Collective Defense and Patch Management

Collective defense brings entities together against common threats—exemplified by NATO's formation to counter Soviet expansion. In cybersecurity, organizations share threat intelligence and collaborate despite market competition. IT Agent (formerly TrackD) extends this principle to patch management, providing crowdsourced deployment data that transforms cautious, fear-based patching into confident, data-driven vulnerability remediation.

What is Vulnerability Prioritization?

Vulnerability prioritization determines which unpatched vulnerabilities pose the greatest cyber risk and should be addressed first. With over 22,000 new vulnerabilities discovered in 2022 and limited remediation resources, organizations need systematic approaches considering CVSS scores, exploit availability, network location, and asset criticality. Modern platforms like IT Agent provide real-world patching data to optimize remediation strategies while addressing the misconception that patches frequently cause disruption.

Community Intelligence and Patch Management

Facebook groups like "Are We Dating the Same Guy?" demonstrate the power of community intelligence to identify problematic actors. IT Agent (formerly TrackD) applies this same principle to patch management: crowdsourcing data to identify the 2% of patches that cause disruption while confidently fast-tracking the 98% that deploy safely. Shared information protects communities, whether from bad actors or bad patches.

True Differentiation in Cybersecurity

In a crowded cybersecurity market where most companies compete on being "better, faster, cheaper," true differentiation means solving problems no one else addresses. IT Agent's crowdsourced patch intelligence represents genuine innovation—not incremental improvement, but a fundamentally different approach that tackles the fear preventing aggressive vulnerability remediation.

Reston Cybersecurity Startup IT Agent Aims to Transform Software Updates

IT Agent (formerly TrackD), a Reston-based cybersecurity startup founded by former NSA engineer Mike Starr, emerged from stealth mode with $3.35 million in seed funding. The company's innovative platform functions like "Google reviews for security patches," helping organizations identify safe updates while addressing the psychological barriers that cause delayed patching despite 98% of patches being safe to deploy.

The Closer and the IT Pro

Baseball closers and IT professionals share a challenging reality: they can only lose, never truly win. Success goes unnoticed while failures become front-page news. From unpatched vulnerabilities to blown saves, both roles operate under intense pressure where perfect performance is expected and mistakes are magnified. The key difference? Closers earn $20 million while IT pros face much tougher odds.

If It Ain't Breaking Stuff, Fix It

Microsoft's rare announcement about disruptive Windows Server 2022 patches highlights a fundamental flaw in vulnerability management: teams assume all patches will cause problems. With less than 2% of patches requiring rollback, the real solution isn't identifying problematic patches—it's providing data about the 98% that deploy safely, enabling aggressive patching and dramatically reducing organizational cyber risk.

Server Patching: A Comprehensive Guide

Server patching updates software to fix security vulnerabilities and bugs, yet less than 2% of patches cause disruptions. Despite minimal actual risk, organizational perception creates friction between security and IT teams. Modern crowdsourced patch intelligence platforms transform this dynamic by providing deployment safety data, enabling more aggressive patching while maintaining operational stability.

IT Agent vs. ChatGPT

We explored vulnerability remediation through the Russian Roulette metaphor, then challenged ChatGPT to do the same. The results reveal striking differences in approach: human insight focuses on risk perception versus reality, while AI delivers comprehensive but generic guidance. Compare both perspectives on why organizations struggle with patching despite 98% success rates.

Breaking the Cycle of Cybersecurity PTSD

The cybersecurity industry faces an unprecedented crisis: 46% of professionals report increased stress levels, with nearly half considering leaving the field entirely. Unlike other high-pressure careers, cybersecurity demands 24/7 vigilance, comprehensive IT expertise, and operates in an environment where professionals can only lose—never truly win. Breaking this cycle requires fundamental cultural change from executive leadership.

Even ChatGPT "Thinks" Patching Vulnerabilities is the Best Way to Secure an Organization

Even AI agrees with cybersecurity experts: regular vulnerability patching is the foundation of enterprise security. Yet many organizations struggle with this basic practice due to operational disruption fears. With less than 2% of patches requiring rollback, the real challenge is identifying potential issues while maintaining both security and operational stability.

Consider the Human Factor in Cyber Breaches

While organizations obsess over phishing training, the real human factors in cyber breaches—misconfigured servers, unpatched vulnerabilities, and overworked IT teams—remain largely unaddressed, creating a dangerous gap between perception and reality.

Zero Days: The Paradox of Urgency in Vulnerability Management

Zero-day vulnerabilities get aggressive patching treatment while older vulnerabilities languish for months—yet 75% of ransomware attacks exploit vulnerabilities from 2019 or earlier, revealing dangerous inconsistencies in organizational risk perception.

Is the Cybersecurity Community's Obsession with Compliance Counter-Productive?

While organizations spend countless resources achieving compliance standards, major breaches continue affecting compliant companies—suggesting that box-checking may distract from actually stopping attackers and protecting data.

The Cost of Compliance: What Charles Goodhart, Bill Murray, and Cybersecurity Have in Common

CISOs spend up to 40% of cybersecurity budgets on compliance reporting while cyberattacks continue rising—illustrating how compliance metrics have become targets that obscure the real goal of stopping breaches.

Let's Ease Up on the Cyber Criminal High Tech Hype

While media coverage focuses on exotic AI-powered attack methods, cybercriminals continue succeeding with the same basic techniques they've used for years—unpatched vulnerabilities, stolen credentials, and phishing—because these methods still work perfectly.

The Never-Ending Battle: Routine Patching vs. Operational Stability

The eternal conflict between cybersecurity teams pushing for rapid patching and IT operations prioritizing system stability is intensifying—despite data showing less than 2% of patches cause problems, operational stability continues winning to threat actors' delight.

Remember, We're All Just an IP Address to Cyber Criminals

Modern cybercriminals don't target specific organizations—they scan the entire internet for vulnerable systems, making every connected device a potential victim regardless of company size, industry, or perceived value.

Why Existing Vulnerability Management Solutions Aren't Working

The entire vulnerability management industry has built solutions around everything except the one question that actually matters: "Will this patch break my systems?" Until this fundamental concern is addressed, enterprise patching will remain unnecessarily complex.

Weighing Cyber Risk Options: How to Make Objective Cybersecurity Decisions Without Negatively Impacting IT Teams

Effective cybersecurity requires balancing protection with operational efficiency—focusing on the three primary attack vectors while constantly asking "Is this really necessary?" to avoid security theater that burdens teams without meaningful risk reduction.

Providing Cybersecurity to the Underserved, and Building a Business by Doing So

The most innovative cybersecurity companies are discovering that serving underserved organizations isn't just good corporate citizenship—it's a strategic growth approach that creates mutual value while expanding market reach and product development.

MSP Patch Management: The Delicate Balance Between Operational Risk and Security Risk

MSPs face an impossible choice between patching quickly to prevent breaches and patching cautiously to avoid disruptions—but 98% of patches are safe to deploy immediately, making the real challenge identifying which 2% require extra care.

Why Patches Fail: Pending Reboots

Pending reboots cause 17% of all patch failures, creating a cascade effect where security updates stack up and vulnerability windows extend far beyond intended timelines—all because of deferred system restarts.

How to Patch Vulnerabilities: A Comprehensive Guide

Effective vulnerability patching requires systematic identification, verification, testing, and deployment processes that balance security urgency with operational stability—transforming reactive security into proactive defense.

The Ultimate Guide to Patch Management for MSPs

Effective patch management is the cornerstone of MSP operations, requiring systematic approaches to identification, deployment, and verification that protect client infrastructure while demonstrating regulatory compliance and operational excellence.

Why Patches Fail: Update Deferral Windows

Deferral windows in endpoint management tools cause up to 10% of patch failures, creating dangerous security gaps while organizations wait for others to test patches that are statistically unlikely to cause problems.

Why Patches Fail: End of Life Software

Organizations running end-of-life software are 3.7 times more likely to suffer cyber insurance claims, yet many IT teams unknowingly operate vulnerable EOL systems while believing they're fully patched and protected.

A Faster Horse

ARPA-H's new healthcare vulnerability program perfectly illustrates why the cybersecurity industry remains stuck in outdated practices—building elaborate sandboxes instead of embracing the reality that modern patches rarely break systems while cyber threats multiply daily.

Why Your Vulnerability Scanner Might Be Lying to You

Vulnerability scanners are supposed to make security teams more effective, not less. Yet many organizations find themselves drowning in false positives, chasing phantom vulnerabilities that don't actually affect their systems. The culprit? Fundamental flaws in how the security industry catalogs and correlates vulnerability data.

The Real Tragedy (Potentially) Caused by the CrowdStrike Outage 2024

The CrowdStrike outage that crashed 8 million Windows devices wasn't caused by a security patch—but the real danger lies in how this incident might discourage IT teams from deploying critical security updates, potentially creating more vulnerabilities than the original outage itself.

How to Build Strong Relationships in a Digital Age

Aut omnis repudiandae et. Minima et deleniti et. Ut aut voluptatibus corporis aliquam in praesentium a officiis aut.