A set of guidance led by international cybersecurity governing authorities warns that network infrastructure devices, including firewalls, routers, and virtual private network (VPN) gateways, are often easy targets for attackers. They recommend keeping network device OSs up to date because patches frequently contain security vulnerability fixes.
In contrast, many teams we communicate with about updates struggle to keep their network devices in a known and trusted state. Many organizations schedule updates during monthly or quarterly maintenance windows, typically on nights and weekends. In theory, setting internal targets or programs to protect against the latest vulnerabilities by applying OS updates within a KPI-measured timeframe is a good strategy. In practice, however, they are making updates manually, one device at a time, with no reliable or efficient method to determine which vulnerabilities are significant to the organization and therefore must be addressed immediately.
Considering the pressure on staff, the increased pace of security vulnerability alerts, and the growing size of networks, teams tend to fall further behind over time.
BackBox helps enterprises and MSPs bridge this gap and enhance network cyber resilience by enabling the scheduling of OS updates with our pre-built automations. Even when updates are complex, such as those involving multiple steps or requiring significant pre- and post-checks for risk management, we provide a no-code option to customize or create new automations. Updates can be automated as part of your cyber resilience strategy and integrated into daily workflows.
Common themes we’ve seen across the customers who are most confident about being up to date are:
- Programmatic planning for updates. In some instances, spreadsheets may still be present, but there is a clear intention regarding when updates will occur and which versions are suitable for each device or device type.
- Effective business processes are crucial. They define how agreements are made between teams regarding aspects such as which versions will be supported, who is authorized to execute an update, who will be notified when devices become out of compliance or are updated, which systems require updates, and when the next set of updates will occur.
- Guardrails to enforce best practices. Utilizing an API allows DevOps principles to guide the business process, minimizing fat-finger errors and enabling junior employees to operate with oversight before pushing updates to the production environment.
The reality is that almost all customers we talk to who have all the above systems utilize BackBox APIs as a crucial part of their update pipeline. They do this to manage agreements between teams, reduce risk, and ensure updates are implemented as quickly as possible once the process has started.
