Question

IT Patch Management

What is patch management? Explain answering the following questions:

• What is the purpose of patch management?
• What is the order of operations for patching?
• Are patches cumulative? Why or why not?

Give one security breach instance that could've been avoided with sound patch management.

Answer 1

Patch Management:

Patch management is a process that helps to make multiple code changes in an application or software to keep it updated. Those changes are called patches. Identification of existing patches and determination of appropriate patches is done in patch management.

Patch management is done by software companies in order to add special functionality and security features.

purpose of patching :

If the vulnerability is identified after the release of the application or software, those can be fixed by patching.Patching provides extra security by adding special functionalities and security measures, thus prevents exploitation of vulnerability and enhances application.

order of operations for patching :

• first step is to identify the missing patch or vulnerability.
• Access that whether there is any scope for exploitation of vulnerability.
• Test the patch by installing it on a testing system.
• Check that the patch is able to suppress the vulnerability.
• Deploy the patch on all the systems
• Patching is a cyclic process, so repeat all the above steps until all the vulnerabilities are removed.

Patches are cumulative. A patch is associated with other patches. There can always be an underlying patch to an higher patch. Thus patches are interconnected and cumulative.

Uber drivers data breach took place in 2016. It had affected over 60 millions drivers. The data such as drivers name, email address, contact number and driving licence number have been stolen. This could have been avoided by a sound patch management.