Implementing A Vulnerability Management System

To effectively manage the identified vulnerabilities within your business, a vulnerability management system can be a useful approach as many management tools offer some built-in features to more efficiently manage your security vulnerabilities and help with risk reduction.

Vulnerability management systems can provide several useful features such as:

• Applying business context to vulnerable assets within your organization
• Prioritizing vulnerabilities across all areas of your business
• Guiding remediation efforts and monitoring the time between identification and resolution
• Allowing communication between different teams within your company related to security issues
• Reviewing threat intelligence feeds and how developing security threats can impact your business

In addition to these features provided by a vulnerability management system, it can also be useful to implement:

• Security Processes For Onboarding New Employees
• Security Awareness Training For Your Teams
• Security Best Practices To Securely Configure Your Devices
• Secure Protocols For User Account Creation

This article includes information regarding Tenable products.  Forge Secure is now a Tenable partner and reseller which should be taken into account with any reviews or recommendations.

Vulnerability Management Tools

Some of the best vulnerability management solutions currently available offer a range of features and price points that can aid your organization in detecting threats and resolving known vulnerabilities:

Further Vulnerability Management System Features

Each of these tools aims to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities to help with your company’s remediation processes.

The tools also have their own range of specific features which can help with the vulnerability management process.

As most companies have their own specific requirements and budgets for cybersecurity vulnerabilities, a single solution rarely works for every company.

Each of the listed tools also provides free trial versions of their solutions allowing the vulnerability management software to be assessed to determine if it meets your individual requirements.

Additional and beneficial features which can be looked for within a vulnerability management system, to aid with vulnerability prioritization and help remediate vulnerabilities include:

• The ability to integrate vulnerability data into existing ticketing systems for effective management of each potential threat
• The integration of patch management solutions, so that vulnerabilities can be identified and resolved through a single solution
• Review your external attack surface and organization’s security posture from different attack perspectives
• Visualize attack chains specific to your organization’s network devices and determine how attackers can escalate their access through your network, starting from a single vulnerability

The Importance Of Ongoing Vulnerability Detection

New vulnerabilities continue to be identified. The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) has over 26,000 new vulnerabilities reported this year alone, as of August 2024.

Around half of businesses in the UK have also reported experiencing some form of cybersecurity incident in the last 12 months, according to government statistics.

Attackers most commonly conduct untargeted attacks. This does not involve targeting a specific company or individual, but instead relies on targeting as many people and companies as possible, with the aim that a small percentage will result in successful exploitation.

Your business can become the victim of these untargeted attacks if best practice security principles are not put in place.

A well-designed vulnerability management program can help to minimize potential cyber threats and allow you to effectively identify and respond to vulnerability trends and each critical vulnerability that is found to impact your systems.

How Vulnerability Management Systems Prioritize Vulnerabilities

Prioritizing vulnerabilities can include multiple factors which can be variable with each business. A vulnerability management solution aims to categorize your organization’s risk posture using several methods.

• Detected vulnerabilities are graded using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) which grades vulnerabilities from 0-10 or as Low, Medium, High, or Critical.
• Detected Assets can be categorized based on their business risk and if they form a critical component of your organization’s network.
• Threat intelligence can be used to determine which assets are at risk of cyber-attacks and are likely to be the target of security breaches.

A more detailed review of how an organization can address vulnerabilities and apply its own prioritization process to high-risk vulnerabilities is provided here.

The Limits Of Vulnerability Scanning Tools

While many vulnerability scanning tools offer features for the detection and management of your identified vulnerabilities, this alone represents only a small part of how an organization’s security posture can be managed.

To ensure your business reduces potential vulnerabilities and risks and continues to operate effectively it is important to review the potential security risks that can be introduced at every stage of your operations.

This process can include a review of every aspect of your business, such as:

• How new devices and systems are initially setup and configured for use within your business
• How new accounts are created and user permissions are assigned
• How new employees are hired, including background checks and training
• How ongoing security training is managed for your teams
• How third-party suppliers and contractors are approved and the access they are granted
• How vulnerabilities are identified and how often they are checked for
• How remediation efforts are implemented and how quickly security updates are applied

Vulnerability Detection And False Positives

A common issue with many automated vulnerability scanning tools is the production of false positives within their reported results.

This can occur when a scanned system has not responded in a standard or expected way, which has led to the automated scanner misinterpreting the result and labeling the asset as vulnerable even though it is not impacted by the reported security issue.

In some instances, a repeat vulnerability scan of the system is sufficient to resolve the misreported issue, however in some cases a manual review will be required.

This process can lead to some inefficiencies and wasted time, as it requires time to review the vulnerability and determine the misreporting.

However, vulnerability scanning as a whole can save an enormous amount of time and effort, reducing the amount of manual time and effort required to review different devices, and vulnerability scanning and management systems still have their place within any organization’s security management system.

Vulnerability Detection And Penetration Testing

Although recent advances in many vulnerability scanners are closing the gap between what a security professional conducting a penetration test can find and what a scanning tool will identify, there is still a need to conduct regular penetration tests of your assets.

Scanners often have limits with the types of vulnerabilities they can identify and a vulnerability assessment conducted by an experienced professional often provides greater visibility of the security issues that impact your systems and the potential risk each issue poses to your security posture.

Although scanning does have limits, it is also much more cost-effective to implement an automated scanning tool that can review your assets daily, weekly, or monthly, rather than contract a penetration tester on a similar frequency.

A Complete Vulnerability Management Solution

A vulnerability management system involves more than just a vulnerability scanning tool or any single solution.

A business can implement a range of tools and automated solutions to help with its vulnerability management, however, a structured set of policies and procedures for how a business is managed is also required for a complete management system, such as:

• Assigning roles and responsibilities to your employees and security teams
• Ensuring ongoing training and understanding for all of your teams
• Preparing best practice security guidelines and documentation
• Designing secure standards that can be applied to each of your assets
• Implementing security systems where available to protect your assets
• Regular vulnerability checks of your systems through automated and manual processes
• Providing reports and information to your teams, to make informed decisions and take action
• Conducting routine maintenance, manual and automated checks of your systems
• Ensuring remediation efforts are effective and documented
• Maintaining an up-to-date risk register, defining how you can mitigate potential threats
• Preparing disaster recovery solutions to ensure your business continuity
• Maintaining detailed and accurate logs of when your systems are accessed

Maintaining Security Across Your Business

The management of different aspects of your business will also require their own policies, procedures, documentation, and software.

For example, to ensure you manage vulnerabilities within your user devices a list of security considerations could be the following:

• Implementing best practice security standards for a secure configuration
• Limiting the number and permissions of user accounts on the device
• Ensuring up-to-date Ant-Virus software or an Endpoint Device management system
• Restricting the software that is available on each device
• Removing any unnecessary applications or services
• Maintaining a strict update schedule and verifying updates are applied
• Conducting regular vulnerability scans to identify outstanding security flaws
• Maintaining documentation for when maintenance and updates are done, or devices are accessed

However, where your company needs to manage the security of your users, a different set of considerations and solutions would need to be implemented, such as:

• Background security checks for all new starters before they start work
• A leaving process for anyone leaving the company to ensure accounts and equipment are returned
• Role-specific training and security training to ensure their role in the company and maintaining security is understood
• Ongoing training processes to ensure cybersecurity is maintained
• User accounts issued under the principle of least privilege and the fewest permissions necessary
• Restrictions on accessible business information to only those users who require access
• Limits to how other devices and services can be accessed by users
• Document classification restrictions to ensure emails containing sensitive data are not sent outside of the company
• Restrictions to inbound emails to minimize the potential for Phishing attacks
• Ensuring social media posts to personal accounts do not inadvertently disclose company information
• Implementing best practice security standards for account passwords, Multi-Factor Authentication, and account lockouts

Conclusion

The security of your organization and the ongoing management of risks and vulnerabilities is typically not something that can be fully automated through a single solution and requires the implementation of security standards at each layer of your business.

However, vulnerability management tools can provide a range of useful features to manage the detection and resolution of vulnerabilities within your business-critical assets, whether these are set up within cloud services or hosted within your organization’s network.

Where you have any further questions regarding different cybersecurity solutions, our consultants are available to address any concerns you may have.