Business Infrastructure Security: Keeping Windows up to Date
In the business world, the importance of securing your network is tantamount to ongoing success. This security is often touted as working best when you have robust firewalls installed or a security team at hand in the event of a breach. While these implements do work in tandem to keep your business networks secure, it is often the less-mentioned security aspects in your organization that play a significant role in keeping you protected. This is where Windows updates come in. By having a team of system administrators that keep your Windows machines up to date, such as those at Interlink Group, you can avoid a host of security holes, errors, and incompatibilities that may otherwise occur unseen.
Types of Windows Updates
We all have seen the update messages that come in time with any installation of Windows. But what do these updates include? Are all Windows updates made equal? The answer to this is no, not all updates are made the same, but this doesn’t mean they should not be treated similarly. The types of Windows updates that you will encounter are the following:
- Critical Updates
- Critical updates are some of the most important to install when they become available to the general public. These updates fix operational bugs within the Operating System (OS) that are not directly related to security.
- Security Updates
- Security updates are another form of fix that is very important to install. This is because security updates work to patch holes in security-related vulnerabilities. These patches are rated by severity by Microsoft that can be viewed when the update becomes available. These levels of severity are critical, important, moderate, and low.
- Monthly Rollups
- Monthly rollups are the newest form of updates that Microsoft rolls out. These monthly updates include both reliability and security updates that are tested previous to release. They come as a package that will patch and improve your Windows experience at the same time. Like the security updates, these monthly rollups are listed by the same levels of severity.
- Service Packs
- Service packs act as a more robust form of monthly rollups. These update packages are cumulative and include security updates, critical updates, and hotfixes.
- Non-Critical Updates
- Non-critical updates impact the user experience for anyone using a Windows machine. These updates focus on improving both the performance and stability of Windows itself. The updates do not include security-related fixes or patches.
Reasons to Install Windows Updates
There are many reasons to keep your Windows machines up to date, especially when being used in a business environment. To give a bit of perspective as to what happens when Windows updates are ignored, zunesis.com remarks in their article Why It’s Important to Install Windows Updates and Patches that:
“Potential consequences of not installing security updates are damaged software, loss of data, or identity theft. Every year, malware causes the damage of millions of dollars worldwide. The main reason is that users don’t install critical software or operating system updates, allowing malware to exploit loopholes that exist in every software ever developed. Vulnerabilities can potentially be exploited within hours of them becoming publicly known. So once a security update is available, you should plan to install the fix to protect your system from malware attacks.”
By looking at the many pitfalls that can occur when Windows updates are not installed, we can see the dangers regularly allowed into business machines and networks. Windows updates make it so that these dangers can be easily prevented. To ignore these patches and fixes is to invite security problems to your businesses’ doorstep.
Digital security for any organization can be a very complicated task with a multitude of different approaches. In this web of security implementations, Windows updates are one of the most straightforward ways to protect your network infrastructure directly. Working with professionally trained system admins like those at Interlink Group can help ensure that these crucial updates are regularly installed. Don’t take a backseat when it comes to your company’s digital security. By making these Windows updates regularly, you are fighting to achieve the digital security peace of mind you deserve.
