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Patches (Security): Vulnerabilities
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Patches (Virtual Collection) , Patches (Weight Loss) , and more.
An organization can measure its susceptibility to attack, based on the number of patches needed, the number of vulnerabilities identified, and the number of network services running on a per-system basis. These measurements should be taken individually for each computer within the system, and the results then aggregated to determine the system-wide result. A second measure to be made is the mitigation response time, which is based on how quickly an organization can identify, classify, and respond to a new vulnerability and mitigate the potential impact of the vulnerability within the organization. The third measure to be made is the cost of the patch and vulnerability program. This may be difficult to measure because actions are often split between many different personnel and groups. The four main costs that should be taken into consideration are: the PVG, system administrator support, enterprise patch and vulnerability management tools, and incidents that occurred due to failures in the patch and vulnerability management program.
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Security patches are like vaccinations that protect you from contracting harmful diseases. They remove vulnerabilities from your computer, such as open backdoor ports or other bugs in the operating system. If you do not patch your computer when necessary, a hacker can exploit one or more of those vulnerabilities and in the end, while a hacker might want to destroy some of your files or look at your personal data, the more likely attack is to take control of your computer's resources. Your computer can be used to spread viruses, send out spam, illegally serve up copyrighted material, launch denial of service attacks against Internet servers, and more.
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Most major attacks on IT systems over the past few years have targeted known vulnerabilities for which patches had existed before the outbreaks. Information about patches can ... lead to problems for organizations. Often when a patch is released, attackers will make concerted efforts to reverse engineer the patch swiftly (in days or even hours), to identify the vulnerability, and to develop and release code that exploits the vulnerability. As a result, the period immediately following the release of a patch can be particularly dangerous for organizations because of the time that they need to obtain, test, and deploy the patch.
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On 14 February 2003, Oracle released the latest in a series of patches for major security vulnerabilities in key Oracle server products. These flaws — four of them affecting Oracle9i Database Server and another two affecting Oracle9i Application Server — can open enterprise systems to denial-of-service attacks and serious buffer-overflow vulnerabilities. Oracle has alerted customers to these six vulnerabilities and offers patches (http://otn.oracle.com/deploy/security/alerts.htm).
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Organizations should implement a systematic, accountable, and documented process for managing exposure to vulnerabilities through the timely deployment of patches. NIST recommends that federal agencies implement the following actions to assist in patch and vulnerability management:
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When vendors become aware of vulnerabilities in their products, they often issue patches to fix the problem. Make sure to apply relevant patches to your computer as soon as possible so that your system is protected.
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Vulnerabilities