Fix What Is Broken Before It Breaks You

Many well known breaches have been traced back to unpatched vulnerabilities, misconfigured systems, or overlooked security findings. In many cases, the affected organisations were aware of the issues well before the incident but failed to act in time. This demonstrates that knowing about a risk is not enough. It must be followed by effective ownership, prioritisation, and remediation.A disciplined vulnerability management program must be in place to identify weaknesses across the entire technology stack. This includes infrastructure, applications, cloud environments, and third party components. Identified issues should be risk rated based on business impact, likelihood of exploitation, and exposure. Regular scans, threat intelligence feeds, and configuration reviews help ensure that vulnerabilities are identified before they are targeted.Ownership and accountability are key. Every vulnerability should have a clearly assigned owner, a timeline for remediation, and a mechanism for escalation if targets are not met. Integrating vulnerability status into governance and reporting ensures visibility for both security and business leaders.

Patch management should follow a structured process that accounts for asset criticality, business timing, and change control. Emergency patching workflows must also be defined, allowing for rapid response to zero day threats or active exploitation.Beyond patching, security teams must address systemic weaknesses. These include insecure defaults, lack of network segmentation, insufficient logging, or ineffective access controls. Controls must be tested, reviewed, and improved as part of a continuous cycle.Security findings from assessments, audits, and monitoring activities must not remain in static reports. They must drive real action. When properly managed, remediation becomes a continuous and embedded part of the organisation’s risk reduction strategy, not a reactive exercise after something has gone wrong.