Security debt, defined by Dave Lewis, Global Advisory CISO, Duo Security at Cisco, as “the accumulation of the patches missed, the risks accepted, and the configurations misapplied,” is a serious and common problem for many organizations, especially with the move to cloud com putting and rise of IoT. Part of the problem is that, while organizations might accept the risks they encounter, they often neglect to review them or make a plan for the future, and that risk is compounded when patches are passed from person-to-person through staff changes and/or employee churn. However, it doesn’t have to be this way - to track and address security debt, organizations must develop and implement defined, repeatable processes. They should look to strategies like the zero-trust model, trust but verify, sanitation of inputs and outputs, and of course, make sure to execute patches instead of pushing it onto the next person.

Key Points Security debt occurs when patches are pushed aside and risks are accepted but not addressed. The longer organizations wait to address risks, the harder it is to address them. To eliminate debt, organizations should create defined and repeatable processes with plans for action.