Vulnerability Management Overview
Today's open and interconnected networks allow companies to easily share data with customers, suppliers and
business partners. This new landscape offers significant productivity gains for businesses. However, without proper management,
these network efficiencies can pose serious security risks.
Present-day information security threats such as Internet worms, denial of service attacks, viruses, and other intrusions
are more sophisticated, frequent, and dangerous than ever before. The latest generation of automated hacking tools can inflict
worldwide damage within hours and they are capable of attacking many different points on the network. Measuring
and managing network risk is a significant challenge for companies of all sizes.
"Enterprises that implement a vulnerability management process will experience 90% fewer successful
attacks than those that make an equal investment in intrusion detection systems." GARTNER INC
Additional defensive solutions such as firewalls, antivirus software and intrusion detection systems are necessary layers
of security, but they do not proactively detect network vulnerabilities and therefore cannot reliably prevent attacks.
Today's attacks bypass these layers of protection and directly target network weaknesses.
"99% of intrusions result from exploitation of known vulnerabilities or configurations errors where
countermeasures were available." CERT
COORDINATION CENTER
Vulnerability management is crucial to any security infrastructure. It enables the proactive detection
and remediation of security vulnerabilities to correct weaknesses before they are exploited, thus freeing companies from relying
solely on defensive security measures.. According to the Yankee Group, frequent and thorough vulnerability management
is a best practice every company should follow.
