- Vulnerability management is a critical component of cybersecurity that safeguards an organisation’s digital assets.
- As the cyberthreats landscape continues to evolve, so too must our approaches to vulnerability management.
Vulnerability management is a strategic process for uncovering and addressing security weaknesses. It’s vital for businesses to preemptively resolve issues, thereby averting severe cybersecurity threats. This proactive approach safeguards company reputation and financial health by thwarting data breaches. Moreover, it ensures adherence to security standards and regulations, while providing insights into an organisation’s security stance, guiding necessary enhancements.
Understanding vulnerability management
Vulnerability management is a continuous, proactive, and often automated process that keeps your computer systems, networks, and enterprise applications safe from cyberattacks and data breaches. As such, it is an important part of an overall security program. By identifying, assessing, and addressing potential security weaknesses, organisations can help prevent attacks and minimise damage if one does occur.
The goal of vulnerability management is to reduce the organisation’s overall risk exposure by mitigating as many vulnerabilities as possible. This can be a challenging task, given the number of potential vulnerabilities and the limited resources available for remediation. Vulnerability management should be a continuous process to keep up with new and emerging threats and changing environments.
Also read: The backbone of digital infrastructure: Server management
Also read: Understanding vulnerability scanning: Key processes and types
How vulnerability management works
Asset discovery and inventory: IT is responsible for tracking and maintaining records of all devices, software, servers, and more across the company’s digital environment, but this can be extremely complex since many organisations have thousands of assets across multiple locations. That’s why IT professionals turn to asset inventory management systems, which help provide visibility into what assets a company has, where they’re located, and how they’re being used.
Vulnerability scanners: Vulnerability scanners usually work by conducting a series of tests against systems and networks, looking for common weaknesses or flaws. These tests can include attempting to exploit known vulnerabilities, guessing default passwords or user accounts, or simply trying to gain access to restricted areas.
Configuration management: Security configuration management (SCM) software helps to ensure that devices are configured in a secure manner, that changes to device security settings are tracked and approved, and that systems are compliant with security policies. Many SCM tools include features that allow organisations to scan devices and networks for vulnerabilities, track remediation actions, and generate reports on security policy compliance.
Security incident and event management: Security incident and event management (SIEM) software consolidates an organisation’s security information and events in real time. SIEM solutions are designed to give organisations visibility into everything that’s happening across their entire digital estate, including IT infrastructure. This includes monitoring network traffic, identifying devices that are trying to connect to internal systems, keeping track of user activity, and more.
Remediation vulnerabilities: Remediation involves prioritising vulnerabilities, identifying appropriate next steps, and generating remediation tickets so that IT teams can execute on them. Finally, remediation tracking is an important tool for ensuring that the vulnerability or misconfiguration is properly addressed.
Vulnerability management benefits
Improved security and control: By regularly scanning for vulnerabilities and patching them in a timely manner, organisations can make it significantly harder for attackers to gain access to their systems. Additionally, robust vulnerability management practices can help organisations identify potential weaknesses in their security posture before attackers do.
Visibility and reporting: Vulnerability management provides centralised, accurate, and up-to-date reporting on the status of an organisation’s security posture, giving IT personnel at all levels real-time visibility into potential threats and vulnerabilities.
Operational efficiencies: By understanding and mitigating security risks, businesses can minimise system downtime and protect their data. Improving the overall vulnerability management process also decreases the amount of time required to recover from any incidents that do occur.
