How to Build an Automated Patch Strategy That Reduces Risk

Sometimes, “automated patching” doesn’t actually patch as effectively or automatically as it promises. Many organizations claim to automate patching but still leave systems unpatched and vulnerable, leading to breaches.

Patch automation should improve cybersecurity and reduce risks by ensuring each endpoint and application remains fully patched and up to date. Yet there’s often a disconnect: patch automation tools don’t always provide real-time automated patching, resulting in reduced threat protection rather than complete security.

With that in mind, let’s examine how you can build an automated patch strategy that prioritizes real threats and ensures devices receive the updates they need, rather than just scheduling updates.

The Difference Between Basic Automation and Risk-Based Patching

First, we need to clarify a distinction many overlook: the difference between basic automation and risk-based automation.

Basic automation uses a set schedule to check for updates and deploy them with little regard to prioritization. While this technically automates patching, its reliance on scheduled deployments means patches aren’t applied promptly, leaving gaps when endpoints are unprotected.

Risk-based automation, on the other hand, automatically detects new patches and deploys them across endpoints as soon as they’re available. It prioritizes patches based on exploitability, severity, and exposure, enabling faster, more intelligent deployment.

While scheduling patching seems convenient, it does not reduce risk evenly or ensure prompt protection. When new vulnerabilities are identified, cyberattackers quickly exploit them, so companies need to update their security posture before it’s too late.

Why Traditional Patch Strategies Do Not Reduce Risk

The fact is, traditional patch strategies are no longer sufficient. While they were once effective at keeping endpoints up to date, they now leave significant gaps that do not reduce risk.

Tying patch cycles to fixed schedules rather than threat urgency leads to slower patching and longer exposure to vulnerabilities. Similarly, using mobile device management (MDM) or endpoint tools with long check-in delays can leave them unpatched and exposed for longer than is safe.

Additionally, third-party apps and software should also remain properly updated, but many traditional solutions lack visibility into their vulnerabilities or the ability to patch third-party apps. This leaves significant vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit while IT teams are none the wiser.

What a Risk-Reducing Patch Strategy Looks Like

With that said, what does a strong, modern patch strategy look like? Proper patch management contains several key elements that contribute to better patching speed, coverage, and protection, including:

• Continuous visibility into endpoints and applications to identify and address exposures as quickly as possible.
• CVE-driven prioritization to address the most critical risks first.
• Real-time patch deployment to ensure patches are deployed promptly and effectively.
• Policy-based enforcement to reduce delays and human error, ensuring each vulnerability is addressed in accordance with company policy.
• Verification and reporting to confirm patches are properly installed and maintain records for audits and IT compliance.

Using patch management with these elements helps ensure holistic, timely patch deployment, with the most critical vulnerabilities prioritized and promptly addressed, and each patch installed correctly. Given the growing number of cyber threats businesses face daily, effective patch management can make all the difference between maintaining cybersecurity and a devastating data breach.

How Splashtop AEM Enables Risk-Based Patch Automation

Modern threats require advanced automated patch management and threat detection tools to combat them. Fortunately, there is such a solution: Splashtop AEM (Autonomous Endpoint Management).

Splashtop AEM helps IT teams reduce exposure with automated, real-time patching and AI-assisted CVE insights, plus monitoring and quick remediation actions, keeping devices, operating systems, and third-party apps protected at all times.

Splashtop AEM includes:

• Real-time patching that detects available updates and deploys them quickly based on your patch policies, rather than relying on delayed check-ins.
• CVE insights to identify high-risk, exploitable vulnerabilities for timely remediation.
• Third-party application patching to keep apps up to date and defend common attack vectors, such as browsers and collaboration tools.
• Policy-based automation that enforces patch policies and prioritizes updates based on severity and exposure.
• Cross-platform support that empowers IT teams to manage Windows, macOS, and other devices from a single console.
• Unified dashboards that show risk posture and patch statuses across all your endpoints in real time for complete visibility and control.

Step-by-Step: How to Build a Patch Strategy That Reduces Risk

So, how can companies improve their patching strategies to minimize risk and ensure all endpoints, apps, and operating systems remain up to date? Following these steps can help provide holistic, up-to-date security and prompt patching, even across distributed environments:

1. Establish complete endpoint visibility: Use Splashtop AEM to automatically inventory all devices and applications so no endpoints or software fall outside your patch scope.
2. Surface the riskiest vulnerabilities: Leverage built-in CVE insights to identify exploitable, high-impact vulnerabilities that require immediate attention.
3. Prioritize by risk, not schedules: Define patching rules based on severity, exploitability, and business impact to ensure critical updates are addressed first.
4. Automate enforcement with policies: Configure Splashtop AEM policies to continuously deploy and enforce patches without manual intervention.
5. Apply patches in real time: Deploy OS and third-party updates as soon as they become available, reducing exposure windows for zero-days and critical flaws.
6. Verify and report remediation: Use real-time dashboards and reports to confirm patch success and maintain audit-ready records.
7. Continuously adapt: Refine policies over time as new threats emerge and your environment changes.

Common Automation Mistakes That Increase Risk

When you deploy an automation solution, you want to get the most out of it and ensure you’re efficiently patching all your endpoints. However, several common mistakes can increase risk, rather than mitigate it.

For instance, without prioritization, automated patching software may spend all its time deploying minor patches against low-priority threats, leaving more critical updates by the wayside. Similarly, relying on deployment cycles means a new critical patch may be released, but won’t be deployed until the cycle repeats. In either case, this can delay critical patches and leave endpoints exposed.

Ignoring third-party software can increase risk, as such applications introduce new vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit. Good automated patch strategies must include third-party apps to ensure complete, consistent coverage.

Many businesses think of IT compliance and security as the same goal. However, security compliance regulations represent a baseline requirement for all businesses, while individual companies will have their own specific security needs. If you’re only meeting your compliance requirements, you’re only doing the bare minimum and neglecting the cybersecurity measures that can impact your business the most.

Finally, too many organizations assume automation works without verification, or, worse, lack the visibility needed to verify it. There’s always a chance an update will fail to install correctly, so visibility is essential to ensure each patch is installed correctly.

Who Benefits Most From Risk-Based Patch Automation

Implementing risk-based patch automation can help a wide variety of companies and teams, including:

• IT teams managing remote and hybrid environments can automatically patch and update remote endpoints.
• Organizations using Intune or MDM tools with delayed patching cycles can mitigate security risks by deploying critical updates immediately.
• Security-conscious teams can reduce their attack surface by promptly addressing vulnerabilities and maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture.
• Compliance-driven organizations that need proof of remediation can track their patch statuses and demonstrate compliance.
• Managed service providers (MSPs) that manage patches and risks across multiple clients can automatically update patches across clients without manually managing each one.

Of course, those examples are far from all-encompassing. While these are some key use cases, any organization with multiple endpoints to maintain and protect can benefit from the ease of patching and security that automated patching solutions like Splashtop AEM provide.

Automation Should Reduce Risk, Not Just Save Time

Automation is a powerful tool for fast, efficient patch management, but it should do more than just save time. Proper automation can and should reduce risk and improve security, but it can only do that when it’s built with threat prioritization and real-time remediation.