Vulnerability ManagementBest Practices
Vulnerability management can feel like a tedious and repetitive task. Scanning systems, reviewing results, prioritizing findings, remediating issues, and then doing it all over again. However, failure to maintain this cycle can lead to catastrophic outcomes for organizations. The reality is that consistent, periodic vulnerability scanning is one of the most effective defenses against cyberattacks — and one of the most commonly neglected.
New vulnerabilities are discovered and disclosed every day. The National Vulnerability Database (NVD) recorded over 25,000 new CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) in 2023 alone, and the pace continues to accelerate. Each of these vulnerabilities represents a potential entry point for attackers.
A single point-in-time assessment gives you a snapshot, but the security landscape changes daily. Software updates introduce new code paths, cloud configurations drift from their intended state, new services get deployed, and previously unknown vulnerabilities in existing software come to light. Without regular scanning, you're making decisions based on outdated information.
Some of the most devastating breaches in recent history stemmed from known, unpatched vulnerabilities. The 2017 Equifax breach — which exposed sensitive data on over 145 million people — was caused by a failure to patch a known Apache Struts vulnerability that had a fix available for months. The WannaCry ransomware attack spread globally by exploiting a Windows vulnerability for which Microsoft had already released a patch.
The question isn't whether your organization has vulnerabilities — it's whether you know about them before an attacker does.
At minimum, organizations should conduct vulnerability scans monthly. For environments that handle sensitive data or are subject to compliance requirements, weekly or even continuous scanning is advisable. The key is consistency — a quarterly scan is far better than an annual one, and a monthly scan is better still.
Your scanning program should encompass external-facing assets such as websites, APIs, and cloud services, internal network infrastructure including servers, workstations, and network devices, web applications which often contain the most exploitable vulnerabilities, cloud environments where misconfigurations are the leading cause of breaches, and third-party components and dependencies which represent an increasingly common attack vector.
Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. A critical vulnerability on an internet-facing system demands immediate attention, while a low-severity finding on an isolated internal system can wait. Use a risk-based prioritization framework that considers the severity of the vulnerability (CVSS score), the exposure of the affected system, the sensitivity of the data it handles, and whether active exploits exist in the wild.
Effective vulnerability management requires metrics. Track your mean time to remediate (MTTR) for critical, high, medium, and low findings. Monitor the total number of open vulnerabilities over time. Measure your scan coverage to ensure no systems are being missed. These metrics help you demonstrate progress to leadership and identify areas that need additional resources.
For organizations that develop software, vulnerability scanning should be integrated directly into the software development lifecycle. Static Application Security Testing (SAST) can catch vulnerabilities in source code before deployment. Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) finds runtime vulnerabilities in running applications. Software Composition Analysis (SCA) identifies known vulnerabilities in third-party libraries and dependencies.
By shifting security testing left — catching issues earlier in the development process — organizations can fix vulnerabilities when they're cheapest and easiest to address, rather than scrambling to patch production systems.
The biggest challenge with vulnerability management isn't the scanning itself — it's maintaining the discipline to act on the results consistently. Automate wherever possible, from scan scheduling to ticket creation to compliance reporting. Build remediation into your team's regular workflow rather than treating it as a separate fire drill. And remember: a vulnerability management program that covers 80% of your environment consistently is far more valuable than one that aims for 100% but only runs sporadically.
The organizations that treat vulnerability management as an ongoing operational practice — rather than a periodic checkbox exercise — are the ones that successfully stay ahead of the threat landscape.
Our team can help you assess and mitigate security risks specific to your business.