A vulnerability scan is a security test that automates the process of scanning and reporting potential loopholes before cyber attackers exploit them.
Vulnerability scanners automate the scan for exploitable weaknesses in an organization’s applications, endpoints, and IT infrastructure.
These scans are a common regulatory compliance requirement and can help to minimise an organization’s cyber security risk. Thus, because of its crucial role, it has become an integral part of an organization’s threat management programme.
An increase in cybercrime and data security is a matter of global concern for all organisations. Cybercriminals are using advanced technology to detect the weaknesses in the network to delve into the employees’ accounts and exploit the confidential information of the organization.
In the midst of the desert, vulnerability scanning has become the savior of organizations’ networks.
The Importance of Vulnerability Scanning for Your Business
Organizations must manage these vulnerabilities to protect themselves from exploitation.
According to research from previous years’ breaches, it takes an attacker 166 days from the time an organisation is vulnerable to compromise to the system. Attackers typically have access to private information for 127 days after being breached.
- Some businesses’ systems, environments, software, or websites contain weaknesses. When the vulnerability is detected in the system or technology by the attackers, it can be easily accessed and exploited .
- In other situations, a company becomes vulnerable as a result of a security patch being missed or system modifications being made without the necessary security protocol updates.
- Critical vulnerabilities should be regularly detected, prioritised, and remedied in order to reduce risk and stop a data breach.
How the Cyber Attackers Benefit Vulnerable Digital Environment
Cyber attackers, with their specific interest in your business, can steal/damage your data. They generally scan for vulnerable areas to exploit the system and gain access.
There are several vulnerabilities that the attackers take advantage of. Some of the most common security vulnerabilities are:
- SQL Injection
- Cross-Site Scripting
- Security Misconfiguration
- Zero-day vulnerabilities.
With the growing number of cyber security attackers, it is essential to leverage Vulnerability scrutiny as a security solution.
Types of Vulnerability Scan Practices
There are a few approaches to undertaking vulnerability scanning that determine its results and effectiveness:
- External and Internal:
Both external and internal vulnerability scans are intended to deal with different threat situations. Internal scans model insider threat situations, whereas an external scan helps identify weaknesses that could be used by an external attacker.
- Authenticated and Unauthenticated:
The main objective of an attacker in many cyberattacks is to access user credentials. Authenticated scans search for vulnerabilities that might be exploitable by an attacker with access to a user account, in contrast to unauthenticated scans that imitate an attacker without this level of access.
Vulnerability Assessment Process
You must be thinking about what it is. There are many vulnerabilities present in organizations’ networks that make them vulnerable. To meet the business needs and in order to manage these vulnerabilities, the organization takes the following steps:
Organizations must take the following actions in order to manage these vulnerabilities to protect themselves against exploitation:
- Scan:
By using vulnerability scanning, a business can identify vulnerabilities in applications that require remediation.
- Analyze:
A security operation centre (SOC) analyst conducts investigations and triages during the analysis stage to ascertain the seriousness of a specific vulnerability. Then they take the necessary remedial action to fix it, or if needed, they check for the availability of a patch.
- Remediation/Patch:
Various vulnerabilities may necessitate distinct remediation steps. A vulnerability may be caused in some cases by a configuration issue, such as the use of a default or weak username or password. In other cases, the vulnerability may necessitate the installation of a patch or update intended to fix a design or implementation error in the code.
- Verify:
Remediation or patch is only useful if the vulnerability is effectively remedied. An application should be checked once again after performing remediation to make sure the problem has been fixed and no new issues have emerged.
Vulnerability Scanning Vs. Penetration Testing
Together, vulnerability scans and penetration tests strengthen network security. However, a professional penetration test is sometimes mistakenly assumed to be the same task as a vulnerability scan.
VULNERABILITY SCANNING | PENETRATION TESTING |
Vulnerability scanning is an automated process. | Require human resource for examining the depths of the network complexities |
Vulnerability scrutiny just detects vulnerabilities. | Identify the root cause of a weakness that permits access to secure systems or stored sensitive data |
It provides weekly, monthly, or quarterly insight into an organization’s network security. | Penetration testing provides a more in-depth examination of an organization’s network security |
Why does your organization require vulnerability Scanning?
There is an element of risk for every business, especially after the advent of digital technology that has given rise to another type of business risk in the form of cyber-attacks. It is more important than ever for each enterprise to look after its security measures.
However, there is one technique that can come to your rescue even before there is a security risk. A vulnerability scan practice can help you identify exposures or vulnerabilities in your network and highlight the overall security posture of the enterprise.
A vulnerability test will be conducted against external and internal perimeters to discover any technical vulnerabilities. Frequent scans are a part of the VAPT practice to identify
- Operating system
- Flaws application
- Flaws configuration errors
Every website, web app, or API can be exposed to vulnerabilities. You are only two minutes away from finding yours. If you are interested in the vulnerability scan procedure that 3Columns provides, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
At 3Columns, we can provide sample reports of our testing to ensure that you receive the needed information about securing your network.