Prioritising Patches: How to Stay Safe Online with Software Updates

How many times a week do you select “remind me later” to silence software updates? Those pesky notifications always pop up at the most inconvenient times, don’t they? Well, not really…

Most of those updates are “patches” – an intrinsic part of maintaining software systems. The software provider has identified a vulnerability and is offering you the opportunity to fix it before it develops into a bigger problem. Ignoring software updates for even one day can put your company at serious risk.

Just ask Equifax. In September 2017, they lost the data of 140 million customers – a security violation that cost the firm $1.4 billion. To make matters worse, a patch for the flaw had been released two months earlier.

Due to new laws around data breaches, a similar scale transgression today could cost in the region of $111 billion.

Perhaps “remind me later” isn’t such an appealing option after all…