A survey of 600 IT professionals across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK revealed that almost half (45%) believe that their IT infrastructure is never totally protected from s

The McAfee, Inc study, conducted by Ipsos Research, found that:

- 27% of those questioned say it takes 48 hours or more from the time a patch is issued to the IT infrastructure being fully protected from the vulnerability.

- 36% of European businesses have no idea how many patches they applied to their business in a six month period

- 58% of IT professionals questioned have no idea how much the deployment of patches is costing their business

- one in five IT professionals spends an hour or more a day researching vulnerabilities and patches

- 45% of those asked do not prioritise which business areas to patch first.

McAfee says that patch management can affect compliance with government regulations including Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPPA and MiFID. Across Europe, the research reveals that most organisations have put the necessary steps in place, with 82% of those questioned having confidence in the compliance of their patch management policy.