How often should we be patching our systems?
Critical security patches should be applied within days of release, ideally through automated patch management rather than manual checks. Operating systems, browsers, and business applications should all be included, since attackers frequently target newly disclosed vulnerabilities within 24 to 48 hours of a patch becoming public.
Patching delays exist for a reasonable-sounding reason — nobody wants an update to break a critical application — but that caution is exactly what attackers count on. There's a documented pattern where attack activity against a specific vulnerability spikes right after the patch is released, because the patch itself reveals what was broken. Testing matters, but the window should be days, not months.
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