The State of Patching Windows

Patching is something that everyone tells you to do but find people really don't understand it. There was a time, not long ago, when security vulnerabilities became known and finding patches for them were difficult. One had to scour Usenet looking for further information and dig through FTP servers for fixes. It was pretty much up to the systems administrator to read through the readme files and figure out what it was they had to do to secure their systems. Times have changed, and now the process has been improved but not perfected. We will look at why we need to patch our systems to make them more secure. I will also cover the types of patches available, and how to find and apply them today. In addition, tools, methods and recommendations will be discussed. The main focus is Microsoft Windows XP and Server 2003, although some portions are applicable to many operating systems.