Tanium: IT needs to get ‘don’t mess with Texas’ serious on critical updates

The do say… if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

But that mentality doesn’t really cut it in the ‘let’s make everything perfect’ world of the software application developer, right?

How frustrating is this reality when the IT bosses fail to carry through with implementing critical updates leaving developer’s applications at risk of corruption or attack by some form of malware?

Answer: very.

Endpoint visibility and control platform company Tanium thinks that chief information officers (CIOs) have held back from implementing critical measures that keep them resilient against disruption and cyber threats.

Tanium makes this assertion on the back of some recent research.

The company says that over eight out of ten (84%) respondents said that they have refrained from adopting an important security update or patch due to concerns about the impact it might have on business.

Which research study was this? We’re glad you asked.

The Global Resilience Gap study of 500 CIOs and CISOs across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan, in companies of 1000+ employees explores the challenges and trade-offs that IT operations and security leaders face in protecting their business from a growing number of cyber threats and disruptions.

What really is an endpoint?

The study discovered that a lack of visibility across endpoints – laptops, servers, virtual machines, containers, or cloud infrastructure – is preventing organisations from making confident decisions, operating efficiently and remaining resilient against disruptions.

Why is all this happening then?

Tanium says that its because too many departments work in silos, leaving them with a lack of visibility and control over IT operations.

Managing director for EMEA at Tanium Matt Ellard says that IT chiefs today must maintain compliance with an evolving set of regulatory standards — and, at the same time — track and secure sensitive data across computing devices while they also manage a dynamic inventory of physical and cloud-based assets.

“But, in fragmented environments, where organisations use a range of point products for IT security and operations, there are regular compromises taking place among these priorities,” said Ellard.

Ellard says that as organisations look to build a strong compliance and security culture, it is essential that IT operations and security teams unite around a common set of actionable data for true visibility and control over all of their computing devices.