The number of endpoints in company infrastructures has grown exponentially over the past few years as cloud servers and remote devices have become increasingly popular. Despite the benefits of hybrid server environments and portable devices, this high number of endpoints has a downside from a security perspective.
A recent survey of IT professionals found that 49% ranked endpoints as the biggest risk to their security, above insider threats and cloud risks. This is largely because servers and employee devices are targeted more than any other part of the infrastructure, and the biggest threat to these endpoints are known vulnerabilities.
Thousands of patches for known vulnerabilities are released each year, and hackers quickly develop exploits for the most popular operating systems and applications. Up to 69% of endpoints run outdated operating systems, which can quickly lead to costly attacks that cause system outages and data breaches. The only way to fully prevent exploitations of known vulnerabilities is to quickly patch all endpoints. However, the large number of endpoints present in infrastructures today, in addition to the varying operating systems and applications that run on them, make effectively patching endpoints a challenge.
To improve endpoint security, you must apply patches within days, if not hours, of their release. Many organizations do not follow this best practice due to the resources required to apply patches when done manually. 24% of IT departments apply patches within a month of release, and 26% wait more than a month to conduct necessary patching work. This slow time-to-patch leaves networks at risk of attack.
IT departments must develop a faster and more fool-proof way of patching their endpoints without needing to dedicate a large amount of time to downloading, testing, and manually applying patches.
The solution to this problem is to use an automated patching solution which can seamlessly apply patches to endpoints with minimal manual supervision. While legacy and vendor-provided patch management solutions such as WSUS were built for specific operating systems, newer patching automation systems, including Automox, were constructed with modern infrastructures and endpoints in mind, and have the ability to patch multiple systems from one central location. This removes the need for multiple tools and complex patching configurations, and reduces the time and effort it takes to fully patch all affected systems.
Another challenge of endpoint security is the likelihood that a high percentage of endpoints are remote when they connect to the network. These devices were historically asked to use a slow VPN when connecting, and to be in the office in order to be patched. This resulted in patches being unapplied for long periods of time.
About Automox
Facing growing threats and a rapidly expanding attack surface, understaffed and alert-fatigued organizations need more efficient ways to eliminate their exposure to vulnerabilities. Automox is a modern cyber hygiene platform that closes the aperture of attack by more than 80% with just half the effort of traditional solutions.
Cloud-native and globally available, Automox enforces OS & third-party patch management, security configurations, and custom scripting across Windows, Mac, and Linux from a single intuitive console. IT and SecOps can quickly gain control and share visibility of on-prem, remote and virtual endpoints without the need to deploy costly infrastructure.
Experience modern, cloud-native patch management today with a 15-day free trial of Automox and start recapturing more than half the time you're currently spending on managing your attack surface. Automox dramatically reduces corporate risk while raising operational efficiency to deliver best-in-class security outcomes, faster and with fewer resources.
