Ending the Lifelong Fight between Security and IT Teams
Introduction
In the modern digital landscape, the continuous battle between the two essential pillars of an organization, i.e. IT and security teams, still occurs. Lack of communication between the two teams lead to misunderstandings, in turn leading to missed opportunities to address vulnerabilities. Without clear communication, important information about potential threats or system vulnerabilities may not be shared in a timely manner.
IT and security teams might have different goals. But one common goal is to keep the company attack-proof.
Many times, the IT team believes that the security team is working against them. Security teams expect the IT team to give them the exact number of assets in the organization. Since both processes are not aligned, the conflict continues to grow.
These clashes or lack of teamwork causes work to slow down, and important work to not get fixed on time. It is like having a leaky roof while arguing about who should fix it, and meanwhile, the rain keeps pouring in, damaging everything. So, fixing this leaky roof is important.
The Discrepancy Starts with Roles
Role of Security Team in Vulnerability Management
1. Conducting regular vulnerability assessments and penetration tests to identify weaknesses in the organization’s IT.
2. After identifying vulnerabilities, the team assesses the potential risks with each vulnerability based on severity and business impact.
3. Work to prioritize vulnerabilities based on the business impact.
4. Collaborate with the IT team to develop a remediation plan and outlines the steps to address known vulnerabilities, including patching systems, or implementing additional security controls.
5. Continuously monitor the security landscape for new vulnerabilities and emerging threats and provide regular reports to management and stakeholders on the status of vulnerability management efforts.
Role of IT Team in Vulnerability Management
6. Implementing the fixes identified by the security team, such as applying software patches, updating system configurations, or deploying security controls.
7. Before implementing the fixes in production environments, they test patches and configurations in non-production environments to ensure they do not disrupt normal operations.
8. Collaborate with the security team to coordinate the patching activities and other remediation efforts to minimize disruption to business operations.
9. Maintains documentation of the organization’s systems, networks, and applications, including details about patch levels, configuration. Also other relevant information that is essential for vulnerability management efforts.
Understanding the Root Cause of the Fight
Differences in Priorities and Goals
When security and IT team’s clash, it’s because they are focused on different goals. The security team is about locking down systems to prevent cyberattacks, while the IT team is more concerned with keeping every asset up and running smoothly. So, when they disagree on what’s more important, arguments flare up.
Scenario
The IT team would want to check the number of assets present in the organization using asset management tool. The security team would want to check if these assets have undergone vulnerability scanning using the vulnerability scanning tool. In the IT dashboard it will show 100 devices but there actually 105 devices. This can confuse the security team on which to scan and the ones that has been missed.
Gap in Communication and Process Alignment
Another big reason for fights is when the two teams just don’t streamline the vulnerability management process. Security is focused on reducing attack surface and strengthen security posture. IT is focused on system performance, asset uptime and meeting technology needs of business. So, when they try to collaborate, things get confused.
Scenario
The security team will ensure vulnerability scans are happening in every device in the organization. The IT team should coordinate and make sure security team have access to all the assets in their organization. Similarly, it goes the other way around. While IT needs to check if all assets are vulnerability free, security needs to give that information to the IT on time.
The Need for an Integrated, Automated, and Continuous Solution
One Tool for Both Teams
Imagine the IT person trying to fix a laptop with a wrench while the security person is using a hammer. It’s a funny scene, but also points out the problem. They’re using different tools for the same job. Instead, they need an integrated platform which can enable IT and Sec team view in every asset in one centralised console. This makes teamwork smoother since everyone sees everything in one place.
Scenario
The IT team would want to check the number of assets present in the organization using asset management tool. The security team would want to check if these assets have undergone vulnerability scanning using the vulnerability scanning tool. In the IT dashboard it will show 100 devices but there actually 105 devices. This can confuse the security team on which to scan and the ones that has been missed.
Responding Faster with Automation
Picture the IT and Security guys chilling with coffee, while a robot dog guards the door. It may sound weird, but this is to show that automation makes their jobs easier. Instead of dealing with 1000s of problems by hand, they use tools that automatically find and fix vulns. Automation makes the stuff done faster.
Scenario
Security teams face this problem of manually scan for vulns which takes a lot of time. IT teams also manually check the assets and updates every time. If there are 1000 assets in the organization, scanning them manually does take a lot of time and effort. With Automation, both the team’s manual efforts and time will be saved with the click of a button.
Help Each Other Meet their KPIs
Both teams have different goals and having a platform that helps both the teams to collaborate and fight against vulnerabilities is a prerequisite.
Scenario
The IT person wants to install a new software to make things faster, but the Security person worries it might open a security loophole. With the right tool, they can see how the change affects both speed and security, finding a solution that works for both teams.
Creating Synergy Between IT and Sec Teams Using SanerNow
SanerNow Continuous Vulnerability and Exposure Management tool is a bridge between IT and Security teams, here’s how:
01 See Everything
Manage vulnerabilities, exposures, and other security risks in a single unified dashboard. It offers a centralised console where both IT and security teams can collaborate. Both the teams can access the same information, track progress, and communicate effectively.
02 Prioritization of Risks
SanerNow’s Risk Prioritization is the world’s first integrated, effective, and rapid risk prioritization based on CISA’s SSVC framework. The vulnerabilities can be prioritized into Act, Attend, Track and Track*. Both teams can work together to prioritize vulnerabilities based on their potential impact on the organization’s operations and security.
03 Asset Exposure
Gain continuous visibility and control over your IT asset infrastructure. Both teams can have a comprehensive understanding of the enterprise IT infrastructure that also helps them collaborate and remediate vulnerabilities and exposures.
04 Real Time Visibility
Access real-time visibility into the organization’s security posture and IT infrastructure. Both teams can access up-to-date information about the security vulnerabilities, asset inventory, patch status, and compliance posture, enabling them to make informed decisions together.
05 Customizable Reports
Create customized reports tailored to your specific requirements. These reports provide insights into key metrics and KPIs, clearing the way for communication and alignment between teams.
06 Integrated Patch Management
Collaborate on patching risks with integrated patch management solution. Both security and IT teams can collaborate and ensure the vulnerabilities are detected and patched immediately or schedule patches during off hours to ensure the company’s business is not disrupted.
07 Meet Compliant Standards
Automate and streamline compliance management with SanerNow. Security and IT teams can ensure the companies compliance standards are up to date by regulating their IT devices with HIPAA, PCI, ISO, NIST CSF, and STIG compliance benchmarks.
Let’s Put an End to the Conflicts
| SanerNow Modules / Teams | Security Team | IT Team |
|---|---|---|
| Asset Exposure (AE) | Security teams can get a key software metrics like outdated and malicious applications. | Run real-time scans on your organizations IT to give you a comprehensive view of your inventory with complete transparency. Also, see rarely used applications. |
| Posture Anomaly Management (PA) | The Security team can schedule and automate posture anomaly scans according to the organization’s requirement. | Allows IT teams to run daily scans to discover the anomalies in your IT infrastructure. |
| Vulnerability Management (VM) | Security teams can perform industry’s fastest vulnerability scanning to detect vulnerabilities and other risks in less than 5 minutes. | Get the complete picture of vulnerabilities and other risks with a single unified dashboard. |
| Compliance Management (CM) | Achieve optimal cyber hygiene with continuous compliance aligning with industry security compliance regulations HIPAA, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, ISO, STIG, and PCI. | Detect non-compliant devices by identifying faulty system configurations with a friction-free and fast compliance scan. |
| Risk Prioritization (RP) | Harness the power of SSVC, CISA’s risk prioritization framework, in combination with SecPod’s CVEM platform, to prioritize security risks effectively and rapidly. | Gain exhaustive visibility into risks to reduce exploitable attack surface. Prioritize risks with a lethal combination of exploitability, vulnerability intelligence, business impact, and context to choose and remove the risks affecting your organization. |
| Patch Management (PM) | Automate the end-to-end tasks of patching from scanning, prioritization, download, and testing to schedule deployment. Also, SanerNow Patch Manager allows you to create automation rules according to your organization’s requirements. | Patch Management helps IT teams eliminate vulnerabilities, promote productivity, and respond fast to known exploits. |
| Endpoint Controls Management (EM) | Security teams can uninstall software, block applications and devices, stop or start services and processes, apply security controls, configure kernel and firewall settings, deploy software, execute remote scripts, quarantine devices, and more. | IT teams can ensure the best health across the endpoints with live monitoring of hundreds of endpoints settings and configurations. Execute and automate all activities across all major OS platforms like Windows, macOS, and Linux from a centralized cloud-based console. |
Conclusion
IT and security teams are the pillars of the organization when it comes to vulnerability management. If these two teams fight, the chances of defeating vulnerabilities and exposures reduces drastically. Hence, it is important to ensure that the two teams collaborate and defeat vulnerabilities together which in turn safeguards the organization’s IT. By using the above solutions for a smooth collaboration between the teams, organizations will become attack-proof, which also in turn increased their security posture.