A term that’s cropped up recently among IT managers is “patching fatigue,” referring to the overwhelming number of patches organizations need to keep their IT environment up-to-date and secure.
According to the 2016 IBM Security Report, which covers 18 years of patches, there are over 100,000 known vulnerabilities, which works out to around 5,000 a year per device. Only a few hundred would affect each device in a network at any time, but these security risks pile up quickly. Even with a small environment, that’s a monumental task. It’s no wonder “patch fatigue” has caught the attention of many IT departments.
Tripwire recently conducted a survey of nearly 500 US-based IT professionals about their struggles to keep up with patching. Based on the Tripwire data, here are the seven top complaints about patching – and suggestions for streamlining the process.