Organizations and individuals mainly rely on technology for various aspects of their daily lives. As cyber threats are ever-evolving, organizations must constantly stay vigilant to protect their digital assets and data. Vulnerability scanning is the process of scanning your IT infrastructure to detect vulnerabilities and identify weaknesses or security flaws in your system. A Vulnerability scanning tool is used to scan for vulnerabilities. But do you scan for vulnerabilities daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly? Did you know that an average of 25,000 vulnerabilities are being discovered yearly, and before you can remediate it, boom! Another few thousand vulnerabilities are being discovered. Keep reading to learn more about Daily Vulnerability Scanning and how to automate it by using an automated vulnerability scanning tool.
Importance of Vulnerability Scanning
Scanning for vulnerabilities lets you take a proactive approach to maintaining the strong security of your company’s infrastructure. Data breaches or cyber-attacks often happen due to unpatched vulnerabilities or neglecting to scan for vulnerabilities. Once known vulnerabilities are identified by scanning using an automation scanning tool, an organization can take a proactive method to remediate each loophole by patching a vulnerability, closing risky ports, fixing misconfigurations, and many more.
In the past, vulnerability scanning was a periodic and manual process, leaving organizations vulnerable between scans. With the rapid pace of software development and the emergence of new vulnerabilities, the manual approach is no longer efficient. That’s where daily automated vulnerability scanning comes into play.
Benefits of Daily Vulnerability Scanning
Vulnerability scanning is a crucial part of your security team’s overall IT risk management for many reasons.
- Scanning for vulnerabilities daily helps you maintain substantial security in your company and closes any gaps of missing vulnerabilities.
- Organizations should follow cybersecurity compliance and regulations. For instance, NIST, PCI DSS, and HIPAA focus on daily vulnerability scanning to avoid data breaches and protect sensitive data.
- Cyber attackers always stay one step ahead of us and plan to attack intelligently, that’s why it is important to scan for vulnerabilities every day to keep your systems up to date and make it difficult for them to get through.
Implementing Daily Vulnerability Scanning
To fully incorporate vulnerability scanning, you need to implement it daily. Here are some steps how to do so:
- Choose the right tool: Select a vulnerability scanning tool that is easy to use, has a user-friendly interface, and can be configured to run daily, weekly, or monthly scans. Some scanners also make it possible to perform continuous scans that run all the time all day without consuming excessive bandwidth.
- Define scanning parameters: Configure the scans to carry out scans at set intervals automatically. This will ensure that vulnerabilities are detected and mitigated in a timely manner. The scanner should be configured to scan all assets, including servers, workstations, and network devices.
- Regular updates: Keep the vulnerability scanner updated with the latest security patches and software updates. This will ensure that the scanner is able to detect the latest vulnerabilities and threats.
- Reporting: Monitoring the results of the vulnerability scans and generate reports to track progress. This will help to ensure that vulnerabilities are being addressed in a timely and effective manner. Reports should include risk ratings and vulnerability scoring that allow you to prioritize which vulnerabilities to address first.
- Patch management: Implement a patch management process to ensure that vulnerabilities are remediated in a timely manner. This may include applying patches and disabling vulnerable services.
- Continuous education: Provide regular training and education to employees on the importance of vulnerability scanning and how to respond to detected vulnerabilities and threats. This will help to ensure that everyone in the organization is aware of the risks and how to mitigate them.
- Regular testing: Regularly test the vulnerability scanner to ensure that it is working correctly and detecting vulnerabilities as expected. This protects the organization against cyber threats.
Conclusion
In conclusion, incorporating automated vulnerability scanning into your daily routine is a proactive and essential step in safeguarding your digital assets and data. By consistently identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, you not only enhance your organization’s cybersecurity but also reduce the risk of potential breaches and data losses. Also, automating this process reduces the workload for your IT and security teams.