Business threats are common these days. Therefore, companies are investing heavily in data security solutions to safeguard business assets.
Vulnerability assessment scans are conducted to identify, prioritize and organize the vulnerabilities in the network infrastructure, applications, and computer systems.
By conducting a vulnerability assessment, the business organization can comprehend if there are any threats to the system and it enables the organization to react to such threats appropriately.
Get to know the difference between a penetration test and vulnerability assessment
The penetration tests are conducted once a year and the results display the weaknesses in the infrastructure system. An important aspect of penetration tests is vulnerability scanning. But, vulnerability assessment is beyond one scan, it can be rightly called a continuous process that provides the company knowledge about vulnerability and the dangers that are associated with it.
If you have a database that is always up to date with all the assets and their vulnerabilities, there is no need to perform the ad hoc vulnerability scanning even if you are pressurized to do it. The Nessus Live Results and the real-time vulnerability monitoring enables you to stay updated conveyed through your infrastructure.
Define the scope of assessment from a business perspective
The security engineers have to deal with technical matters and they also have a responsibility to keep an eye on the assets of the company from a business perspective. Their job involves knowing the answers to these questions like, where does the company get its revenue from? Where will the company store the personal identification of the customer? Which web apps are available for the public? These are a few aspects that need to be considered.
Apart from the above-mentioned questions, one also has to consider the desktops and laptops, connected devices like the projectors, TV screens, etc that could enable an attacker to break through your network. There must be sensors in various parts of the network that cover the whole surface that is prone to danger. The data are being sent to the central instance where it is being traced and segregated as per their priority.
Master the Asset Management
A list of IP addresses is provided by the assessment. By adding the context, it
would be a better option to transform the anonymous IP addresses into assets. These guidelines can be followed like adding information about geographical location, stakeholders, system owners, etc. Allocate the IP addresses into various groups like web servers, workstations, windows or Linux machines, business-critical systems, hosts in DMZ, etc. Another factor to be considered is business criticality. The information that is gathered previously can be organized to prioritize the management of assets.
Use the credentialed and non – credentialed scans
Credentialed and non-credentialed scans are the two types of plans. In the first strategy, the vulnerability scanner can get an inside picture by scanning the system. With a non-credential scan, the external view can be captured.
With regards to accuracy, the credential scan is more accurate. If the scanner has access to the system internally, then he can easily know what kind of software has been installed, the ports that are opened, which processes are running, etc.
But for a scanner who has access externally will have limited information available to him. If many services are running and many ports are open, then the information that he gets may be accurate. Otherwise, the scanner will only have to guess about the type of the system and the asset classification.
Build a Smart scanning strategy
The scans cannot accomplish two tasks simultaneously. It cannot be fast and comprehensive, it can either do its job fast, where the outcome would be collecting lesser data or an in-depth scan can be done where the system takes a good amount of time. But an in-depth scan will furnish all the information aptly. The daily discovery scans will display information about the devices that are currently running. Using the discovery scan, the full vulnerability scan can be accomplished on all the systems resulting in accurate system information, saving the scan time, and providing complete precise outcomes. If there are too lengthy scans, you can add more scanners to balance the scans. While you do so, you will be able to achieve better results and complete the vulnerability assessment successfully.
Final Thoughts
As we have seen, vulnerability assessment is the method where the vulnerabilities in the network are identified both in the system and hardware and taking the correct measures to rectify them. The IT and security teams gather the information through vulnerability testing to improve the functionality of the system, to increase awareness in the organization about the dangers like cyber risks, and to prioritize the flaws or risks that call for immediate attention.
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