Introduction
In today's interconnected digital world, with the rise of cyber-attacks, protecting SaaS based software products and the sensitive data handled by them has become more challenging than ever. One critical defense against these threats is the use of security patches.
VIDIZMO acknowledges the necessity of security patches and has devised our own standard policy of security patch releases based off the severity of a vulnerability.
In this article, we'll explore what security patches are, why they're important, and how they can help protect SaaS based software products. We will also let you know about VIDIZMO’s policies for security patch releases based off varying severities.
What are Security Patches?
Security patches are updates that software vendors release to address vulnerabilities and bugs in their software products. With ever increasing cyber-criminal activity, it is always essential to ensure measures to prevent hackers and unauthorized personnel from accessing your data.
Security patches are designed to fix potential flaws that could be exploited by hackers and cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to the software or the data it manages. Often these flaws are non-existent at the time of a release, and with ever evolving cybercrime techniques, create an immediate requirement for a security patch.
Why are Security Patches Important?
Security patches are essential for SaaS based software products for several reasons:
Protection Against Cyber-Attacks: Security patches are a critical defense mechanism against cyber-attacks. Cybercriminals are continually searching for vulnerabilities that they can exploit to gain unauthorized access to a system. Security patches help fix these vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, reducing the risk of a successful attack.
Compliance: Many industries, such as healthcare, law enforcement, and finance, have strict compliance requirements such as HIPAA and CJIS that mandate the use of the latest software updates and security patches. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in hefty fines and damage to the company's reputation.
Cost-Effective: The cost of recovering from a cyber-attack can be significant, with some businesses never fully recovering. The cost of applying security patches is significantly less than the potential costs of dealing with a data breach.
Improved Performance: In addition to security improvements, security patches often contain performance enhancements and bug fixes that improve the software's stability and functionality.
How do Security Patches Help Protect SaaS Based Software Products?
VIDIZMO is a SaaS based software product that can be deployed over government and commercial cloud tenants, private cloud infrastructures and on-premises.
Thus, VIDIZMO understands security patches help protect SaaS based software products by ensuring:
Prevention of Data Loss: SaaS based software products often handle sensitive data, such as customer information and financial records. Security patches help prevent data loss by protecting against cyber-attacks that could compromise this data.
Reducing the Attack Surface: Every vulnerability in a software product provides an opportunity for an attacker to gain unauthorized access. Security patches reduce the attack surface by fixing these vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.
Preservation of Reputation: A data breach can be a severe blow to any company's reputation. Security patches help prevent data breaches and protect a company's reputation.
VIDIZMO’s Identification and Mitigation of Potential Threats
VIDIZMO team conducts regular routine vulnerability assessments with the aim to identify and eliminate potential security threats and to improve security controls and processes across all VIDIZMO products.
VIDIZMO identifies these threats as per multiple standards such as the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) specific standards. OWASP is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving software security.
All identified vulnerabilities are evaluated by the VIDIZMO team, assigned a severity level and treated accordingly as per VIDIZMO’s security patch policy.
VIDIZMO’s Security Patch Policy
VIDIZMO classifies security patches into four categories based off level of severity: critical, high, medium and low. Let’s look into the detail of each of these levels.
Critical: Critical patches address the most severe vulnerabilities, such as self-propagating malware attacks, and should be installed immediately to protect against any active threats. VIDIZMO provides security patches for critical vulnerabilities in less than 1-2 days.
High: High-level patches are important to address significant vulnerabilities that have not yet been exploited, such as those that can compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of user data, or of the integrity or availability of processing resources. VIDIZMO provides security patches for high level vulnerabilities within the current development cycle.
Medium: Medium-level patches are like high-level patches but of a less severe nature. VIDIZMO maintains medium-level security patches as part of the product backlog to be patched in the next available sprint.
Low: Low-level patches include security patches of least severity and optional patches that provide additional functionality and are not security related. VIDIZMO maintains records of low-level security patches to be planned for and provided in the upcoming quarter(s).