount of downtime your business experiences if the above scenarios were to happen.

This leads me on to part 1 of this four-part blog!

Starting with ‘Patch Management’.

Let’s go back to basics. What is ‘patch management’?

Put simply a patch is a piece of code that can be applied to a software programme after it’s been installed. Patches are created to correct issues that are discovered after it has been released.

Analogy alert!

Think of it like maintaining a car.
You can still drive a car without having it regularly serviced and without changing any parts…
But… It’ll become dangerous to drive if you keep avoiding to take it to the garage and eventually the car may break down or cause an accident.

It’s the same with your IT infrastructure, if you don’t regularly patch your systems they become susceptible to threats and this can eventually cause downtime to your business.

The task of patching involves acquiring, testing and installing multiple patches to an administered computer system. As soon as software or an operating system gets released, hackers look for faults and vulnerabilities that give them access and let them in.

Unpatched systems are an easy target for criminals looking to gain access to corporate networks. Patch management also ensures that potential problems can be resolved as soon as possible before your business grinds to an untimely halt. It also frees up a huge amount of time allowing you to focus on other areas of your business.

Nowadays, almost all businesses use work devices outside the office. While manually updating on-site systems may be time consuming, it is at least possible- but what would you do if your business has employees who work remotely? Patch management ensures that all your corporate devices stay updated- wherever they are.

I’m not going to give you a thousand reasons why patch management is a good investment for your business but if you’re serious about your data and cyber security we would highly recommend that you put some time aside to learn about the benefits.

PCS Patch Management:
– Support for all Microsoft updates
– Systems vulnerability checks
– Up-to-date IT assets
– Telephone/remote support
– Reduced risk of cyber attacks
– Scheduled patches

If you’ve read this and want to find out more, get in touch with us today. We offer a fully managed Patch Management service that takes away the hassle of updating your own patches.

To find out more about Patch Management get in contact with us today.

We’ve still got four more services to cover so bookmark our blog and stay tuned for part two of our quintet of blog posts on business security where we’ll be covering Cyber Essentials.

Thanks for reading and catch you next time!