Trishneet Arora is the Founder and CEO of TAC Security, a San Francisco-based Cybersecurity and Risk & Vulnerability Management Company.
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Full-cycle vulnerability management (FCVM) is a set of cybersecurity capabilities that helps organizations better manage their IT infrastructure as well as rapidly identify and prioritize risks emanating from a wide range of internet-based applications, servers and other infrastructure — both those they are aware of and those they are not.
FCVM should be one component of an organization's comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. It overlaps with other capabilities such as digital risk protection services (DRPS) and other concepts like Gartner, Inc.'s relatively new external attack surface management (EASM).
FCVM includes software and processes — principally, cloud agents, active scanner capability and network analysis — designed to discover all infrastructure assets (including cloud and mobile assets) automatically without the need for human intervention. It includes virtual scanning technology to actively locate assets and vulnerabilities anywhere in the network environment as well as provides a unique cyber risk score to inform IT teams about the overall vulnerability of the network as compared to previous periods. It prioritizes threats so that teams know where to focus resources first. Finally, it initiates remediation processes and provides automatic follow-up so that IT and security teams know which critical vulnerability will be patched.
FCVM can provide support to overworked IT teams in multiple important scenarios. Just a few of these include:
1. Creating a comprehensive inventory of all data, hardware, IP, websites and other assets. Within larger organizations, it's common for local or regional subsidiaries to manage assets locally and then lose track of them due to staff attrition, changing priorities or other factors. These unmanaged assets create vulnerabilities to the organization. The ideal FCVM solution can ingest data from multiple sources to provide the most comprehensive picture available of an organization's risks.
2. Proactively scanning all discovered assets on a regular basis, including mobile and cloud assets, to identify vulnerabilities early on.
3. Initiating a remediation process for issues such as unpatched vulnerabilities and asset misconfiguration and asset IT teams by prioritizing these vulnerabilities, enabling teams to address the most significant threats first.
4. Ensuring network security in different business situations. Two examples include:
• Enterprises and other large organizations are often involved in partnership networks with goals such as creating streamlined supply chains. Extensive data sharing is often one characteristic of these partnerships, creating potential vulnerabilities. The safety of partnership data and IT assets is only as strong as the practices of the weakest partner.
• Employees increasingly use collaboration tools within their organizations and with outside vendors, partners, customers and other parties. These tools create a back door for vulnerabilities that must be managed.
This new generation of vulnerability management solutions is relatively young, and as such, there are a relatively large number of solution providers. As organizations seek to create more mature vulnerability management strategies, they will seek to consolidate capabilities through a single vendor versus multiple vendors to simplify that management process. Given the overlap between FCVM, DRPS, ESAM and other similar architectures, this consolidation should be relatively rapid.
Recommendations that IT teams should consider for 2022 regarding FCVM begin with assessing their organizations' current vulnerabilities and their vulnerability assessment and management practices. Teams should focus especially on discovering all assets within their organizations and ensuring there is an automatic scanning and remediation process in place. They should focus particularly on potential threat vectors among more popular IT tools and infrastructure today — principally, cloud networks, mobile devices and collaboration tools. If relevant, they should also focus on managing potential vulnerabilities generated by partner IT infrastructure. They should ensure that an organization's vulnerability management posture overlaps with other cybersecurity solutions, such as intrusion detection, and that no gaps exist between solutions.
Following these steps can greatly contribute to a productive and safe year.
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