Patent ID: 9069969
Filing Date: 2015-06-30
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A computer hardware-implemented method of managing software patches, the computer hardware-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a computer monitoring hardware system, a notification of a new release of a software patch; scoring, by the computer monitoring hardware system, a security posture of a monitored computer system, wherein said scoring generates a security posture value based on a set of computer system parameters for the monitored computer system, wherein the set of computer system parameters is described by a set of binary data, wherein the set of computer system parameters comprises a past history of attacks on the monitored computer system, and wherein said scoring is performed by the computer monitoring hardware system utilizing the set of binary data as inputs to a patch control logic within the computer monitoring hardware system; determining, by the patch control logic within the computer monitoring hardware system, whether the monitored computer system is authorized to install the software patch; determining, by the patch control logic within the computer monitoring hardware system, whether the security posture value exceeds a predetermined value; in response to the patch control logic within the computer monitoring hardware system determining that the monitored computer system is authorized to install the software patch, and in response to the patch control logic within the computer monitoring hardware system determining that the security posture value exceeds the predetermined value, retrieving and installing the software patch into the monitored computer system; determining, by the computer monitoring hardware system, a level of integrity and trustworthiness of data stored on a first computer system and a second computer system, wherein trusted data is deemed to have a high level of integrity and trustworthiness is determined to be accurate by a data audit, wherein accurate data correctly represent facts as ascertained by the data audit, and wherein untrusted data is deemed to have a low level of integrity and trustworthiness if coming from data that have not been formally audited; and scheduling, by the computer monitoring hardware system, installation of the software patch in a computer system that holds the trusted data before installing the software patch in a computer system that holds the untrusted data.