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cybersecurity • 3 min read

Practical Patching Policy for Busy SMBs

Ship security updates without breaking workflows. A 30‑minute policy you can actually follow.

OBIT
Orange Blossom IT Team
Orange Blossom IT
#patching #policy #security
Laptop with update progress screen

Policy Snapshot

  • Severity mapping: critical (24h), high (3d), medium (7d), low (30d)
  • Ringed rollout: IT → Pilot → Production
  • Maintenance windows: Tue/Thu 7–9pm local

Tooling

  • Linux: unattended-upgrades + Ansible inventory
  • Windows/macOS: vendor MDM with staged groups
  • Apps: Renovate/Dependabot for server-side libs

Preflight

  1. Snapshot/backup
  2. Changelog skim; check known issues
  3. Apply to ring-1; smoke tests; promote if green

Rollback

Keep the last 2 snapshots; document the trigger threshold (e.g., >5% user impact). Measure twice, patch once.

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