Webinar Description
Key Takeaways
- Addresses the growing challenge of managing software vulnerabilities at scale, with organisations now facing an average of 131 new CVEs daily
- Explores how AI-driven cyberattacks are changing the threat landscape and why traditional patching approaches are becoming unsustainable
- Focuses on risk-based patch management strategies that prioritise vulnerabilities according to actual business impact
- Examines the role of automation in vulnerability management and endpoint security operations
- Designed for IT security professionals, endpoint security managers, CISOs and operations teams in enterprise environments
Introduction
IT Insider: Surviving the Patch Apocalypse is a webinar presented by Ivanti that examines how organisations can maintain effective vulnerability management programmes amid an unprecedented surge in software vulnerabilities and increasingly sophisticated AI-assisted attacks. The session targets IT security professionals and decision-makers who are grappling with the operational reality that manual approaches to vulnerability triage and patching have become impractical at current volumes.
The timing of this discussion reflects a broader industry reckoning. Security teams have long understood that patching represents one of the most fundamental controls in any defensive strategy, yet the sheer scale of modern vulnerability disclosure has outpaced the capacity of most organisations to respond effectively. When combined with threat actors who are now leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate exploit development and attack execution, the gap between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation has narrowed considerably.
About This Event
Structured as a concise 22-minute virtual session, the webinar is led by senior product and security leaders from Ivanti. The format prioritises actionable guidance over extended theoretical discussion, recognising that security practitioners typically have limited time for professional development activities. The session aims to deliver practical strategies that attendees can evaluate against their existing vulnerability management workflows.
The webinar falls within the vulnerability management and endpoint security domain, with particular emphasis on how automation and artificial intelligence can be applied to patch management operations. Rather than treating patching as a purely technical exercise, the session frames it as a governance and risk management challenge that requires clear ownership structures and strategic prioritisation frameworks.
The Scale of Modern Vulnerability Management
The central premise of the webinar rests on a statistical reality that has fundamentally altered how security teams must approach their work. With approximately 131 new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures published daily, organisations face a continuous stream of potential security gaps that require assessment, prioritisation and remediation. This volume has grown substantially over recent years as software ecosystems have expanded and security research has intensified.
For most organisations, attempting to patch every vulnerability as it emerges is neither practical nor necessary. Many disclosed vulnerabilities affect software that is not present in a given environment, while others may exist in systems that are sufficiently isolated or protected by compensating controls. The challenge lies in rapidly distinguishing between vulnerabilities that pose genuine risk to the organisation and those that can be safely deprioritised or addressed through scheduled maintenance cycles.
This triage process has traditionally relied heavily on human judgement, with security analysts reviewing vulnerability details, assessing environmental factors and making prioritisation decisions. At current volumes, this approach creates bottlenecks that can leave critical vulnerabilities unaddressed while teams work through lower-priority items.
AI-Driven Threats and Defensive Responses
The webinar addresses a parallel development that compounds the patching challenge: the emergence of AI-assisted cyberattacks. Threat actors are increasingly incorporating artificial intelligence into their operations, using it to identify vulnerable targets, craft more convincing social engineering campaigns and accelerate the development of working exploits for newly disclosed vulnerabilities.
This shift has significant implications for defensive timelines. When exploit development was a largely manual process, organisations often had days or weeks between vulnerability disclosure and the appearance of active exploitation in the wild. AI-assisted development can compress this window substantially, meaning that traditional patching cycles may no longer provide adequate protection for high-severity vulnerabilities.
The session explores how defenders can respond by incorporating similar technologies into their own operations. Automation and AI can accelerate vulnerability assessment, improve prioritisation accuracy and streamline the deployment of patches across complex enterprise environments. The goal is not to replace human decision-making entirely but to ensure that security teams can focus their expertise on the most consequential decisions rather than routine processing tasks.
Risk-Based Prioritisation Strategies
A core theme of the webinar is the transition from volume-based patching metrics to risk-posture-led strategies. Traditional approaches often measured success by the number of patches deployed or the percentage of systems updated within a given timeframe. While these metrics provide operational visibility, they do not necessarily correlate with actual risk reduction.
Risk-based prioritisation considers factors beyond the technical severity of a vulnerability. These include the business criticality of affected systems, the presence of compensating controls, the availability of working exploits, evidence of active exploitation in the wild and the potential impact of a successful attack on organisational operations. By weighting these factors appropriately, security teams can direct their limited resources toward the vulnerabilities that matter most.
This approach also addresses governance challenges that frequently complicate patch management programmes. When patching decisions are driven by clear risk criteria rather than arbitrary timelines, it becomes easier to establish accountability structures and communicate priorities across IT operations, security and business leadership.
Who Should Attend
The webinar is designed for professionals who bear direct responsibility for vulnerability management and endpoint security within their organisations. This includes IT security practitioners who manage day-to-day patching operations, endpoint security managers overseeing device fleets, and IT operations teams responsible for maintaining system availability during update cycles.
The session is also relevant for CISOs and security leaders who are evaluating their organisation’s patch management maturity or considering investments in automation capabilities. Decision-makers in enterprise and mid-market organisations facing large-scale vulnerability management challenges will find the strategic framing particularly applicable to their planning processes.
Attendees should expect a focused discussion that balances strategic perspective with operational practicality, delivered in a format that respects the time constraints facing working security professionals.