We can all be guilty of following the old adage “why fix what’s not broken?” and for many situations this is true.

However, when it comes to your computer’s software it is important to keep everything up to date as many security breaches are the result of a hacker exploiting systems or software that require an update, also known as unpatched.

Global digital security products provider Avast, releases a report each year on predicted trends for the forthcoming 12 months by anlaysing and aggregating anonymous data collected from 163 million computers across the world. The 2019 report implies that 55% of PC applications are out of date, putting users and company data at risk from security breaches. Out dated applications included Skype.

There is also a significant percentage of PC users still running Windows 7 and of those that had updated to Windows 10, 9% were running old versions of the operating system.

If you have a number of users within your business, it can seem like a headache to keep on top of your technology, particularly if you don’t have an in-house IT department.

Keeping software up to date is known as Patch Management, but where do you start?

Here are 3 top tips to help you get started:

1. Plan – A planned approach to Patch Management will help you stay in control and be more productive. Group your systems by what is most relevant for your business; location, department etc and implement a systematic approach to upgrading. Keep your users informed, it will help raise awareness of cyber security.
2. Test – Rather than roll out a massive upgrade across your business straightaway, carry out updates on a few machines to ensure that everything works as it should do and that the software upgrade doesn’t cause any conflicts between applications.
3. Maintain – Patch Management needs to be an on-going process, not just a one-off event. Put procedures in place to keep on top of what updates are needed.

Feeling overwhelmed by Patch Management?
Don’t worry, help is at hand

HBT provides a remote software patch management service and we can remotely monitor your systems and applications to ensure they are always kept up to date.

Patch Managements is one aspect of a layered approach to security, which is proven to be more effective that simply concentrating on one area of cyber security.

For help or advice on Patch Management service or how we can help you with your security requirements, please get in touch.

If you are interested in reading Avast’s full report, on PC Trends 2019, you can download it here.