Effective vulnerability remediation and patch management are essential to maintaining a secure IT infrastructure, protecting organizations from the growing threat of cyberattacks. The proactive approach of applying security fixes in a timely, reliable, and rapid manner helps to close security gaps and prevent exploits, ensuring that systems remain resilient against emerging vulnerabilities.

 

Growth of critical threats

In today's cybersecurity landscape, businesses are facing an increasing number of vulnerabilities that threaten the security and integrity of their systems. According to a 2024 Midyear Threat Landscape Review by Qualys, over 22,000 CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) were identified in 2024, marking a staggering 30% year-over-year increase. This surge in threats is coupled with the fact that 62% of vulnerabilities are deemed critically important, emphasizing the urgency for quick and effective remediation.

Vulnerability blind spots

Organizations are not just struggling with the rising volume of vulnerabilities—they are also grappling with inefficiencies in their response processes. A 2021 Research from ESG and Axonius shows that a significant 79% of organizations report having a visibility gap in managing their assets, making it harder to track and prioritize vulnerabilities.

“Collectively, these assets represent an attack surface that organizations must protect against...” said Dave Gruber, ESG senior analyst. “When IT and security teams lack visibility into any part of their attack surface, they lose the ability to meet security and operational objectives, putting the business at risk. In some cases, organizations were reporting 3.3 times more incidents caused by lack of visibility into IT assets.”

The time-to-patch crisis

One of the most pressing issues organizations face is the inability to patch vulnerabilities fast enough. According to Ponemon Institue, 74% of companies acknowledge that they simply cannot keep up with patching requirements, with the average time to patch standing at 102 days. Typical patching timeframe requirements however are set at between 1 and 7 days for critical and high-risk rated vulnerabilities, and 28 days for medium. This delay in addressing vulnerabilities leaves organizations susceptible to exploits, often resulting in costly breaches, operational disruptions, and heightened fear of cyberattacks.

Many businesses struggle to manage the overwhelming volume of data generated by vulnerability scanners. Weekly reports are frequently extensive and disorganized—spread across unwieldy spreadsheets or fragmented tools. Consequently, IT teams are often stuck in a reactive cycle, addressing only issues that escalate into significant risks, rather than proactively mitigating them.

Addressing the complexity with automation

Given the high volume and urgency of vulnerabilities, the traditional methods of patching and remediation of the past are no longer feasible. Rather, automating and coordinating patch and vulnerability management on a large scale can significantly improve the speed and accuracy of remedial patch deployments, allowing organizations to reduce their exposure to security threats. Further, automation can manage the entire lifecycle of vulnerability remediation—from discovery, prioritization, and coordination to patch deployment—without the need for manual intervention, ensuring patches are applied swiftly. 

Integration between scanners and remediation tools  

Integration of automated patch management tools with existing vulnerability scanners is crucial in enabling organizations to act on vulnerabilities in a streamlined, organized manner, eliminating the inefficiencies of juggling multiple tools, ensuring that teams can correlate vulnerability data with corresponding patch requirements, prioritize remediation efforts effectively, and deploy fixes at scale—all within a single platform.

Bringing it all together

Solutions such as OpenText Automation Center Vulnerability Remediation enable organizations to efficiently and proactively address vulnerabilities through:

• Seamlessly integrating with third-party scanning tools like Qualys, Teneble, or Rapid 7 and automating the import of vulnerability data into a centralized platform. 
• This data is then intelligently and automatically correlated to specific patch requirements across the entire IT environment, providing clarity on what actions are needed and where.
• Next, vulnerabilities are prioritized based on their risk level, while CMDB-powered topology views provide advanced insights by analyzing the potential impact of vulnerabilities on interconnected systems, enabling organizations to address critical issues with greater precision.
• Appropriate policies are then put in place and automation workflows executed to streamline the deployment of patches and/or configuration changes, allowing for consistent and scalable remediation across thousands of devices while significantly reducing the time required to close vulnerabilities.
• Finally, operational dashboards and reporting capabilities offer detailed visibility into the remediation process and its results, ensuring simple communication between responsible teams and compliance with regulatory and internal standards.

By breaking down silos between IT operations and security teams and delivering speed, accuracy, and scale, this comprehensive approach empowers organizations to reduce their attack surface, mitigate risks, and maintain robust security in increasingly complex environments.

Learn more by visiting the OpenText Automation Center webpage or contact us.