Why Vulnerability Scans Are Important to Evaluate and Secure Your Network

With technology growing faster than ever, businesses need to be secure because as technology advances, so do cyber attacks and threats. Luckily, there is a way to remedy this: Perform a vulnerability scan on your external and internet network assets.

What Is a Vulnerability Network Scan?

Vulnerability network scans involve using a physical or virtual appliance installed in your network. When this scanner runs, it creates an inventory of devices connected to the network and scans applications that are open or installed on such devices. Additionally, other things are identified through these scans, such as the operating system or make and model of such machines, as well as user accounts. Vulnerability scans go through the list of devices, check for vulnerabilities and compile a result of potential issues.

Vulnerability Scans Analysis and Features

Vulnerability scanning software scans external systems outside the company's network and assists in identifying the most severe external threats and vulnerabilities. External scans can also show us how hackers can exploit vulnerabilities and commit cybercrimes. For example, we may see how hackers enter IT assets and ports, and then we can determine how to deal with these vulnerabilities adequately. Scanning software can also scan internal networks, or subnetworks, like Internet of Things (“IoT”) and corporate and guest subnets. These internal scans can inform us of any network security holes or vulnerabilities.

As a result, companies receive insights on improving their patch and security processes and some insights on improving security standards. This software also has the ability to analyze threats in real time with great accuracy. Software agents can be installed into each endpoint and perform deep scans of each endpoint, allowing the user to view each vulnerability it scans and consider a course of action on how to patch and fix the vulnerabilities. The software also has web-based scanning for websites and checks for weaknesses within the website. Ultimately, it helps users focus on the most significant threats and vulnerabilities, and quarantines the devices until they can be thoroughly investigated.

Case Studies Using Qualys, Burp Suite and beSECURE

Multiple well-known vulnerability scanning softwares are utilized in the field of cybersecurity. A particular high-profile insurance company uses one of these softwares, Qualys. Vulnerability scanning is crucial for huge companies because they have so many devices to examine. With vulnerability scanning, this company was able to determine a significant number of vulnerabilities. They found 185,000 vulnerabilities that they weren't aware existed. After implementing vulnerability scanning software, they were also able to achieve a 55% reduction in exposures within six months.^[1] This case study shows vulnerability scanning software is essential because it protects businesses' information. These scans are also vital because they can pick up cybersecurity risks in an enterprise and remediate them before an attacker can take advantage of these weaknesses. Even with protective measures enterprises already in place, exposures can go unnoticed. Vulnerability scanning software can help pick these things up.

Other vulnerability scanners include Burp Suite and beSECURE. Like other scanners, Burp Suite uncovers attacks that may be under the system. These scanners generally result in fewer failed scans and fewer attack surfaces to exploit, saving businesses a lot of time and effort. For example, one Burp Suite client, used this vulnerability scanner to reduce data breaches, secure the software services they sell and maintain compliance. The scanner helped them discover harder-to-find, critical, high-risk vulnerabilities and preserve the safety of the business’s data.^[2]

Like Qualys and Burp Suite. the scanning software beSECURE shows the efficiency of vulnerability scanning. This software scans networks within five minutes and contains accurate scanning that rarely has false positives. Significantly, beSECURE helps repair vulnerabilities likely to cause data loss, which is very important for businesses. The software has daily vulnerability database updates, so the software is aware of the newest threats and will deal with them accordingly. Most clients use this tool for payment card processing (“PCI”) scanning and compliance. The benefits of using this beSECURE are easy deployment, quick scans and scalability for large organizations.^[3]

Tips and Recommendations

Vulnerability scanning technology is fundamental to businesses because they are always active and picking up vulnerabilities; underlying issues that are hard to see are less likely to be missed.

EisnerAmper does not endorse any product or service or warrant that any products or services are appropriate for any particular business.

[1] https://www.qualys.com

[2] https://portswigger.net

[3] https://beyondsecurity.com