How can you effectively track and report patch management metrics?

1 Why patch management metrics matter

Patch management metrics are quantitative indicators that show how well you are managing the vulnerabilities and updates of your software and hardware. They can help you answer questions such as: How many patches are available, installed, or missing? How long does it take to apply patches? How often do patches fail or cause issues? How do patches affect your security posture and performance? By tracking and reporting patch management metrics, you can gain insights into your patching process, identify areas for improvement, and justify your patching budget and resources.

3 How to collect patch management data

Tracking and reporting patch management metrics requires collecting and analyzing data from various sources, such as patch management software, vulnerability scanners, asset inventory, security tools, and performance monitors. Automated data collection can be done with tools that scan the network, detect patches, and report their status and details. Manual data collection necessitates human intervention to verify patches and gather feedback from users or administrators. Hybrid data collection utilizes a combination of automated and manual methods like integrating patch management software with asset inventory or security tools or using scripts or commands to query devices or applications.

4 How to report patch management metrics

To report patch management metrics, you need to present and communicate them effectively, using formats and channels that suit your audience and purpose. Dashboards, reports, alerts, and meetings can all be used to report patch management metrics. Dashboards can display metrics in real-time with charts, graphs, or tables. Reports can summarize metrics over a period of time with text, images, or numbers. Alerts can notify stakeholders when metrics reach a certain threshold or change significantly. And meetings can explain metrics and discuss their implications and actions.

5 How to improve patch management metrics

To improve patch management metrics, you need to monitor and evaluate them regularly, using benchmarks and goals that reflect your patching standards and expectations. Baselines, targets, KPIs, and feedback are all methods that can be used to assess patch management metrics. Baselines compare current metrics to historical or industry data, targets define desired metrics to track progress or performance, KPIs link metrics to business objectives and outcomes, and feedback assesses metrics based on user, administrator, or stakeholder input. All of these methods can help identify trends, gaps, issues, or opportunities.