Attackers are getting more efficient
This week, Palo Alto’s Unit 42 released its 2022 Incident Response Report which highlighted the increasing speed and sophistication of attackers based on data from over 600 incident response cases over the past year.
Attackers have grown incredibly efficient, especially with the “low-hanging fruit” that is unpatched and vulnerable systems exposed to the internet – an attack vector that contributes to 31% of initial access in incidents, second only to phishing. In fact, attackers are scanning for vulnerable systems within fifteen minutes of a new CVE being publicly disclosed.
Organizations are struggling to keep up
Attackers are moving with breakneck speed and, unfortunately, IT and security teams are currently falling behind. Only 20% of organizations have time for patching according to Ponemon’s State of Vulnerability Response report.
Ponemon also found that patching a critical vulnerability takes organizations 16 days. That number is increasing, with 36% of organizations reporting increased time to patch critical vulnerabilities.
Medium and low severity vulnerabilities are slipping even faster, with the average time to patch these vulnerabilities increasing for 49% of organizations, from 125 to 151 days.
Largely, this trend can be attributed to the rise of an increasing attack surface (more devices in more places) and more distributed devices that are impossible to manage with legacy tools.
Patch your patching process today
The data is clear – attackers are getting faster and more efficient while administrators have less time to manage a growing attack surface with legacy tools that require manual work. The result: more incidents, plain and simple.
But all hope is not lost. Administrators must arm themselves with modern, automated patching tools that enable end users to take their time back with the confidence that they’re safe.
At Automox, we’re pushing the needle in that direction. Our users are fully patching 50% of their devices within 3 days of patch availability across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
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