Blogs - Blue Cube Security

When it comes to Vulnerability Management, knowledge is power

Written by Natalie | Oct 7, 2022
The old adage 'knowledge is power' can seem like a cliché within business, but it only stands the test of time because it's absolutely true, especially when it comes to vulnerability management.
 

Today's cyber landscape is complex and constantly changing with everyone including SMEs facing an unpresented rise in the volume and sophistication of attacks. Threat actors are using the power of automation to find targets for known vulnerabilities and techniques to hack into networks and wreak havoc on businesses with phishing, malware and DDoS attacks. This requires less effort than sophisticated attacks using zero-day vulnerabilities and has allowed less skilled attackers to still make gains.

Traditional methods of vulnerability management that require a lot of manual input can seem cumbersome and time consuming against an adversary who only has to check in to see which attacks were successful.

With the National Cyber Security Centre's 2021 Annual Review stating that ransomware is the most significant cyber threat facing the UK, the ability to defend against these types of attacks has become essential. However, effectively managing cyber risk is not only a major concern for big organisations, but also for SMEs, frequently targeted due to poor cyber security hygiene, tight budget, and/or lack of in-house expertise and who are now in reach of attackers thanks to improvements in the scale of attacks.

So, how do you start to manage your cyber risk if you don't have visibility of all of your IT assets? Knowing what's active in your goal hybrid environment is absolutely fundamental to security and this is where vulnerability management comes into its own, giving you that knowledge with full visibility across all your assets (including previous unknown devices, apps, and services) wherever they reside in your network, cloud and /or endpoints.

Rather than a penetration test which delivers a snapshot at a single point in time, vulnerability management solutions continuously scan your network to identify and analyse material risks to your IT environment such as exposed endpoints, unsecured hardware, and misconfigurations.

Vulnerability management provides detail, insight and knowledge required to prioritise and remediate vulnerabilities, secure assets, and prevent gaps from being exploited by cyber criminals. Full visibility of your assets means guesswork and assumptions are left behind and replaced with intelligence and analysis that quickly and directly pave the way for more robust cyber security protection.

This repositions the penetration test not as a fact-finding assignment but as a capstone exercise to provide assurance that the security posture is as secure as you think it is and provide a confidence check on the state of the system. But with so many vulnerability management solutions on the market, how do you know which one is right for your business?

Cynergy SafeScan, powered by Qualys the market leader in vulnerability management, delivers cost-effective and flexible enterprise-level vulnerability management capabilities for SMEs that:

  Discover and categorise both known and unknown IT assets
  Detect vulnerabilities and critical misconfigurations in real time
  Identify unmanaged assets

 Automate time-consuming and complex vulnerability management tasks

  Proactively measure, track, and communicate risk
  Seamlessly integrate with third party solutions
  Scale to add new devices, users, and locations as your business grows
 
But, perhaps more importantly Cynergy SafeScan resolves a couple of the most common issues that SMEs experience with more traditional vulnerability management solutions. Easy to deploy as it's all in the cloud, Qualys eliminates the requirement for capital expenditure on costly tools and equipment that may quickly become obsolete; and as a Managed Service there is no need to spend precious budgets on employing specialist internal resource. 
 

As certified Qualys specialists, the Cynergy Team at Blue Cube Security provide full implementation and onboarding assistance; access to cyber security specialists for advice on prioritisng, patching and remediating business-critical vulnerabilities, as well as support with corrective measures to help shape your wider cyber security strategy.

So, when it comes to vulnerability management, not only is knowledge power, but it is also assurance, risk reduction, and absolute peace of mind for your business.

Would you like to talk to one of our experts about vulnerability management? Get in touch with us via our live chat at the bottom right of this page or here