We need better support for 3rd party patches (non-Microsoft)
The Microsoft patching and associated bulletin information is pretty good but the same cannot be said for 3rd party application patches for Adobe and Mozilla. None of the bulletin ID links point to the URL on the vendor's site that describes the patch details. Clicking a bulletin link for Flash, for example, takes you to the Microsoft KB and an "article not found" page. Moreover, the names of the Adobe patches don't seem to jive with the latest vulnerability notes.
Take the 08/19/2010 release by Adobe of security patches and vulnerability information for Reader and Acrobat. The US-CERT provides overview information on the nature of the vulnerability and the vendor patch. The link today points to http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb10-17.html
We need these accurate links in Desktop Central so that we understand what each patch addresses. In the case above, this is another critical security vulnerability in Adobe software that we need to patch against and without supporting information in the DC console we have little intelligence about the patches that are available to be deployed.
We also need Manage Engine to flag non-Microsoft patches with a Severity Rating. This helps us prioritize patches too.
Take the 08/19/2010 release by Adobe of security patches and vulnerability information for Reader and Acrobat. The US-CERT provides overview information on the nature of the vulnerability and the vendor patch. The link today points to http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb10-17.html
We need these accurate links in Desktop Central so that we understand what each patch addresses. In the case above, this is another critical security vulnerability in Adobe software that we need to patch against and without supporting information in the DC console we have little intelligence about the patches that are available to be deployed.
We also need Manage Engine to flag non-Microsoft patches with a Severity Rating. This helps us prioritize patches too.