The following tip is one of six steps to help you protect Windows systems from bi-modal attacks. Click to return to the main page.
Some of the most well-known and fastest propagating threats, such as the Nimda or SQL Slammer worms, took advantage of existing vulnerabilities for which patches had been available for months. If every vulnerable system had been patched in a timely manner, these threats may never have spread.
One way to protect your systems from being exploited and compromised is to ensure that you have applied all available patches for known vulnerabilities. The sheer volume of patches makes this a daunting challenge. You should have a clearly defined and well-documented patch testing and implementation procedure. There are many excellent tools available, such as St. Bernard Software's UpdateEXPERT or PatchLink's PatchLink Update 6 to help you administer and manage your patch deployment process.
More information:
Step-by-Step Guide: Patch management must-dos
Tip: Weed out those unpatched systems
Topic: Get best practices to help you manage patching
Click for the next tip in this series: Use IPsec to protect critical servers
