5 Simple Steps for a Robust Vulnerability Management Process

In today’s fast-paced digital world, organizations of all sizes increasingly depend on technology to power their operations and connect with customers. However, with this dependence comes an increased risk of cyberattacks and data breaches.

According to Gartner, 45% of organizations will experience attacks in their software supply chain, leading to major cybersecurity issues. These attacks will leverage organizations’ vulnerabilities, and combating them would require organizations to implement a robust vulnerability management process. 

Vulnerability management is discovering, evaluating, and mitigating vulnerabilities in an organization’s systems and applications. These vulnerabilities, if left unmitigated, can be exploited by cyber attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, disrupt operations, or damage the organization’s reputation. 

As a result, a robust vulnerability management system should be implemented for an organization to be strong. The vulnerability management process will help you identify and fix any weak spots in your systems, reducing your risk of a data breach and saving you a ton of money in the long run.

This article will help you gain clarity on the vulnerability management system, the steps to set up one, and why it is essential for every organization. 

What is Vulnerability Management?

Vulnerability management programs are security practices set up to proactively decrease and curb cyber exploitations that lead to system downtime, loss of organization data, and damage to organizational reputation. The process is continual in that vulnerabilities are identified, evaluated, and monitored, and actions are taken to limit the resulting risks. 

Cyber attackers are consistently getting more sophisticated in their attack approaches as the day goes by. As a result, it is of the utmost importance for organizations to set up and manage a robust vulnerability management system. 

Out of the many benefits of implementing a vulnerability management system, having a solid vulnerability management system in place will help your organization make concrete decisions and prioritize the vulnerabilities to handle.

This approach will save time and resources for your organization and ultimately reduce the overall risk because the threats with more impact will receive more focus and get the defense they deserve.

Steps To Building a Robust Vulnerability Management System

Vulnerability management is not a one-time event, or something installed and left to run. It is an ongoing and continuous process. Here are the steps needed to build a robust vulnerability management process.

1. Vulnerability Identification

With the cyber-attacks expected to trend in 2023, various kinds of vulnerabilities inevitably lie within a system. As a result, the first step to managing them is identifying types of vulnerabilities, how many, and where they are located within your data system.

This stage involves the identification, classification, and ranking of vulnerabilities. It is done by vulnerability scanning. A vulnerability scanner, an automated tool, searches, identifies, and reports the vulnerabilities present within the organization’s IT system.

Carrying out this step is essential as it helps to figure out the areas that are exposed to exploitation. Once done, the information gathered in the identification process is used to create reports that are used in the other steps of the vulnerability management process.

2. Vulnerability Evaluation

Once the vulnerabilities have been identified, they should be evaluated using a risk assessment and scoring system to determine the amount of risk they pose to the system, after which they can be categorized and prioritized based on their impact. 

Digital evaluators such as vulnerability scanners and scoring systems can be used to evaluate the vulnerability’s degree of risk. However, cybersecurity experts will provide a better and well-evaluated context of risk exposure using an inventory of threat intelligence gathered. 

3. Remediate and Monitor Vulnerability

In this step, the vulnerabilities discovered are treated and reduced. Using different approaches, the identified vulnerabilities are prioritized and eliminated based on the level of risk they pose to the system.

There are three ways you can remediate the vulnerabilities:

• Remediation: This means preventing threats by correcting, patching, and replacing a component that contains a vulnerability
• Mitigation: This is a temporary solution that reduces the impact of a vulnerability. 
• No action: If the cost of remediating the vulnerability is higher than the effect of the exploitation on your business, you may decide to acknowledge and accept the vulnerability.

Note: Immediate actions should be taken once a new threat-prone vulnerability occurs.

4. Verification

Additional scans should be performed to ensure that the threat has been completely eliminated.

Verifying that all the detected vulnerabilities have been mitigated implies that the vulnerability management process was successful. This process also helps to ensure that new vulnerabilities are not created during the management process.

5. Document and Report Vulnerabilities

Not only should discovered vulnerabilities be documented but so should a security plan for describing known vulnerabilities and monitoring suspicious activity. These reports are important because they leave records that can be used to improve businesses’ security responses in the future.

These reports are also necessary for top management to evaluate and for compliance audits. Accountability is frequently required to maintain compliance standards. Demonstrating and documenting fixed vulnerabilities and issues show accountability.

Continuity Is Essential

The continuous checking, remediation, and verification of vulnerabilities are vital in creating a robust vulnerability management system. You need to perform continuous management to ensure that your system and organization are well-updated and to identify new vulnerabilities as soon as possible.

For this, you may need to set up continuous management processes within your security team in the daily operations.

Ready To Set Up A Robust Vulnerability Management System?

Quantum Technologies can help you set up a robust Vulnerability management system to make your organization system more resilient to threats. We are committed to solving IT problems and rendering tech services that will improve the overall system operations of your organization. 

Contact us today via (920) 256-1214 or reach us online.