How does vulnerability management work?
Vulnerability management provides a picture of the vulnerabilities in a network, enabling us to help you address them. We begin by scanning all the assets in a network to determine what firmware, operating systems and software are in use. The version data is then compared against a list of known vulnerabilities, which is continuously updated. If we detect that vulnerable versions are in use, we rank the associated security risks on the basis of your business context and the probability of malicious exploitation in your case. That enables us to say where the main security risks lie.
Best practice check
Another feature of vulnerability management is the detection of misconfigurations. That includes configurations that don’t conform to generic baselines, don’t follow best practices or don’t follow your organisational policies. Our checks cover servers and workstations in your own data centre, in the Databalance cloud, and in hyperscale clouds such as Azure, GCP and AWS.
Proactive collaboration and risk mitigation
As with so many processes, collaboration is a vital aspect of vulnerability management. We don’t merely circulate information; we actively seek contact and cooperation, discussing what action should be taken to bring risks under control. We talk over the priorities and the practicalities of intervention, such as which patches and workarounds to use. So that together we can mitigate the risks quickly and effectively.
Multi-level reporting provides control
Vulnerability detection and mitigation is a continuous process that we are constantly refining and optimising. At governance meetings, we discuss reports setting out vulnerability statistics and data on how quickly mitigating measures have been rolled out. That provides valuable strategic insight into the level of risk and the effectiveness of the response. Operational and tactical discussions are also held to consider detailed reports that inform mitigation activities. Reporting has the additional benefit of demonstrating control, as required to achieve and maintain compliance.
