Patchman Protects More CMS Websites Than Routine Upgrades—Here’s How

In today’s fast-moving digital world, cybersecurity is top of mind for small to medium-sized business (SMBs) and hosting service providers (HSPs) everywhere. And if it’s not, it should be.

The consequences of malware threats and unpatched website vulnerabilities can be monumental—affecting your website performance and putting both your business and user data at risk. It’s no wonder that long-established industry giants and innovative up-and-comers alike are touting malware protection products.

SiteLock’s Patchman is only one product amid a sea of solutions, but what sets it apart—and does it really work?

Putting Patchman to the test

SiteLock conducted two studies to ensure it can do more than the regular, routine Content Management System (CMS) website updates failing SMBs and HSPs like yours—and measured the positive outcomes. We applied Patchman to two CMS vulnerabilities for 14 days each, one on WordPress (the leading CMS with a 62% market share) and one on Joomla (the distant runner-up with a 4.9% market share). These were the results:

1. WordPress

On June 10, 2020, version 5.4.2 of WordPress was released to the public. SiteLock discovered a vulnerability, and put Patchman on the job. After seven days of patching the new vulnerability, Patchman had 10% more protected applications than standard WordPress updates did.

Within three weeks, more than 20% of WordPress websites that relied on standard updates were still on vulnerable versions, maintaining known security holes due to outdated versions still being used. However, more than 95% of the vulnerable population of WordPress applications and websites were patched by Patchman.

2. Joomla

On November 24, 2020, Joomla 3.9.23 was released to the public. SiteLock discovered a vulnerability and started patching with Patchman. In just one day, Patchman had four times the coverage of regular, routine Joomla updates.

Within three weeks, 80% of Joomla websites that relied on standard updates were still on vulnerable versions, maintaining known security holes due to outdated versions still being used—but more than 90% of the vulnerable population of Joomla applications and websites had been patched by Patchman.

The benefits of Patchman are clear. But why is it so much more successful?

The Patchman difference: Proactive vs. reactive vulnerability solutions

Patchman is a malware protection solution designed to proactively patch CMS vulnerabilities like the ones outlined above, which are a major source of cybersecurity threats in today’s internet landscape.

More than half of all websites on the internet use a CMS, and by 2026, the global CMS market is forecasted to generate $123.5 billion in revenue. CMSs are powerful engines for enabling everyday users to build, manage, and modify websites without coding experience or specialized tech knowledge. But their open-source accessibility can easily backfire.

Whether your CMS is cloud-based or on-premise, the same user-friendly features that make CMS website development seamless can put your site at risk.

Downloadable website themes and plugins require ongoing updates and management to remain secure. And all too often, website owners—even those with a large digital presence and thousands of end-users—don’t perform the proper maintenance, or find that regular routine updates simply aren’t enough to keep them secure.

As a proactive vulnerability solution, Patchman patches CMS vulnerabilities before they have the chance to put your site at risk. The product automatically removes malicious scripts from your system the instant they’re detected, instead of leaving them idle until your next routine update—and forcing you to rely on pricey reactive solutions.

Breaking down the business impacts of CMS vulnerabilities

For a SMB, open vulnerabilities mean increased website downtime, host suspensions, and the financial implications of site cleaning and recovery. The business sinks revenue, loses customers, and puts its user trust and brand reputation on the line.

For a HSP, CMS vulnerabilities drain admins’ operational time, increase their support call volume, and redirect their workflows to retroactively cleaning and recovering websites. Customer satisfaction plummets, and churn soars.

At the end of the day, a proactive solution like Patchman is your best bet for protecting every website on your server. If you’re interested in implementing Patchman at your HSP, visit Patchman.co for a free trial, or email [email protected] for more information.