What Is Vulnerability Assessment in Cyber Security?
Want to know what is Vulnerability Assessment? It is a process of defining, identifying, classifying and prioritizing vulnerabilities in computer systems, applications, and network infrastructure.
For example:
It’s like Finding loopholes in the network through which a hacker can attack.
A vulnerability assessment is one of the most effective techniques for identifying possible security holes in your organization’s cybersecurity design. Hopefully, now you understood what is Vulnerability Assessment in cyber security.
How to Perform Vulnerability Assessment?
You need to follow the below-mentioned steps to perform a Vulnerability Assessment:
1. Defining and Planning the Sope of Testing
Before you begin conducting a vulnerability assessment, you need to establish a methodology:
- Identify where your most sensitive data is stored.
- Uncover hidden sources of data.
- Identify which servers run mission-critical applications.
- Identify which systems and networks to access.
- Review all ports and processes and check for misconfiguration.
- Map out the entire IT infrastructure, digital assets, and any devices used.
The idea here is to streamline the entire process.
2. Vulnerability Identification
Conduct a vulnerability assessment scan of your IT infrastructure and make a complete list of the underlying security threats. To achieve this step, you’ll need to do an automated vulnerability scan as well as a manual penetration test to validate findings and reduce false positives.
3. Vulnerability Assessment Analysis
A scanning tool will provide you with a detailed report containing different risk ratings and scores for vulnerabilities.
Most tools use a CVSS (common vulnerability scoring system) or VPR (Vulnerability priority rating) to assign a numerical score. A careful analysis of these scores will tell you which vulnerabilities you’ll need to deal with first. You can prioritize them based on factors such as severity, urgency, potential damage, and risk.
4. Treating the vulnerabilities
With the vulnerabilities identified and analyzed, the next step is to decide how you want to fix them.
There are Two Ways to Do This: Remediation and Mitigation
Remediation involves fixing a vulnerability fully to prevent any exploitation. You can achieve it through the fresh installation of security tools, a product update, or something more involved. The vulnerability remediation process is based on the priorities set during the analysis phase and requires the participation of all stakeholders.
When there’s no proper fix or patch for an identified vulnerability, mitigation helps reduce the prospect of an attack. The option is used to buy time until remediation is possible.
Part of the mitigation process should include deploying additional tools to help reduce cybersecurity risks. For example, antivirus software can be used to identify and remove malware and other threats within your network. Reputable tools can accomplish this through a variety of measures, including real-time antivirus scanners, remote firewalls, and predictive artificial intelligence threat detection.
Why Process Vulnerability Assessment?
- Identify vulnerabilities ranging from critical design flaws to simple misconfiguration.
- Document the vulnerabilities so that developers can easily identify and reproduce the findings.
- Create guidance to assist developers with remediating the identified vulnerabilities.
Read Next: Chain of Custody in Cyber Security Explained
What Is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing, often known as pentesting, is more akin to a cyberattack simulation. You aren’t merely scanning. As a hacker, you are actively attempting to gain access.
A pentester will take those vulnerabilities and determine whether they can be exploited to steal data, move laterally, or obtain access. The work is creative, individualized, and hands-on. But the brain is the most important instrument in this situation.
More manual and focused is pentesting. You will be able to identify the defects that can truly cause harm, even though you might not uncover everything in a complete VA.
Vulnerability Assessment Vs Penetration Testing
| Feature | Vulnerability Assessment | Penetration Testing |
| Purpose | Find known flaws | Exploit flaws like attacker |
| Method | Automated mostly | Manual with tools |
| Output | Long list of vulns | Proof of what can be breached |
| Depth | Broad & shallow | Narrow but deep |
| Skill | Required Less (mostly scan config) | More (real attacker mindset) |
Why You Need Both Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing
The truth is, neither is superior to the other. All they do is solve various puzzle pieces. Consider pentest as the worst case scenario and VA as the potential problems.
In my experience, organizations in the DFIR field tend to depend too heavily on scanning tools and overlook actual assault scenarios. Locking your door while leaving the window open is the opposite of that.
Conclusion
Regularly perform a thorough vulnerability assessment if you’re just getting started. Patch quickly. Attackers enjoy “low” risks, so don’t disregard them. Do regular pentest if you take security seriously, which you should. Real ones, not ones with checkboxes. That is all about what is vulnerability assessment in cyber security with complete information.