Workstation Hardening Response

Provide (2) 150 words response with a minimum of 1 APA references for RESPONSES 1 AND 2 below. Response provided should further discuss the subject or provide more insight. To further understand the response, below is the discussion post that's discusses the responses. 100% original work and not plagiarized. Must meet deadline.

RESPONSE 1:

This week’s forum asks us to discuss updates/patches and some issues that may arise while patching and updating machines. Updates and patches can be crucial to organizations for many reasons. Updates and patches are important because they essentially close a door that may have been left open. For example, during the Equifax data breach the attackers gained access through a security hole that a patch was released to seal that hole two months prior to the breach. I have also been prone to deny updates for as long as possible and was never really worried about anything till this current class. Besides security fixes, updates and patches can enhance features and make better compatibility with devices and applications. Many update and patches can be set to download automatically either the moment an update is released or set up to check for updates on a schedule. For example, you can set up your machine to check for updates and download and install them every Sunday at 0300. I have seen instances where patching or updating as soon as released could sometimes lead to issues the company might have missed. When this happens, it can affect the functionality of the machine and possibly cause you to have to restore to a previous update. For example, on one of Microsoft’s “patch days” the various patches caused Microsoft Office to crash which led to a recall of those patches. A lot of the time its mobile updates or patches that cause problems and must revert to a previous update or wait for a fixed update to come out. Thanks for reading and take care.

Regards,

Chris

RESPONSE 2:

Having an update or patch process should be an important part in any organization because it can provide many benefits. The biggest reason that organizations should have an update/patch process is because the patches fix issues or bugs with the previous version. Updates and patches are used to include the latest security threats and viruses that there are. This can help keep a system safe from new viruses or malware that have come out. However, if these issues and bugs are left alone and not fixed, they can actually be a vulnerable point in the system and have the potential to cause serious damage to the system. Hackers can use these vulnerabilities in the system to steal information, damage the system itself, or encrypt files so that the user cannot access them (Symanovich, 2020). So by installing the updates and patches it can protect the system and its data. Updates can also provide new features and remove older ones that might have been causing an issue or was the source of the bug (Symanovich, 2020).

There can be some issues when it comes to patches. The first problem that could come up is that the patch itself fails. If there are compatibility issues to even just forgetting to reboot the computer itself can cause the patch not to go through, which in turn causes the computer to be vulnerable for a longer amount of time (Collar, 2015). Another issue could be that certain programs or applications are now considered dangerous or a vulnerability when they should not be.

-Ellie

Sources:

Collar, A. (2015). Common Patch Management Problems - Orion. Orion. Retrieved 16 September 2020, from http://www.oriontech.com/common-patch-management-problems-how-a-msp-can-help/.

Symanovich, S. (2020). 5 reasons why general software updates and patches are important. Us.norton.com. Retrieved 16 September 2020, from https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-how-to-the-importance-of-general-software-updates-and-patches.html#:~:text=Updates%20help%20patch%20security%20flaws&text=A%20software%20vulnerability%20is%20a,code%20to%20target%20the%20vulnerability.&text=They%20cover%20the%20security%20holes%20to%20keep%20hackers%20out.