According to studies, approximately 60% of firms that experience a data breach blame it on a known unpatched vulnerability. Conducting periodic security scans and vulnerability assessments as part of a complete vulnerability management program is one of the best ways to detect weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Today’s Threat Landscape | This article explains what a vulnerability assessment is and the importance of thoroughly investigating the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in your business.

What is a vulnerability analysis in Today’s Threat Landscape?

A vulnerability assessment at the highest level assesses the environment’s cleanliness level. This comprehensive review is used to uncover present and future risks in software throughout your organization’s systems and networks.

A vulnerability assessment is intended to find unpatched and exploitable vulnerabilities, allowing the company to correct these flaws before a bad actor finds them.

Why do I need a vulnerability analysis? 

Any organization that uses computers and the internet today – and who doesn’t? – can benefit from this type of analysis because a vulnerability assessment is intended to identify and help to correct software flaws that an attacker can exploit; however, large enterprises and those subject to ongoing attacks, such as retail, will benefit the most.

Although not every discovered vulnerability will be exploited, discovering and prioritizing repair might be difficult. For example, the average online application has more than 1,000 dependent applications, all of which potentially have vulnerabilities that can compromise an organization’s web security. The average web program contains 22 vulnerabilities due to these 1,000 dependencies. Keep in mind that online apps only make up a small portion of an organization’s exploitable attack surface.

What should be included in a vulnerability assessment? 

A vulnerability evaluation begins with a vulnerability scanner test. Vulnerability scanners are designed to be user-friendly, allowing anyone on the organization’s IT or security staff to do this degree of examination on their own.

This type of software has a vast library of known vulnerabilities and tests a target system systematically to discover if any weaknesses exist. The software generates a report at the end of the scan that details the vulnerabilities discovered, their severity, and, optionally, the actions required to remediate them.

The next phase is where an assessment adds value: a professional examination of both the vulnerability scanner’s results and the target system’s design and execution. This stage, which should be performed by a cyber security specialist, provides a more customized and in-depth picture of the cyber security threats caused by vulnerabilities in an organization’s network.

In this phase, the expert reviews the scan report while keeping current active threats and the network environment in mind to give focused suggestions on which vulnerabilities to address first. This prioritized plan is based on elements such as the severity of the vulnerabilities as well as preexisting environmental conditions.

For example, compensating controls in a network segmentation context may lower vulnerability risk. For example, suppose a vulnerability is rated as a 10, the highest danger level conceivable, but the device containing the vulnerability is only accessible via a single port. This reduces the actual risk of exploitation significantly.

A vulnerability assessment cannot be performed in isolation; the results must be relevant to the organization in order to be actionable.

Today’s Threat Landscape Patching systems 

The majority of vulnerabilities can be mitigated by updating and patching software.

Patches are often issued after an exploitable vulnerability in software or firmware has been found by the community or disclosed by the originating vendor. However, the sheer number of vulnerabilities might make keeping up challenging. Over 22,000 new vulnerabilities were discovered and publicly reported in 2019 alone.

Furthermore, updating unpatched software may not be as simple a solution as it sounds for many firms. For example, smaller businesses may postpone updating due to a lack of technical staff or changes that cause performance issues or impact stability and operability.

Even large, well-funded enterprises with specialized IT employees struggle with patching (most notably web browser plug-ins) when dealing with old systems or third-party apps.

Any company can reduce the likelihood of a data breach or regulatory non-compliance due to unpatched software by implementing a solid strategy that supports a timely and sustainable patch management approach across an environment.

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Choosing a vulnerability assessment vendor | Today’s Threat Landscape

A vulnerability assessment should go beyond simply running a tool and generating a report with basic information. When choosing an assessment provider, seek one who offers you the benefit of their test development, execution, and interpretation knowledge.

Rhyno provides a variety of vulnerability assessment services, such as:

• Web application, mobile device, and wireless network evaluations
• Physical security flaws must be identified.
• Audits of firewalls, network architecture, and strategic security
• These services can also be integrated with penetration testing to evaluate a company’s digital security thoroughly.

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