Reducing False Positives and Streamlining Risk Management for a Global Pharmaceutical Company

Profile

With a global footprint spanning India, the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, and Australia, this multinational pharmaceutical enterprise operates across seven business units and manages multiple endpoints and servers. The company's infrastructure covers diverse operating systems, including multiple Linux and Windows variants, as well as complex firewall and network configurations.

Introduction

The global pharmaceutical company faced persistent challenges in vulnerability detection and remediation. Its existing setup, which involved agentless periodic scanning via a top cybersecurity solution, created significant blind spots and operational delays. The absence of continuous visibility and credible proof-of-concept evidence created friction between IT and security teams and led to delayed remediation.

The core concern was growing false positives, nearly 30%, and lack of actionable insights. These inefficiencies led the company to reevaluate its vulnerability management program and search for a solution that could bring accuracy, automation, and better collaboration.

The Problem

Prior to adopting Saner CVEM, the pharmaceutical company faced multiple issues that obstructed its security objectives:

• Manual Risk Validation and Remediation:
  
  Vulnerability data required extensive manual cleanup and validation before any action could be taken.
  
• Limited Visibility into Ownership and Risk Prioritization:
  
  The team lacked clarity on who was responsible for remediation, which led to inefficiencies and miscommunication.
  
• High Volume of False Positives:
  
  Over 30% of the vulnerabilities flagged by their earlier tool were inaccurate, sparking frequent conflicts between infrastructure and security teams.
  
• No Proof of Evidence for Vulnerabilities:
  
  Without a verifiable record of vulnerabilities, remediation efforts were often stalled due to lack of consensus.
  
• Credential Access Barriers:
  
  Agentless scanning demanded super-admin credentials across systems, something the security leadership did not permit.
  
• Compliance Gaps:
  
  Without continuous and reliable vulnerability assessments, meeting standards like HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO was challenging.

The company realized that its current approach was not scalable or reliable, prompting the need for a more comprehensive platform with stronger remediation alignment and risk accuracy.

Saner CVEM replaced the pharmaceutical company's previous setup with a unified, agent-based and agentless vulnerability and risk management framework. Its features directly addressed the organization's requirements for proof-backed scanning, ownership clarity, and compliance readiness.

The solution involved five key components:

Vulnerability Management

Saner CVEM introduced continuous scanning across servers, endpoints, and network devices.

• Reduced false positives by offering verifiable PoC evidence for each vulnerability.
• Introduced ownership tagging to map systems to the responsible teams, improving accountability and communication.
• Enabled categorization of vulnerabilities by OS and applications, streamlining remediation workflows.

Risk Prioritization

Risk context and exploitability scores allowed the team to focus efforts where they mattered most.

• Built custom dashboards for ownership groups across internal units such as JXP, business-critical applications, and internet-facing workloads.
• Simplified issue resolution by providing clear, visualized data on existing vulnerabilities and their impact.
• Used RACI matrices to track responsibility and progress, helping align IT and InfoSec teams effectively.

Compliance Support

With Saner CVEM, the company could now confidently meet global regulatory requirements.

• Enabled periodic vulnerability assessments required under GDPR.
• Provided structured audit trails and remediation logs necessary for ISO and HIPAA evaluations.
• Identified vulnerabilities in both infrastructure and applications, as mandated by global pharma compliance frameworks.

Operational Efficiency

Saner CVEM helped eliminate redundant manual steps and gave InfoSec teams a strategic edge.

• Reduced time spent filtering inaccurate alerts and allowed faster coordination with application owners.
• Enabled data-driven decision-making for security stakeholders across all seven business units.
• Improved collaboration between infrastructure and security teams through tagging and centralized visibility.

Evaluation and Procurement Fit

Saner CVEM outperformed alternatives during internal evaluations.

• Addressed all purchase criteria: on-prem compatibility, accurate scanning, actionable PoC evidence, and cost feasibility.
• Delivered value through a successful proof-of-concept exercise, which aligned with both operational needs and management expectations.

Since adopting Saner CVEM, the pharmaceutical company has made measurable strides in security and operational control.

Risk Reduction

• Reduced false positives from 30% to near-zero through accurate validation and evidence-based scanning.
• Improved detection and classification of both OS-level and application-specific vulnerabilities.

Operational Savings

• Eliminated extensive manual effort previously spent validating risk data.
• Streamlined inter-team workflows by assigning ownership tags and shared dashboards.

Compliance Readiness

• Met GDPR, ISO, and HIPAA audit requirements through consistent vulnerability assessment and reporting.
• Delivered periodic application and infrastructure scans aligned with regulatory guidelines.

Collaboration Gains

• Improved alignment between InfoSec and Infra teams through visibility and tagging.
• Replaced friction with evidence-based discussions, improving trust and resolution speed.