The importance of Drupal updates
Pete Graylish

Last week's cyber-attack on the NHS has once again thrown into the spotlight the importance of keeping all technological systems and services up-to-date.

The wide-spread attack, which hit over 150 countries in total, impacted heavily on NHS software and systems on Friday and over the weekend. The ransomware used in the attack appears to have exploited vulnerabilities in older versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, such as Windows XP. Simply updating to newer versions of the operating system and keeping updated with security updates could have prevented such an attack, experts have said.

Events such as Friday's cyber-attack reinforce the need to keep all software and systems updated as much as possible to reduce the risk of security being compromised. This applies just as much to Drupal website installations, which have updates issued for them on a regular basis.

Drupal has an excellent security record on the whole, with only two major security concerns in recent years - both of which were resolved by the quick release and application of security patches before the vulnerabilities were fully exposed and exploited.

Here at Adaptive, we're keen to ensure every Drupal site in our care is as secure and stable as it can be. To that end, we have always applied critical Drupal security patches to every one of our clients' Drupal sites, free of charge, as soon as they are issued.

However, in addition to the critical security patches, further updates are also regularly released for both the main core Drupal codebase and also various contributed modules. All Drupal websites would benefit from applying these updates on a regular basis. Some of these updates deliver additional security improvements to Drupal whilst others further enhance functionality or performance of the site.

For many of our clients, we have a regular programme of applying Drupal updates to each of their sites. Each update is carefully planned, applied and tested to ensure there are no unexpected knock-on effects as they are applied. The time/cost of applying the updates is taken out of the clients' monthly Drupal Support hours so the client can rest easy knowing that the updates are being taken care of without them needing to be concerned about them.

If you have a Drupal site which isn't currently undergoing regular updating, speak to our team today about how we can help. In the first instance, we'll investigate what work needs to be done to bring your site fully back up-to-date and then create an ongoing programme for it to ensure all new releases of Drupal core code or contributed modules are applied as they are released.

Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you with your Drupal updates.

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