The modern-day business remains the epicenter for hacking attempts.
The majority of attacks happen on businesses since they have become more online and store a number of data within their system.
Any attack on such a business architect can bring cost-related issues and may even cost the goodwill to company.
That is why a thorough vulnerability assessment is needed.
Let us discuss some of the questions related to Vulnerability Assessment:
It can be defined as the process wherein the system is checked for any weaknesses related to security.
It evaluates the system and assigns security levels, and provides remedies for it to resolve.
It usually includes assistance from vulnerability tools like vulnerability scanners for identifying threats and any issues within an IT infrastructure.
Since vulnerability assessments are a repeated task, it is better to automate such tasks.
It Can be done with the help of automated tools that, with the use of their maintained database of vulnerabilities, keep identifying for any flaws in the system.
Below Discussed are some of the critical types of vulnerability assessment types:
• Network and Wireless Assessment
As the name suggests, this assessment is related to network security. Herein the assessment is done on the policies that are in process to block unauthorized access from any network.
• Host Assessment
This assessment assists users in detecting vulnerabilities in servers, network host, or workstations.
Such assessments assist users in protecting the hosts like servers from attacks if they are not properly tested.
• Database Assessment
This assessment assists users in finding any issues related to database security.
This assessment particularly looks for any rouge database and providing security to sensitive databases.
• Application Assessments
The majority of businesses nowadays simplify their tasks by using applications.
Since these applications are connected to the web and thus can be exploited by hackers.
Application assessment makes sure to scan them for any vulnerabilities by using automation techniques.
Also Read: List of 11 Patch Management Best Practices: You Should Follow
Some of the key best practices for vulnerability assessment are discussed as under:
Leaving any device outside canning parameters before allowing it to join your network ecosystem can prove fatal to it.
Users are advised to keep an inventory of all devices that are associated with the network and do frequent checks on them.
The scanning frequency between recent or current scan to that of new scan is very crucial.
This is the period that can catch the attention of attackers, as this will be the time your system is not scanning.
The decision of setting of the time interval for scanning, however completely lies on the user.
Prioritize the devices that need regular scanning as not every device would need regular scanning.
The majority of tools are available in the market that will assist users in scanning their network vulnerabilities.
But not every tool is good enough to pick for such an important task.
Many free tools available in the market are not even good in fetching the results as some of them may present false reports too.
Always check for the usability, result rate, placements like criteria before opting for any tool.
The majority of the data sources might be stored in a certain static location.
But certain devices are used outside the approved networks.
Such devices often contain sensitive data stored in them as they have been used for sharing data in and outside the network.
Users must find out such sources connected to the network for the transfer of data and should scan them too for any vulnerability.
Modern cloud applications vulnerability can be continuously checked by testing the images rather than looking for instances.
This in turn, assures continuous vulnerability assessment scanning and also doesn’t interfere with network resources.
Users should document current security standards and policies currently involved with security architecture.
Users have to understand the capabilities of such security standards set and hat type of vulnerabilities they can address.
Users might need the help of IT and security teams to completely understand such standards and their strength against certain types of vulnerabilities.
Every scan done needs to be approved by management and should be audited to provide detailed scan reports.
With documented scan reports the security team can evaluate and track the vulnerability trends that can assist in nearby future.
Reports should be easy to understand by even non-technical or high-level personnel without any interpretation.
The information entering the main security network might be coming from multiple organization offices.
In such cases, vulnerability scanning should be done on such locations too.
As such locations might have any loophole that might be of any advantage for the attackers.
Users are advised to check for security procedures or the level of such locations.
It is a stimulated type of cyber-attack for checking any vulnerabilities in the system.
Penetration testing will provide users with a clear indication of the current security standards and will also assist users in finding any vulnerability present in the system.
With penetration testing, users will be able to note down the issues ad can immediately prepare for them.
The remediation process will jump in automatically each time a vulnerability is discovered.
The remediation process, once updated, should be automated to match the velocity of the threat environment.
The remediation process, too, should be documented as to what steps were taken when a particular vulnerability was detected.
Conclusion
A business requiring a vulnerability management program should also be backed by experienced professionals in order to guarantee security. Above mentioned steps will guide users in creating a better vulnerability assessment plan.
Also Read: List of 5 Open Source Vulnerability Scanner Tools
