The purpose of vulnerability assessments is to provide organizations with details on security flaws that cybercriminals can exploit. A comprehensive evaluation and a vulnerability management program can help reduce the likelihood of attacks against an organization.
The first step is to conduct a vulnerability assessment using automated tools. This allows for a thorough scan that uncovers a range of vulnerabilities, including misconfigurations and other weaknesses in software.
Asset Discovery
The adage goes, “You can’t protect what you don’t know about.” Practical vulnerability assessments start with a clear picture of your organization’s digital landscape. This step involves identifying all internet-facing assets on your network and cloud-based infrastructure. You can deploy discovery tools that scan IP addresses, hostnames, and URLs for software, hardware, and other assets. These can detect operating systems, applications, technologies, and open ports. However, it’s essential to learn about the types of vulnerability assessments and how they work.
This information is then compiled into an asset inventory your team can use for further analysis. An effective tool will also identify and prioritize your most vulnerable assets based on their impact on your business operations and security posture. Vulnerability assessment tools provide an objective method for prioritization – analyzing information such as the severity of a particular vulnerability and its exploitability to determine whether it poses a significant risk.
Vulnerability assessments are essential for all organizations, regardless of their size or the complexity of their networks. Cyberattacks can occur on any system, so it’s critical to regularly evaluate the weakest points of your IT environment and take steps to strengthen them. In addition, vulnerability assessments can help you meet compliance regulations like GDPR or HIPAA by providing a detailed record of your team’s measures to secure data and other assets.
Scanning
Organizations need to keep their systems current as threat actors look for vulnerabilities they can exploit. This requires vulnerability assessments and a robust and active vulnerability management program.
During this phase, teams run automated scanners to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities in their systems. They typically draw from vulnerability databases, vendor security advisories, and threat intelligence feeds to improve the accuracy and speed of scans. Many modern scanners can also generate reports for each scanning session to make this information easily digestible by security and business stakeholders.
Once results are available, teams review the list of vulnerabilities identified to determine which poses the most significant risk to the organization. This is often done by assigning a risk score to each exposure based on the rating and considering the impact on the organization’s business processes and customers. Once the team has determined which vulnerabilities require immediate attention, they may implement mitigation strategies to reduce risks until a fix can be implemented.
Since the threat landscape is changing day-to-day, if not minute-by-minute, it’s essential to conduct vulnerability assessments on an ongoing basis. This will help ensure that the vulnerabilities addressed in past reviews are resolved and that new ones don’t slip through the cracks. It’s critical to choose a vulnerability assessment tool that supports this ongoing effort and can integrate with other devices in the solutions stack (such as ITSM and DevOps). This can help streamline the process and enable the use of more accurate and timely data.
Analysis
As security professionals conduct vulnerability assessments, they need to analyze their findings. This step is critical to making the assessments a valuable part of the cybersecurity suite and making vulnerabilities measurable and actionable.
The analysis phase involves determining the impact of an attack on each facility and the overall risk an agency faces. The results of this process will help inform the organization about where to focus its efforts, such as ensuring that critical systems and assets are secure. The analysis also reveals if there are any flaws in security procedures or gaps that attackers can exploit to gain access to the design and data.
Different types of scans and analysis tools can be used during this step. For example, network-based scans can identify vulnerable systems on wired and wireless networks. Host-based scans can detect system vulnerabilities in servers and workstations and provide further visibility into the configuration settings of scanned hosts and their patch history. Wireless scans can detect malicious access points and ensure Wi-Fi networks are configured securely. Applications scans can test websites and mobile apps for known software vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
Once the information from the assessment is analyzed, IT teams can use it to prioritize vulnerabilities and chart a remediation course. The most severe vulnerabilities should be addressed first, followed by those with potential exploits that malicious actors can use to access the system.
Reporting
Regardless of size, all organizations face the risk of cyberattacks. To minimize the potential damage, IT teams must identify and fix vulnerability weaknesses before cybercriminals exploit them. Vulnerability assessments are a vital tool for this effort.
They discover security flaws attackers could use to access data or control systems and applications. These assessments also help security teams prioritize vulnerabilities based on severity so that the most severe problems are remedied first. The assessment process can be automated using vulnerability scanners, which provide results in a report that details the detected vulnerabilities and their severity.
A network-based assessment can detect vulnerabilities in wired and wireless networks, while host-based scanning tools can discover servers, workstations, and other hosts that may be vulnerable to attacks. The scan results can create a detailed threat landscape, including information about open ports and processes on each device.
A vulnerability assessment is a critical component of an ongoing vulnerability management program, and it provides valuable data to teams that can be used to develop strategies to resolve those issues. However, the landscape of vulnerabilities changes daily (if not minute), so it’s essential to continue assessing your organization’s systems to ensure that any new risks are discovered and addressed promptly. Vulnerability assessments can be combined with penetration testing, adding a more targeted and comprehensive approach to the vulnerability assessment process.
