The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has revamped its enterprise patch management guidelines. In fact, the institute has improved its policies nearly after a decade. NIST has also introduced a companion publication informing how available commercial tools can be leveraged to implement the revised guidance effectively.
The previous set of guidelines, released in 2013, was mostly focused on empowering organizations to deploy the technologies for patch management effectively. The key difference with the latest collection of policies is the emphasis on developing ideal strategies for patch management.
The innovative strategy-based set of guidance involves common factors that impact enterprise patch management. The recommendations released through the latest release revolve around developing enterprise strategies for simplifying and operationalizing patching while mitigating possibilities of risks.
Institutes like the National Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence have also contributed to materializing the new, improved set of guidance. Experts are of the opinion that the changed version pays attention to the current scenario wherein enterprises would benefit heavily from rethinking the patch management planning rather than being overly attentive towards investing and implementing patch management strategies.
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According to an official statement from the NIST, the patch management guidelines are designed in such a way that it minimizes the gap between business or mission owners or technology/security management about the importance of patching.
Although simple in nature, a substantial number of growing businesses find it tough to spot and tackle crucial patches in the initial stages to tackle related concerns as they take place.