In 2021 alone, there were 50% more cybersecurity threats and attacks happening each week than in the previous year, 2020.
With a rise in cybersecurity threats and the importance of keeping data safe at companies, there is an increased need to know when your network is weak. This can prevent an attack. This will drastically reduce and mitigate the risk that your company is facing in terms of cybersecurity threats.
But what can you do in order to keep your company and the data you store safe? One way to do so is through vulnerability scanning.
Ready to learn all about vulnerability scanning, what it is, and how it can benefit your business? Keep reading to learn more about why this is crucial to have as a business in 2023.
What Is Vulnerability Scanning?
In simple terms, vulnerability scanning is the process of using a software to scan IT networks and other tech systems to identify security vulnerabilities in hardware and software. Most of the time, this is done in the business world to keep companies safe and secure.
But why does this matter? What is the point of scanning before something comes up? For starters, it is best to be proactive when it comes to cybersecurity threats.
But in addition to being proactive, security threats and hackers have become more intelligent throughout the years. There are more complex ways to attack businesses and the cyber world than there ever was before. It is more important than ever to be able to protect your business from a potential attack and threat.
One way to do this is through vulnerability scanning for businesses to use this canning tool to create a more complex and intensive vulnerability management system for a business.
How Does Vulnerability Scanning Work?
Now that you know the importance of vulnerability scanning and more about what it is, you may be wondering how it works.
When you use a vulnerability scanner, it is going to scan the IT system and the overall network automatically. This will identify various vulnerabilities in the software. When it does this, it will flag anything that needs attention within the network.
This is how it starts. However, there are many other phases that are part of vulnerability scanning.
Asset Inventory
The first phase of vulnerability scanning is to create an asset inventory. When it does this, it sets up the scanning process to happen across time. It will do periodic scans in order to check the security of the system at all times.
Prioritize Assets
Once the asset inventory is set up, the next step is to prioritize based on how you operate the business and what is of the most importance to your business.
This means that you are going to choose what to scan, when to scan it, and what the most important assets are to scan in the business. This will allow vulnerability scanning to prioritize the most important aspects of the business.
This also ensures that once it is set up with priorities, you don’t have to worry about it as much. You’ve done the initial work to set it up, and now it can run on its own without wasting any of your or your employees’ time and resources.
Assessment
Now that your vulnerability scanning is all set up, it is time to actually scan and use the security tools that are part of it.
This will tell you a bunch of different factors that allow you to determine what you want to eliminate first. Whether you want to look at the threat levels or the classification first, the scan will tell you both so you can make the decision about what is the most vulnerable aspect first.
But how does the scan itself work?
The scanner uses the asset and data inventory that you set up to scan the system. It will look for flaws, coding bugs and errors, anomalies within the network and system, and any misconfigured configurations in the system.
Once it does this, it will identify the potential attackers and figure out what to do from there.
Reporting
Once the vulnerability scan is complete, it will then enter the reporting phase. This is when the scanning tool will report any and all issues that it finds in the system.
These findings will give you a better idea of the Riss, factors, and threat levels that your security system has.
Remediation
Once the system reports any flaws, bugs, or issues that it finds, the next phase is the remediation phase. Under this phase, the reports are used to fix the flaws that come about. This means that you will be able to remediate any issues with outdated operating systems or updates that need to happen.
These fixes are relatively easy to do on your own. However, if there are more complicated issues, this may require more technical knowledge to figure out and fix.
Issues such as cross-site scripting attacks, SQL injection vulnerabilities, and other issues that may arise may require professional help.
Verification and Monitoring
Once the entire process is over, the process starts over with the entire process once again. This phase will set a new schedule for vulnerability scanning. This schedule will start the process over again where it begins to look for new flaws to correct in the system.
Benefits of Using Vulnerability Scanners
If you have been thinking about using vulnerability scanners for your business, you may be wondering if it’s worth it. You want to know the benefits of using it.
There are so many benefits of using vulnerability scanners. Keep reading to learn more about them.
Be Proactive With Identifying Vulnerabilities Before It Becomes an Issue
One of the biggest benefits of using vulnerability scanners is that they are able to identify weaknesses and problems before they become bigger problems for your business.
When a business notices that there are vulnerabilities in the cybersecurity sector of the company, they can take the appropriate action right away to mitigate risks in the business. Knowing that there is something going on that shouldn’t be going on can prevent a lot of issues from happening down the road.
As soon as there is a vulnerability that is detected, a business can attack from the inside to stop a potential data breach and/or cyber-attack.
Compliance With Regulations and Standards in the Industry
In the business world, many industries have specific regulations and standards that businesses have to comply with in order to be reaching the right standards in terms of cybersecurity.
For instance, there are typically federal laws, federal regulations, guidelines, and state laws that differ between states, and international laws (specifically for businesses that operate internationally).
By using a tool such as vulnerability scanning, there is more compliance with regulations in the industry. Using vulnerability scanning is one way to ensure a business is meeting all of the necessary requirements that the state, federal, or international regulations put on them.
Reduce Financial Losses
Cybercrimes cost companies and individuals trillions of dollars each year in total. In fact, it is expected that losses will be around $10.5 trillion by 2025. That’s up from $3 trillion in 2015.
If your business is part of a cybercrime, you could be looking at a huge loss for the business. By using vulnerability scanning, this is not as big of an issue because you are going to be aware of issues before they become large enough to cost you a lot of money.
These issues can cost money because they could exploit data that needs recovering or some type of solution to get the data back. This requires an initial investment to get the data back under your control as well as giving out reciprocity to those affected by the issue.
By recognizing issues before they become larger, you will reduce the financial impacts that a cybercrime could potentially have. It also protects the business from losing sensitive data and financial assets.
Better Network Performance
Although not what stands out the most (as vulnerability scanning is mostly meant to reduce the risk of financial loss and cyberattacks), it can also help businesses to improve network performance as a whole.
Because it is meant to identify vulnerabilities, it can improve performance by reducing these vulnerabilities so that business operations can run more efficiently and effectively as a whole.
More Trust From Clients and Customers
If you are a company that uses vulnerability scanning to reduce and mitigate risk, you are going to gain more trust from potential clients and customers because they know you are doing everything you can to keep your business running smoothly and to keep their information safe.
This can significantly impact the reputation that you have among clients and customers. It is a great way to establish yourself as a trustworthy business in a specific niche because you are taking the steps to mitigate risk.
Because you have more trust from clients and customers, you are also going to be giving yourself a competitive advantage. You are able to set yourself apart from the rest by demonstrating your commitment to cybersecurity.
While doing this, you’ll be able to get new customers and retain the ones you already have against other competitors.
Improve Decision Making
Because vulnerability scanning gives you insights into what is happening in terms of security, it can be easier to make decisions. You have a better understanding of how to allocate resources and where to put your time and energy as part of your security strategy.
This can make your processes work much smoother and improve your risk management system in the company.
Difference Between Vulnerability Scanning vs Penetration Testing
If you are a business and have heard of both vulnerability scanning and penetration testing, you may wonder what the differences between the two are.
Which one is better and what system should you focus on using?
The main difference is that vulnerability scanning is fully automated. You set the system to work without you doing the scan yourself. The penetration testing system needs manual work in order to figure out the weaknesses in a system.
For instance, a penetration test actually simulates attacks so that you can figure out the weaknesses in the system. From there, these weaknesses can be fixed to solve the issue so that an actual breach doesn’t happen.
Although vulnerability scanning does the same thing, it does it automatically without needing you there to do it. This allows a security team to look at the overarching system to figure out the flaws to fix security issues that may arise.
Although there are big differences, both are part of a system to protect against cybersecurity issues and vulnerabilities in a system to keep data safe within a business.
Use Vulnerability Scanning for Your Business
If you are a business that has a lot of data and security within it, you should always make sure that you are using different systems. This will keep that data safe and secure to mitigate risks.
Now that you know the importance of vulnerability scanning for your business, you may be wondering how to get started.
At Cybriant Managed Security Services, we offer various solutions to help your business stay safe. Ready to learn more about how we can help and what services we can offer your business?
You can reach out to us today to learn more and ask any questions that you may have about how we can help!
