Give them a break: How to unstress IT security teams overburdened with vulnerability patching

IT teams are exhausted. The tech talent shortage has led to severe understaffing even as cybercriminals ramp up their attacks. The ever-increasing shift toward hybrid working models has only compounded the issue, with IT teams struggling to deploy patches and other fixes across an expanded attack surface transcending the corporate firewall. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of CIOs say remote and hybrid work have increased the stress on their IT staff.^[1]  

The numbers tell the tale: 

• Attackers typically begin exploiting a new vulnerability less than 15 days after discovery.^[2] 
• Organizations take 60 days, on average, to remediate critical vulnerabilities.^[3] 
• Six out of 10 breaches occur because a patch was available for a known vulnerability but not applied.^[4] 

Organizations are essentially providing cybercriminals with open access to their network for two months. IT teams simply cannot afford to leave known vulnerabilities unpatched for so long, but how can they address the situation without hiring new talent? Simply put: They must make the best use of available resources by accurately identifying, assessing, and addressing their vulnerabilities.  

A well-designed vulnerability remediation platform – the equivalent of fundamental security hygiene – can significantly reduce IT stress while strengthening an organization’s security posture. First, these platforms can enable IT security and operations teams to rapidly reconcile vulnerability detection with remediation actions, so no one is ever confused about the proper course of action. Then, they can rank vulnerabilities by severity and automatically create prioritized remediation workflows.  

Advanced patch analytics can be embedded into these workflows, which reduces the need for specialized expertise and takes the pressure off IT teams while reducing errors and minimizing costs. Finally, a strong platform will leverage a broad set of remediation capabilities with out-of-the-box, certified remediations across multiple operating systems. 

HCL BigFix is a robust vulnerability remediation solution that enables IT teams to efficiently find and deploy the right patch for each vulnerability for maximum protection against advanced persistent threats. It closes the communications gap between security and operations while eliminating much of the manual work and spreadsheet complexity that causes so many delays in remediation.  

As a result, IT can reduce patch times from days or weeks to hours or minutes. BigFix automatically correlates discovered vulnerabilities with the right patch and configurations for a broad range of OS platforms with certified remediations that can be applied on demand.  

To learn more about how BigFix can reduce the pressure on your IT teams and substantially mitigate the risk of unpatched vulnerabilities, visit https://www.hcltechsw.com/bigfix/ 

^[1] IDG Communications. 2022 State of the CIO: Rebalancing Act: CIOs Operationalize Pandemic-Era Innovation. 2022. https://f.hubspotusercontent40.net/hubfs/1624046/IDGEXSumm2022_Final.pdf. Retrieved 14 February 2023. 

^[2] CISA. Remediate Vulnerabilities for Internet-Accessible Systems. January 2019. https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CISAInsights-Cyber-RemediateVulnerabilitiesforInternetAccessibleSystems_S508C.pdf. Retrieved 14 February 2023. 

^[3] Edgescan. Organizations Take an Average of 60 Days to Patch Critical Risk Vulnerabilities. 7 March 2022. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/organizations-take-an-average-of-60-days-to-patch-critical-risk-vulnerabilities-301496256.html. Retrieved 14 February 2023. 

^[4] O’Driscoll, Aimee. Cyber security vulnerability statistics and facts of 2022. Comparitech. 13 December 2022. https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/cybersecurity-vulnerability-statistics/. Retrieved 14 February 2023.