Evolve to a Risk-Based Vulnerability Remediation Strategy with a Cloud-Native Patch Management Solution – Now Available from Ivanti

Ransomware attacks are increasing in frequency and severity every year. The impact to companies is devastating. These attacks typically lead to lost business for companies as they often cause increased customer turnover, system downtime, diminished reputation and other adverse side effects. On top of that, there are also costs associated with detecting and escalating a ransomware breach, notifying data subjects, data protection regulators and other third parties, and post-breach response activities, such as paying out compensation for victims and regulatory fines. Research puts the average total cost of a ransomware breach at $4.62 million – excluding the cost of the ransom. 

Unfortunately, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. Reports show fewer than 20 arrests were made globally in connection with ransomware attacks in 2020, despite the fact there were an estimated 25,000 attacks of impact in the same year – a ratio that is hardly a deterrent for would-be ransomware actors. In addition, the barriers to entry to becoming a ransomware actor are eroding as well. Ransomware as a service (RaaS) enables just about anyone to get in on the action – no security knowledge or coding expertise required. 

Furthermore, research from Ivanti shows the number of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) into networks nearly quadrupled in 2020 alone. And to top it all off, other research indicates ransomware attackers are increasingly targeting midmarket companies to avoid the media attention that comes from attacking large enterprises. It seems no one is safe, and there’s nowhere to hide. 

Until ransomware attacks and other data breaches are a thing of the past – a day that may never come based on their current trajectory – organizations must take steps to protect against them. Patching to fix CVEs is one of the best things an organization can do to counter ransomware attacks. Unfortunately, research from Ivanti shows 71% of IT and security professionals find patching to be overly complex and time-consuming. That may be due to the overwhelming volume of vulnerabilities that exist. 

There are well over 100,000 vulnerabilities listed in the US National Vulnerability Database (NVD). While only a small percentage of those vulnerabilities are tied to ransomware, and an even smaller percentage are trending/active exploits, identifying which ones pose the most risk to an organization can be tricky. A report from Ivanti shows that from 2018-2020, using CVSS v3 scoring, if an organization were to patch only critical vulnerabilities, its coverage against ransomware would only be about 35%.

Introducing Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management

To address the ever-increasing number of vulnerabilities and exploits with the limited resources they have, IT organizations need to evolve to a risk-based vulnerability remediation strategy. Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management enables them to do just that.  

This cloud-native patch management solution provides actionable threat intelligence, patch reliability insight and device risk visibility that enables IT teams to prioritize and remediate the vulnerabilities that pose the most danger to their organization. By leveraging Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their patching efforts, organizations can better protect themselves from data breaches, ransomware and other threats that stem from software vulnerabilities. 

The patch management capabilities in Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management enable this protection along with other benefits for companies seeking a cloud-native patch management solution. 

Proactively patch against active exploits 

Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management provides intelligence on known exploits and threat-context for vulnerabilities – including ties to ransomware – enabling organizations to prioritize remediation based on adversarial risk. Additionally, Ivanti’s Vulnerability Risk Rating (VRR) better arms IT teams to take risk-based prioritized action than CVSS scoring by taking in the highest fidelity vulnerability and threat data plus human validation of exploits from penetration testing teams. 

Achieve faster SLAs with patch reliability and trending insight  

Patch reliability insights from crowdsourced social sentiment data and anonymized patch deployment telemetry in Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management helps organizations save time and avoid failed patch deployments. This information enables IT teams to evaluate patches based on their reliability in real-world applications before deploying them. Additionally, service-level agreement (SLA) tracking, which provides visibility into devices nearing SLA, enables IT teams to take action on devices before they are out of compliance. 

Transition from on-premises to cloud patch management 

Gartner has estimated over 85% of organizations will embrace a cloud-first principle by 2025 and will be unable to fully execute their digital strategies without utilizing cloud-native architectures and technologies. While cloud migration is important, it can be complex, and most companies are not prepared to migrate critical on-premises applications overnight. 

Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management is a cloud-native solution that allows organizations to transition from on-prem patch management to the cloud at their own pace instead of being forced to “rip and replace.” Such gradual transitions are enabled by the solution’s single pane of glass experience that provides visibility into the devices that it manages in the cloud alongside those managed via on-prem Ivanti patch management solutions. 

Streamline patch management processes 

By providing visibility into all the endpoints in an organization’s environment via a single pane of glass, Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management improves operational efficiencies by eliminating the need to jump between siloed patch management solutions. Advanced vulnerability insights and patch intelligence in the solution further improve operational efficiencies by enabling IT teams to effectively prioritize patch efforts so they focus only on what matters. Further, when it’s time to patch, autonomous Patch Configurations deployed to the Ivanti Neurons Agent on devices distribute thoroughly tested patches to thousands of machines in minutes. 

Ivanti Resources 

Check out the Ivanti Neurons for Patch Management product page and datasheet for more information on this cloud-native patch management solution. For a deeper dive on the solution, book a demo with one of Ivanti’s subject matter experts.