5 Ways to Protect Your Credit Union with Patch Management
Keeping all your credit union’s devices up to date with the latest operating system and software updates can be tricky, painful, and tedious. Forgoing patches or putting them off can put your credit union at significant risk. In fact, one of the top contributors to a malicious actor being able to compromise a network and cause a data-breach is unpatched vulnerabilities on systems. The last thing any organization wants to deal with is a security breach due to systems missing patches. Here are 5 steps to help ensure your credit union is patching your devices effectively.
1. Identify systems to patch
There are many devices, systems, and applications that require updates and patches on a credit union network. This can include operating systems, common applications such as Adobe, Java, or Zoom, line of business applications, and network devices. Your credit union should have an inventory system that tracks all assets in your environment that should include applications installed on your systems, and operating system versions of your devices. Unless there is a clear view of what is installed on your network, it is difficult to determine what you need to patch, and devices will be missed. This is why patch management is critical.
2. Define your patching policy
After you have determined the types of devices and applications you need to patch on your network, you need to establish your patching policy. The policy should define the maximum amount of time to install a patch based on the criticality of the device, the severity of the vulnerability, and the risk to the credit union. This will allow you to build a patch installation schedule for your credit union that keeps risk within an acceptable level. The schedule should include devices that can be patched with an automated system, and applications and systems that must be patched manually.
3. Set up automated patching
Patching even a small number of devices manually is a labor-intensive effort and leaves the credit union open to risk if devices are missed. For efficient patching, you should utilize an automated patching solution on all devices that support it. This will ensure that patches are installed in a timely manner and allow your IT staff to focus more time on projects that help grow your credit union. The system should allow you to configure pilot groups to test patches on a small number of machines before rolling out to all devices to ensure compatibility with all credit union systems. It should cover operating system patching as well as common third-party applications to reduce the patching burden on IT staff. The patching system should also have a robust reporting capability so that you can get an accurate picture of the patching status in your organization.
4. Ensure backups are current
One of the keys to utilizing an automated patching system is to ensure that backup systems are operating correctly and that server systems are backed up before patches are installed. The patching process has become much more stable in recent years, but if a patch does cause a problem with a system or application, you want to ensure you have the capability to restore the device to a previous state. You should ensure that the IT team regularly tests backups and the ability to recover systems.
5. Patch governance
You will want to ensure that your patching program is working effectively and reducing the risk to your credit union. Your information security program should include governance checks to validate your patching program. This should include monthly reviews by not only IT management but Information Security or Risk staff to provide oversight to the program.
Many credit unions have wondered what would it be like to have a dedicated person always keeping an eye on your devices to help keep them all up to date? While most credit unions do not have the resources for a dedicated employee to patch, many have turned to an outsourced managed patching service to help with these five steps. These services offload most of the labor requirements for the credit union and free up IT staff time to work on high impact projects. The outsourced company monitors available updates, ensures your devices are patched, provides reporting and validation for your governance program, and will assist in recovering if a patch does cause a problem in your environment.
Whether you do it in house or outsource to a third-party provider, ensuring all your devices are patched to mitigate security vulnerabilities is one of the best ways to protect your credit union from a data breach.
Want to find out if a managed patch solution could be right for your credit union? Contact Ongoing Operations today to see how our Managed Patching solution can help you.