Beyond Installation: How Faronics Deploy Can Power Ongoing Software Hygiene

In many organizations, “we installed the image” still passes for a security strategy. The OS went on, core apps were pushed and everyone moved on. Meanwhile, unpatched vulnerabilities, outdated third-party tools and drifting configurations quietly build up across thousands of endpoints.

Software hygiene is the opposite of that mindset: keeping operating systems, applications and configurations continuously current and consistent. Over the last two years, governments and financial institutions have learned the hard way what happens when hygiene slips — services fail, customers lose trust and regulators take notice.

Government: Hygiene as Public Service Infrastructure

Public-sector CISOs know the attack surface is growing faster than their budgets.

The 2024 Deloitte-NASCIO Cybersecurity Study notes that the scope of US state CISOs’ work keeps expanding, while leaders still need to “understand and support the funding of cybersecurity” to match those responsibilities. In Western Australia’s 2023–24 information systems audits, local governments learned about 360 IT weaknesses, and around 70% of findings related to information security basics like access control and patching.

When those basics slip, citizens feel it.

Public Sector Network highlights nearly 2,800 reported data breaches in Australia over three years and finds that 63% of Australians reconsider which organizations they trust with their data after high-profile attacks. Citizens want digital services, but they notice when portals are down, kiosks don’t work or their information ends up in breach notifications.

Ransomware weaponizes that fragility. Comparitech’s 2025 analysis of global government ransomware incidents shows 1,133 attacks on government entities from 2018 to 2024, with each attack causing 27.8 days of average downtime and daily costs around $83,600 — roughly $2.2 billion in downtime alone over the period (all figures in USD). Cloudflare reports 117 ransomware attacks on government agencies in 2024, up from 95 in 2023 (a 23% increase).

For government IT teams already stretched thin, software hygiene can’t mean “we’ll get around to it when we have time.” They need:

• Standardized OS images that staff can rebuild quickly when a device is compromised.
• Central visibility into which endpoints are missing which patches.
• The ability to group machines by department, location or hardware and apply policies consistently.
• Remote access that respects citizen privacy and staff consent but still lets a two-person team support hundreds of devices.

That’s the operational reality Faronics Deploy is built for.

Finance: Hygiene as a Trust and Compliance Engine

Software hygiene is just as important in finance, but the cost becomes apparent more quickly than in government, be it through lost business, breaches or eroded trust.

Recent banking research shows that 62% of customers lose confidence in their bank after a breach, indirectly affecting future business and brand reputation. 

The survey even confirms that 81% of customers say they trust their primary bank to keep data secure, but that trust drops sharply for other institutions and can vanish after a serious incident. So it’s clear that clients don’t build trust rationally, solely based on reliable service, but on subjective impressions, and unfortunately, weaknesses weigh heavier than “It just works.”

It’s also no secret that breaches in this sector are costly. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report shows an average global breach cost of USD 4.88 million, but financial-sector breaches average $6.08 million — 22% higher than the global figure and up about 3% from 2023. That’s before you factor in regulatory fines, customer churn and reputational drag.

Regulators have noticed.

• In the EU, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) entered into application on 17 January 2025, requiring banks, insurers, investment firms and other financial entities to strengthen ICT risk management, incident reporting, resilience testing and oversight of third-party providers.
• Local regulators are also catching up. In New York, the NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation (23 NYCRR Part 500) was amended in November 2023. The “Second Amendment” raises expectations around asset inventory, vulnerability management, patching and remote access, with new requirements phasing in through 2025.

These are just two examples of frameworks assuming that basic software hygiene is continuous and auditable: You know what you have, what version it’s on, how quickly you patch and how you control remote access.

In practice, that means:

• No more “mystery” Windows builds on branch PCs.
• Clear evidence that critical and high-severity patches are deployed within defined timeframes.
• Visibility into third-party app versions (browsers, PDF tools, trading clients) that attackers routinely target.
• The ability to export reports showing patch and application status to satisfy auditors.

Again, this is the gap between one-off installation and day-365 reality — the gap Faronics Deploy can close.

How Faronics Deploy Turns Hygiene Into a Repeatable Routine

Faronics Deploy is a cloud-based platform that gives IT teams the levers to keep endpoints in a healthy state over time.

Application Hygiene

• Library of pre-packaged apps with one-click install/uninstall/update.
• Automatic detection of installed versions and filters for outdated apps.
• Custom apps and app presets for internal/specialized software bundles.

Patch Hygiene

• Central grid showing pending and failed Windows updates per machine.
• Approve or deny individual patches and search by KB or update name.
• Policy-driven modes (automatic, scheduled, adhoc) plus maintenance windows and user deferrals.
• Patch status reports that you can filter and export for audits.

Baseline Hygiene

• OS imaging server to capture “golden” Windows images.
• Step-by-step wizard to add images and drivers, define install settings and create deployment packages.
• Fast reimaging of compromised or non-compliant machines back to a known-good state.

Inventory-Driven Control

• Hardware and OS inventory with flexible filters (model, manufacturer, OS, etc.).
• Bulk selection and regrouping of devices (e.g., by site, department or device class).
• Different policies for high-risk segments (branches, clinics, legacy devices).

Move From “Install” to “Maintain”

If you’re already investing in security tools but still wrestling with out-of-date images, inconsistent patching and limited visibility, you don’t have a technology problem — you have a software hygiene problem.

Faronics Deploy solves exactly that problem, providing one place to standardize images, automate app and patch management and prove to auditors, regulators and board members that your endpoints are under control.

If you’d like to see how this could look in your own environment — across agencies, branches or clinical sites — reach out to the Faronics expert team. They can walk you through real-world workflows for your industry, share deployment best practices and help you design a hygiene routine that actually fits your staffing and budget.