How do you choose the right vulnerability scanning tools and techniques for your needs?

With risks increasing by the day, the need for vulnerability assessment tools has grown. Vulnerability management tools initially focus on inventorying security issues encountered, which is critical to ensuring business continuity and success. Real-time vulnerability tracking is required to prioritize all results based on compliance status, severity, exposure, and data classification. These tools provide data security professionals with the necessary guidance to focus their limited remediation time on the most impactful areas. Vulnerability management systems are critical in creating a secure environment that can accommodate all technologies and advancements.

Selecting the appropriate vulnerability scanning tools and techniques involves evaluating factors such as the scope of your network, the types of vulnerabilities you want to detect, the frequency of scanning required, the level of automation needed, and compatibility with existing security infrastructure. Conduct thorough research, assess the tool's effectiveness, scalability, reporting capabilities, and integration options, and choose one that aligns best with your specific security needs and operational constraints.

Selection of vulnerability scanning tools: >Support for wide range of asset types. >Support for most type of industry regulations. >Must meet the criteria of thoroughness, usability, precision, and low false positive findings. >Select tools that have advanced automation features for real-time scanning and persistent monitoring, capable of easy integration with other security products and provide solid API support. >The vendor support must be sound, and there should be good community support. >The tool should offer value for money within the budget. >Run a proof of concept and get your peers and users to try out trial versions or demos.

Vulnerability scanning is an important component of a comprehensive cybersecurity program, as it enables organizations to proactively identify and address security weaknesses before they can be exploited by attackers. By regularly conducting vulnerability scans, organizations can stay informed about the security posture of their systems and take action to mitigate potential risks. Vulnerability scanning tools typically use a database of known vulnerabilities and attack vectors to scan the target systems and identify potential security issues. The tools may also simulate attacks to test the effectiveness of security controls and identify areas where additional protections may be needed.

According to appKnox, it is critical to understand which vulnerability assessment platforms and tools are relevant and required ahead of time. The requirement is frequently assessed based on the industry. Companies that design, maintain, and use Vulnerability Assessment Tools typically have a large and constantly updated database that contains information on nearly every security vulnerability discovered and addressed by the security research team. More information can be found at https://www.appknox.com/blog/picking-the-right-vulnerability-assessment-tool.

Choosing the right vulnerability tool for an organization can be a tough task, as there are so many options available. Below factors can be consider when choosing the vulnerability scanning tools. 1. Choose a tool that provides a detailed report 2. Choose a tool that can integrates with your security infrastructure. 3. Choose a tool that provides ongoing support and updates. 4.Consider the size of the organization and number devices you need to scan. 5. Consider the types of vulnerabilities the tool is designated to detect like network vulnerabilities or web application vulnerabilities. 6. Choose a tool that is easy to setup and use 7. Tools should support customization that helps in tailor the policies to meet specific needs

Get a solution that is capable of performing automated scans, on the device and application level. You don't need to purchase licenses for everything, start with a basic volume and scale as it grows - Even if you would get a good discount with a larger purchase, keep in mind you won't be able to scan and fix everything within the first year. Start with the critical servers and exposed services and as you progress you will expand. Remember that you need to: - Safeguard the business information against cyber threats - Maintain business continuity For this reason, the best is to select a solution that can deliver multiple tasks at the same time, so you can scale accordingly

One thing I've found helpful is to understand your risk tolerance for each asset prior to starting the vulnerability scan. This process helps to prioritize the types of vulnerabilities to search for during the scan. A risk tolerance can be determined by developing a risk matrix which considers the severity and frequency of a potential threat to each asset.

You can start with a few assets first and scale as you progress. Consider a risk-based approach, where you will focus on exposure to threats and assurance of business continuity first. With that, you may consider scanning assets that are exposed to the internet + critical/sensitive servers. You may consider including a few workstations too (not all, perhaps VIP users and IT/system administrators). Work with your system administrators to remediate at least critical and high severity vulnerabilities on those assets within the first 12 months; as you progress, you expand the scope

The best is to setup automated scans. I'd consider weekly scans on your critical environment utilizing a default set of ports. Most vulnerability scanners have preset a list of ports which most vulnerabilities are identifiable, and one full scan to be performed monthly. Although, this are usually heavy and may overwhelm your network; to minimize this risk, you should deploy virtual scanning appliances on each network segment or agents, so you don't need to pass through a firewall to scan that specific segment. For workstations, usage of agents is the best as it consumes small processing and memory, sharing results directly to the cloud management. Also, most workstations deployed are laptops which may not be connected during the scan.

To enhance the security & efficiency of your vulnerability scanning process, implementing Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is crucial. In a large-scale project I managed, we introduced RBAC to ensure that only authorised personnel could configure & run scans. This approach reduced the risk of accidental misconfigurations & ensured that sensitive areas of the network were only scanned by trusted team members. By controlling access to scanning tools & operations, we minimised the chances of disruption to critical systems & maintained a high level of security throughout the scanning process.

It's very hard to be on a maturity level that has 0 vulnerabilities present in the environment. As you implement a solution, don't try to embrace the world, instead onboard assets on phases for example: Phase 1: Internet-facing servers Phase 2: Critical Servers Phase 3: other production servers Phase 4: Dev and test environment Phase 5: workstations A vulnerability Management process should evolve on a daily basis to reach a maturity where you have all asset being scanned with an acceptable level of open vulnerabilities. Remember, it requires a single entry point for a major incident to happen