You should keep your software up-to-date.
You wouldn’t drive your car without servicing it. Good housekeeping should be extended to your computers, too.
The Ponemon Institute has found in their research that most data breaches (57%) are caused by attackers exploiting a known vulnerability that has not yet been patched.
F-Secure Elements EPP for Windows brings Software Updater, which can detect and patch many applications, including missing Operating System patches. Out of the box, the client software will automatically scan and detect missing patches or outdated software, and these are reported to the Elements Security Center. Then the administrator can instruct the client software to download and install the patches, keeping the computer up to date.
But did you know that Software Updater can also automatically apply missing patches?
This is convenient for many companies without strict security policies, or without any other patch management tool or process, as it will make the updates worry-free. It is just a case of changing the settings in the profile that is used to configure the client software. In the following video, we show the simple steps to make this happen with Elements EPP.
Why isn’t this setting on by default?
The broad mix of our userbase has small offices where there is no regular administrator, but also large corporate environments where the security policy mandates that all updates are reviewed before they are applied. We had to choose either to have the automatic updates on by default, or off by default, and we chose the latter, as it is quite straightforward to create customized profiles.
If you see any other setting in your profile that you want to change, it is very easy to do this! We provide the “F-Secure” profiles for EPP as a starting point, and customers are welcomed and encouraged to tailor the settings to suit their own needs.