In today’s constantly evolving cybersecurity threat landscape, you have to do everything possible and then some to protect your critical data assets. Performing a vulnerability assessment and implementing a vulnerability management program can help your organization effectively deal with cybersecurity vulnerabilities. However, it’s important to understand the difference between vulnerability assessment and vulnerability management.

What is a Vulnerability Assessment?

A vulnerability assessment is not a scan, it is a one-time project with a defined start and end date. Usually, an external Information Security Consultant will review your corporate environment and identify a variety of potentially exploitable vulnerabilities that you are exposed to in a detailed report. The report will not only list the identified vulnerabilities, but also provide actionable recommendations for remediation. Once a final report is prepared, the vulnerability assessment ends.

Vulnerability scanning consists of using a computer program to identify vulnerabilities in networks, computer infrastructure or applications. Vulnerability management is the process surrounding vulnerability scanning, also taking into account other aspects such as risk acceptance, remediation etc.

Types of Vulnerability Assessments

 The vulnerability assessment process includes using a variety of tools, scanners, and methodologies to identify vulnerabilities, threats, and risks.

Some of the different types of vulnerability scans include:

• Network-based scans that identify possible network cybersecurity attacks.
• Host-based scans that locate and identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities in your workstations, servers, and other network hosts.
• Web application scans that test websites to detect known software vulnerabilities as well as network or web applications that aren’t configured correctly.
• Wireless network scans of your Wi-Fi network that center around attack vectors in your wireless network infrastructure.

What is a Vulnerability Management?

Unlike a vulnerability assessment, a comprehensive vulnerability management program doesn’t have a defined start and end date but is a continuous process that ideally helps organizations better manage their vulnerabilities in the long run. Vulnerability management is the process of identifying, evaluating, treating, and reporting on security vulnerabilities in systems and the software that runs on them. This, implemented alongside with other security tactics, is vital for organizations to prioritize possible threats and minimizing their “attack surface.”
Vulnerability Assessment is a portion of the complete Vulnerability Management system. Organizations will likely run multiple Vulnerability Assessments to get more information on their Vulnerability Management action plan.

Vulnerability Management Process: Step-by-Step

• Preparation : define the scope of the vulnerability management process, including the type of scan.
• Vulnerability scan : initial vulnerability scans are performed.
• Define remediating actions : define the remediating actions by analyzing the vulnerabilities and determining the associated risks.
• Implement remediating actions : The planned remediating actions should be executed in line with the agreed timeframes. The security officer should track the status of the remediating actions.
• Rescan: Once a vulnerability is remediated, a rescan has to be scheduled to verify the remediating actions have been implemented.

Conclusion

 A vulnerability assessment is a key part of vulnerability management, allowing organizations to protect their systems and data from cybersecurity breaches and unauthorized access. However, while a vulnerability assessment has a specific start and end date, vulnerability management is a continual process that aims to manage an organization’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities long-term.

Because cybersecurity vulnerabilities can enable hackers to access your IT systems and applications, it’s critical that you identify and remediate cybersecurity vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.

A comprehensive vulnerability assessment along with a continual vulnerability management program can help your organization improve the security of its IT infrastructure.

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