Patch Management

Crowdstrike issued a problematic update that impacted about 8.5 million Windows computers sending them into a Blue Screen Of Death and taking down millions of vital systems worldwide including airlines and 911 call centers.

While installing patches (updates) quickly is important for security, many system administrators do not have access to key resources like dedicated testing environments to ensure that installed patches will be stable and not disrupt their organization’s work.

Case study of a Critical Windows patch which had problems. The case explores how admins learn about patches, how issues are identified by online admin communities, communication with venders like Microsoft, and how a patch gets the community all clear.

Most data breaches happen due to a vulnerability for which a patch (or update) already exists but was not applied. This project aims to understand what causes people to avoid or delay updating software.

Analysis of the update experiences of 307 survey participants to better understand the barriers and incentives people experience when updating software. Using content analysis we analysed the stories and found that users go through six stages while updating: awareness, deciding to update, preparation, installation, troubleshooting, and post state.