Patching - Why is it so important?

What is Patching?

Patching is exactly what it says, it covers a hole. In the same way, when you were younger your parents might have put a fabric patch on your clothes to fix them.

Windows and Apple often release patches for their operating systems and developers very often release them for software packages.

They are designed to address holes in the system that have the potential to leave your business vulnerable. Patches can be big or small – sometimes they are to fix a minor issue causing slowness but sometimes they are your only defence against the next big data leak.

Why Are Patches Important?

Developers release patches to resolve known issues, aiming to prevent exploitation of vulnerabilities in your system. In certain circumstances, the developers may not be aware of the issues until a new type of malware exposes a weakness, thereby endangering highly sensitive data. Unfortunately, both in professional and personal lives people tend to ignore patches.

Whenever your computer and/or devices prompt you to install a software update or asks if you want to restart, it typically indicates that there is an important update being delivered that needs to be installed to ensure maximum protection. This is one of the easiest yet crucial aspects of ensuring the safety of your workstations

It's also a task that often gets overlooked. Nevertheless, when a business partners with a Managed Service Provider (MSP) like BZB IT, one of the initial tasks we perform will ensure that every workstation and server is adequately patched and protected. We will then establish an automated system for deploying patches as soon as they are available.?