No matter the size of your business or customer base, if you are selling or storing sensitive information online, then you need to assess your company’s cybersecurity risks. It’s been shown that the average cost of reviving from a serious cyberattack exceeds $1 million.
Fortunately, more and more business owners are becoming aware of cyber threats and have various strategies in place to keep attackers at bay. One report found that IT spending has reached almost $4 billion in 2019, a 3.4% growth from the previous years.
But, with new threats emerging almost every fortnight, what do you focus on? In other words, how do you assess and manage your company’s vulnerabilities?
What Is Vulnerability Management?
Imagine you own a house. You take all the necessary steps to keep it safe from thieves and the elements. You lock the doors and windows when you leave. And, you patch the roof when you find a hole in the shingles.
The same with your company. You stay on top of cyber threats by constantly identifying, categorizing, resolving, and facing a proactive approach.
Vulnerability management is an ongoing process that allows you to identify and address any vulnerabilities that could increase your risks of a cyber attack. These vulnerabilities can appear virtually anywhere, from your operating system (OS) to end-user applications or enterprise applications, so you need to be thorough about how, where, and what you are looking for.
What Are the Steps for Vulnerability Management?
To make sure that no potential threat goes unnoticed, an effective vulnerability management program must follow these steps:
Discover: Always have an accurate overview of the assets that need to be protected. Review and update your inventory after important transactions, such as a merge.
Information Management: Have a team whose job is to make the IT talk easier to understand by your employees, stakeholders, and so on. They should inform every actor in the organization about threats, what to do in case of malicious attacks, and so on.
Risk Assessment: This is vital to ensure that you identify any possible threat at any level in your organization. Keep in mind that vulnerabilities can come not only from within your organization but from outside too, such as from other business partners.
Vulnerability Assessment: With vulnerability assessment, you will have clear recommendations and steps that you need to take to avoid threats and strengthen your security.
What Is Vulnerability Assessment?
While vulnerability management is an ongoing process, vulnerability assessment is a one-time process usually carried out by a team of security experts. Their goal is to identify any vulnerabilities that cybercriminals could use to attack your organization and offer recommendations on how to address and fix those weak points.
After the team has identified and remedied the vulnerabilities, they will also run a penetration test. Its purpose is to see if there are any weak points that the team might have missed and that could compromise your organization.
What Are the Different Types of Vulnerability Assessment?
A vulnerability assessment project includes a variety of tools, scans, and processes to ensure no stone is left unturned. Some of them include:
- Network-based Scans: These scans have the purpose of identifying possible vulnerabilities in your network, both wired and wireless.
- Wireless Network Scans: These scans will focus on identifying possible points of attack in your wireless network.
- Host-based Scans: These scans are used to identify possible vulnerabilities in servers, hardware, and so on.
- Data-based Scans: These scans will look for points of attack in your database to prevent malicious attacks.
- Application-based Scans: These scans will look at your websites and apps to detect any software vulnerabilities.
Reach Out to Cyber Sainik for Help
Unless you have a lemon stand and you only take cash, you will need some form of cyber protection against cybercriminals. And, it doesn’t matter if you are just a small business, thinking that a good antivirus will protect you. It won’t and it’s not enough.
If you want to protect your data and want your customers to rest assured that they are safe doing business with you, then you need to be one step ahead of cybercriminals. That means always being aware of your vulnerabilities and ready to remediate them and close any weak points.
If you need help in this regard, Cyber Sainik can be a trusted partner. Get in touch with us, tell us about your needs, and goals, and you can schedule a free, no-strings-attached consultation.
