ABSTRACT
A patch management process describes best practices that should be employed in any organization, regardless of size, to govern how to respond to security-related vulnerabilities. Updating patches on a system is not the only method by which to protect a company’s assets from a threat. However, it is the most common and is one that is often overlooked, or underemphasized. This process is initiated whenever the organization becomes aware of a potential security vulnerability, which is followed up with a vendor release, or hotfix, to address the security vulnerability. Figure 9.1 shows a high-level walkthrough of the patch management process. It is broken down into further detail in the following sections.
