Vulnerability Assessments & Penetration Testing Are Vital Parts of Network Security Protocol

Although many organizations conduct vulnerability testing (aka vulnerability assessments) and penetration testing as part of their organization’s security program, doing vulnerability assessments daily is actually a more proactive, yet unobtrusive, way to perform a background check on every server in the network.

Keeping close tabs with this kind of ‘regular health check’ ensures your network is in the best shape possible when it’s time for the rigors of your more in-depth quarterly, bi-annual and annual assessments. But vulnerability assessments and penetration testing (aka:’pentests’) are often mistakenly used interchangeably; however, the two functions are distinct and separate components of a security program.

Vulnerability Assessment Steps

Catalogue Assets and Resources in a System

Assign Quantifiable Value to the Resources

Identify Security Vulnerabilities or Threats

Mitigate Serious Vulnerabilities for Valuable Resources

5 Benefits of Vulnerability Assessments

Reduce Threat 'Window' by 99%

Since hackers are opportunistic, conducting daily vulnerability assessments will give them a very short window of opportunity to conduct an attack, often sending them on to easier targets.

Reduce Pentest Alerts

Not all threats are relevant, so reducing the number of alerts that need to be investigated using daily assessments will help the security team focus time and energy on the areas of greatest risk.

Pre-Test Virtual Machines

Pentests often leave dormant virtual machines behind, potentially creating a storm of security issues when the machines are reengaged, but cloning virtuals and then testing can reduce risk significantly.

Ensure Business Continuity

Staying on top of pentests with daily vulnerability assessments helps mitigate the risks more frequently, so that when larger security assessments are conducted, no huge surprises pop up.

Pentests Become SOP

Making penetration testing part of your standard operating procedure within a vulnerability assessment plan and security protocols helps mitigate larger threats down the line.

Vulnerability Assessments & Penetration Testing Defined

Vulnerability assessments are the process of identifying and quantifying security vulnerabilities in an environment, giving your organization an in-depth evaluation of your information security posture, highlighting weaknesses, and offering the necessary mitigation procedures required to either eliminate those weaknesses or reduce them to an acceptable level of risk.

Penetration Testing (aka ‘pentests’) simulates the actions of an external and/or internal cyber-attack intended to breach the information security of the organization in order to identify potential exploits of critical systems and demonstrating potential methods for hackers to gain access to sensitive data.

window.lintrk('track', { conversion_id: 6786290 });