Vulnerability Management is commonly referred to as the process of identifying, classifying, mitigating, and remediating vulnerabilities. It also involves reporting, prioritization, and reaction to network vulnerabilities.
Hackers exploit software vulnerabilities for many of the most devastating cyberattacks. According to a cybercrime report by Purplesec, small businesses are the target of 43% of all cyber assaults, yet just 14% of those firms are equipped to defend themselves. Vulnerabilities may appear as a weakness in the hardware or the software running on the hardware. However, new vulnerabilities are discovered every day when we least expect them, and it is estimated that in 2023, data breaches will continue to increase.
Businesses and organizations need to continuously acquire and take action on new information in order to identify vulnerabilities and minimize the window of opportunity for attackers. Therefore, the vulnerability management program must be integrated into the system to decrease the risk of a successful cyberattack. This article offers insight into effective ways of starting vulnerability management.
What Is a Vulnerability Management Program?
A vulnerability management program is a process developed to identify, analyze, and remediate the vulnerabilities in applications or IT infrastructure to reduce overall risk to an organization.
Many companies around the world are gradually incorporating vulnerability management programs into their work plan and making it an endless work system. This is because the vulnerability management program allows companies to improve the all-around situations of security of their organization by identifying the key assets and where to prioritize measures to lessen risk.
Ways to Start a Vulnerability Management Program
Whether a business outsources vulnerability management to a competent MSP or builds its own program, the team responsible for general management needs to cooperate with the patch management team to develop a safe patching strategy. The following are the ways to start an effective vulnerability management program:
Vulnerability Identification: A thriving vulnerability management program starts with vulnerability identification. It involves listing all assets across the web and identifying the host components including the operating system and open services to identify vulnerabilities. This network baseline is aimed at identifying security vulnerabilities on a daily computerized plan. Having a broad range of vulnerabilities through discovery or identification can be accomplished by scanning the network.
Prioritize Vulnerability Analysis: Due to the diversity in operations of different organizations, vulnerabilities that pose a risk to one organization may not necessarily pose the same risk level to another. Also, instead of trying to patch all newly reported vulnerabilities, which can be difficult to do and take a lot of resources at one time, an organization should consider prioritizing the vulnerabilities that have the most influence on its operation.
Vulnerability Planning Response: To start an effective vulnerability management program, means including a vulnerability planning response that must adequately detect a baseline risk factor so you can eliminate risks based on the severity class of vulnerability asset and vulnerability threat. This is a productive way to start vulnerability management because it does not just help to prioritize factors that pose a risk but provides metrics over time for more significant insights.
Vulnerability Management Reporting: An important piece of any vulnerability assessment process is reporting. It measures the grade of risk associated with your business or assets according to your security policies and supports data privacy compliance. Document a security plan to monitor vulnerabilities. This final step of vulnerability reporting is important as it also helps to motivate the crew by providing actionable trend reports of all known vulnerabilities on any of the assets in your network. Reporting should also include measures taken to remediate threats.
What Do You Stand to Gain from a Vulnerability Management Program?
Many known vulnerabilities have been observed globally and new vulnerabilities are discovered every day. However, not all identified vulnerabilities are the same, which is why it’s crucial to manage them.
With an effective vulnerability management program, your organization can prioritize remediation, put in security patches effectively, and assign security aids successfully.
A vulnerability management process can be helpful in getting valid reports to help your organization escape substantial penalties for some non-compliance issues and enables you to carry out the necessary due diligence during security audits.
How Does Connect2Geek Assist with Vulnerability Management?
Establishing a vulnerability management program in your work environment will give your company the best protection against ongoing cyber threats.
Our cybersecurity professionals can help you with the steps necessary for an effective vulnerability management lifecycle.
Contact us today to learn more.