Building a Patch Management Program

摘要

It truly is a virtual world. The quest for improving plant efficiency through automation has placed an increasing importance on software applications. As a result, the trend in the automation industry has been a move towards open systems platforms to support the growing number of applications and the increased need for connectivity between automation and business systems. With this move comes the same challenges that are faced by the IT industry, including the need to keep systems up to date with respect to security updates. Without these updates, systems become more vulnerable to cyber attacks and incidents. This requires implementing a software patch management strategy for the automation systems. While your IT department undoubtedly has a patch management strategy for its own systems, it must be adjusted to accommodate today's modern automation systems. Without a good automation system patch management strategy, keeping systems up to date can become a very daunting task.