The Value of Vulnerability Management

Many SMBs find themselves stuck in a cycle of reacting to potential threats, unable to dig themselves out of endless alerts to build a robust security architecture. Part of that is a lack of resources and a lack of personnel, but it’s also because organizations often don’t invest in the other side of cybersecurity — the proactive side. They instead invest in reactive tools, reactive processes, and only see progress in terms of attacks blocked.

But it’s in that other half, often referred to as “left of boom,” where serious progress can be made and where organizations can stop risks before they turn into breaches.

What Are the Fundamentals of Proactive Cybersecurity?

 Proactive cybersecurity involves tools, processes, and strategies intended to both prevent and prepare for a potential threat, while also improving what the response to that threat will be. By focusing on the left of boom (pre-breach) an organization is inherently increasing its right of boom (post-breach) capabilities.

There are four fundamentals of proactive cybersecurity:

1. Strong Defense. This refers to enhancing the preparedness of your digital battlespace. It’s all about defensive positioning and can include tools like detection and response solutions.

2. Cyber Hygiene. All proactive measures can be undone by user error. In fact, user action was the root point of compromise in 28% of incidents last year. Making sure users are trained, passwords are protected, and email security is in place goes a long way in preventing a hack.

3. Penetration Testing. You don’t know your defenses work until you test them. While penetration testing is often used to test specific applications or processes, it’s important for organizations to use them system-wide to make sure every part of the security architecture is operating as it should.

4. Vulnerability Management. This component is critical and will be expanded upon later in this post, because a lack of patching can wreak havoc on organizations.

For these four fundamentals, it’s important to remember that they are not just boxes to check but part of an ongoing, continuous strategy. Many organizations struggle in the final mile, completing penetration testing but not looking at the details of the results, or sending out phishing simulations but not understanding why certain users failed. It’s the follow- up that can make a major difference.

 What is Vulnerability Management?

Vulnerabilities are a major risk for organizations. In the first half of 2022 alone, 81% of incidents happened through an external exposure — either a known vulnerability or a remote desktop protocol, and the year saw over 25,000 vulnerabilities recorded.

Vulnerability management is the identification, assessment, and remediation of these vulnerabilities within an organization, and it’s a critical component of proactive cybersecurity.

There are four stages of vulnerability management: discover, assess, harden, and validate. It’s important to remember that vulnerability management is not linear, but a cycle, and multiple stages can be happening simultaneously within an organization. It’s also critical to remember that part of vulnerability management is accepting risk. At every one of the four stages listed above, your organization is security decisions and deciding on actions, and often that means deciding on how much risk to accept. The reality is you can’t patch every vulnerability that appears.

Five Riskiest Kinds of Vulnerabilities

Not all vulnerabilities are created equal, and how risky a specific vulnerability is depends on a multitude of factors, including an organization’s specific security and business goals. But broadly, there are five kinds of vulnerabilities that automatically create a large amount of risk for any organization.

1. Remote Code Execution

2. Hardcoded Credentials

3. Denial of Service

4. Directory Traversal

5. Privilege Escalation

All five of these vulnerabilities can be leveraged together at different stages of an incident to further the attack and lead to a full-fledged breach.

Same-Day Vulnerabilities v. Zero-Day Exploits

 Zero-Day exploits are the plane crash of cybersecurity. Everyone fears them, but the truth is they aren’t that common. Traditional vulnerabilities are exploited in much higher frequency than either zero-days or same-days, and it’s important for organizations to focus on the vulnerabilities that pose the most risk to their organization instead of chasing after headline-grabbing vulnerabilities that may not impact them. According to Arctic Wolf Incident Response, of the top five vulnerabilities leveraged by threat actors in 2022, four of them were published in 2021. Hackers don’t care if a vulnerability is new and shiny, they just care that it works.

How A Partnership Helps with Proactive Security

When an SMB is short on resources, time, and budget, focusing on proactive cybersecurity can feel like an impossible task. But you don’t have to go at it alone. By partnering with an MSP, an SMB can focus on the important task of running a business while the MSP handles cybersecurity tasks, including proactive measures that reduce risk.

Benefits of a partnership with experienced experts include: easy implementation, simplified process development, provided technology, and ongoing advice and expertise.

WGTech: Your Local IT Solutions Provider

We offer computer repairs, network setup, cybersecurity, and data backup services in Westbrook, Maine. Our team of experts provides reliable, affordable, and personalized solutions. Contact us today to learn more.