Why Vulnerability Assessment Comes Before Cybersecurity Tools
Cybersecurity discussions typically dive straight into talk about “tools" - EDR, MDR, XDR, etc., but the reality is that most breaches occur because of a single mistake: basic vulnerabilities (forgotten passwords, expired Patching, misconfigured systems) create exposure that may be exploited by attackers.
When an organization knows its exposure level(s), it does not matter how many Cybersecurity Tools they have purchased; until they know where they are vulnerable, the tools will provide very little protection. A regular/repeating vulnerability assessment process provides visibility.
What Attackers Actually Do Today
Today’s attackers do not simply throw darts at an empty wall with no knowledge of where their prey lies. Attackers now use speed and automation as part of their toolkit and they know the targets they are seeking to exploit systems that are unpatched (out of date), poorly configured, contain unnecessary or unchanging service ports, or are protected by weak or shared user credentials.
Unfortunately, for many organizations, there are likely to be attachment point(s) within the organization that provide easy access to the attacker, and these vulnerability points may have existed for months and even years without detection.
As a result, if the organization fails to have an adequate level of situational awareness related to these vulnerability points, then the organization's advanced security architecture will simply be an after-the-fact reaction rather than an approach for proactively mitigating risk.
What Vulnerability Assessment Really Does
A vulnerability assessment provides an organized means to identify, assess the impact of, and prioritize security vulnerabilities across all device types, networks, cloud services, and applications.
Modern methods don't simply scan systems and provide reports but instead put these findings into context; determining what vulnerabilities are reachable over the public Internet; what vulnerabilities have known exploits available; and which vulnerabilities could have severe consequences for essential servers or data.
By providing teams with a limited number of the most pertinent issues to address rather than inundating them with a lengthy list of less significant items.
Why It Comes Before Everything Else
If an organization has established an insufficient or minimal defined baseline of its technology (e.g., unpatched/unsupported versions of software products, default password configurations, unneeded/surplus technology services enabled, overly permissive/indiscriminate access to technology, etc.), there will likely be an exposure window that allows potential attacks to be executed while bypassing any visible or detectable indicators of compromise for the target organization.
Through the Vulnerability Assessment (VA) process, an organization can establish a defined, hardened baseline of technology upon which security controls such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), logging, monitoring and access controls will be installed, not upon an unknown exposure.
Continually, regulatory agencies, customers and business partners demand that organizations take proactive measures to discover and mitigate risk associated with technology vulnerabilities as opposed to responding post-breach.
How VAPT Works with EDR, XDR, and MDR
VAPT, along with other tools such as EDR, XDR and MDR, work together to provide an organization with the best means of finding and stopping threats in real-time while removing easy access points of entry.
Security tools can identify and alert you to an attacker's attempted lateral movement or any alert that appears suspicious. However, VAPT is the means of determining how an attacker was able to gain that access in the first place and closing off that access point.
The two work together to improve an organization's overall security posture; not independently.
Regulatory body and industry requirements including ISO 27001, SOC2, PCI-DSS, etc., continue to require that vulnerability assessments and penetration tests be undertaken annually to maintain compliance..
The use of VAPT has transitioned from being viewed as a technical optional to being positioned at the Forefront of an organization’s due diligence process.
As such, an organization that can demonstrate Regular & Documented VAPT programs will typically experience a Less Painful Audit Process, Easier Security Reviews from Customers and More Trust Based Partners.
The Secret Cost of Ignoring VAPT
Most organizations learn about their weaknesses after suffering a significant blow to the organization through an event such as ransomware, data breach, or downtime of their infrastructure.
The damage incurred from not knowing what your weaknesses were includes downtime, cost of recovery, regulatory penalties, reputation damage over the long term.
The teams that conduct continuous VAPT will more frequently identify their weaknesses earlier than teams that are not conducting continuous VAPT. As such, the time between vulnerability discovery and attack is minimized, allowing organizations to grow their overall security maturity rather than just being reactive.
The Average Incident Begins with a Vulnerability and Is Not the Result of a Zero-Day Exploit
The vast majority of attacks are not conducted using advanced zero-day exploits but are simply the result of neglecting the patching or fixing of known vulnerabilities, such as old VPN devices, forgotten web servers, misconfigured databases, and reuse of passwords.
Continuous Vulnerability Assessments will ensure that the attack surface of your organization is minimized due to the lower likelihood of exploitation using a known vulnerability, ultimately reducing your risk of becoming the target of ransomware, data theft, operational disruption, and regulatory penalties.
Next Steps
For an organisation to optimise its Cybersecurity strategy, they must understand what the potential weak points are, through a Vulnerability Assessment, before these areas are exploited by Cybercriminals.
This should never be viewed as a one-time activity but rather as part of an ongoing cycle within the day-to-day operations of IT and Security.
At Ancrew Global, VAPT is a component of a wider security solution, which will transition an organisation from reacting (putting out fires) to proactively reducing its risk profile.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss how VAPT could benefit your organisation, as well as to request a demonstration of the service.