What Are the Main Elements of a Vulnerability Management Process?

As security threats become more common and sophisticated, it is important that companies take preventive measures. Vulnerability management tools and strategies enable the business to evaluate and mitigate possible security vulnerabilities before they are utilised by threats.

The vulnerability management process enables your security team to understand various risks that the business is facing and deal with them in a methodological manner. It also creates a formal route for managing any new vulnerabilities. A solid process has several stages to assess and manage vulnerabilities until they are neutralised. These are the essential elements of the vulnerability management process.

Vulnerability Scanning and Assessments

Scanning is an automated process by which an organisation checks the system, network, or devices for any weaknesses or vulnerabilities. The process should be conducted inside and outside the organisation. Your website should not be left behind as it could be a source of vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting and SQL injection.

You should carry both credential and non-credential vulnerability scans. Authenticated or credential scans are deeper and more complex as they enable you to discover configuration issues and missing patches. On the other hand, non-credential scans present the hacker’s view of the systems to enable you to check on open ports, listening services and things like operating systems.

On the other hand, vulnerability assessments include checking other issues that may be contributing to the weaknesses in the systems, such as poor policies, standards and processes. It differs from scanning in that it considers the entire security ecosystem, including all supporting systems and the policy framework.

Vulnerability Management Process and Policy

Policy is vital for the creation of a robust security system. Your policy dictates everything from bringing new devices to the network to a data disaster mitigation process. You need a policy that provides a framework for a robust security system and keeps up with the needs of the company. When creating one, avoid policy templates but try to evaluate your needs, threats, and goals.

The process involves the steps that you take to deal with vulnerabilities. It should enable the security team to identify, evaluate, analyse and act on vulnerabilities on time. You should evaluate the process regularly to identify any grey areas that need to be addressed.

Risk Management

There should be a way to deal with the risks that become evident to the company. The process should also correlate vulnerabilities with the threats that may face the organisation. This enables the organisation to estimate the extent of the damage that may come with any of the threats identified.

The understanding and mitigation of risks is important in choosing security solutions. It also prevents widespread damage to the system, as the organisation has premeditated and simulated the attack before it actually happens.

Patch Management

Patches are fixes to the vulnerabilities that the organisation has identified through the management process. The fixes are not always straightforward. There is usually a process of identifying them, testing them, and applying them to your system. You need a dedicated team and a process to handle patch management to reduce the time it would take to fix the vulnerabilities.

Besides, the organisation should have a process of prioritising vulnerabilities and risks, applying security patches and preventing exploitation of vulnerabilities before the right patch is found and applied.

Managing Available Assets

Threats and risks happen to company assets. It is hard to scan, analyse and deal with vulnerabilities if you do not know where all the assets are and what they are doing. This way, you can determine the possible risks and threats that they may be facing. The asset management function enables you to keep track of every terminal and device that has access to the system and report any incidents involving them that may compromise your security.

The Vulnerability management process is a complex and integrated procedure of ensuring that there are no ‘holes’ in your networks and systems that might be exploited to gain unauthorised access. It has several components, all of which come together to help you identify and manage the vulnerabilities. While the above list identifies the most important areas, there may be several others that may need to be included in your process. Evaluate your business environment and provide a process that is watertight and reliable.