If you are watching recent security stats, you’ll likely spot an alarming trend. 

Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) are on the rise and expected to increase by 25% in 2024, reaching 2,900 CVEs per month¹. It’s not a huge surprise that the number of known vulnerabilities is growing, given the proliferation of systems and software.  

Unfortunately, average time to remediation is increasing as well. It’s taking companies longer to address these weaknesses, which does not bode well for their security posture.  For critical vulnerabilities it can take an average of 4.5 months² to remediate, where other vulns can average as long as 9 months³.  

Not the best of news, but with the right cybersecurity strategy and stack, the situation can be managed.  Fortunately, not all vulnerabilities pose a real risk, so injecting risk context into your vuln management process is crucial. A proactive security strategy, namely one that relies on consistent risk-based vulnerability management (VM), provides the foundation of any company that wants to allocate remediation resources wisely and play the long game.  

Zero in on High-Risk Vulns 

Vulnerability management is the ongoing process of discovering, assessing, prioritizing, and remediating weaknesses within your infrastructure. The key to success with this continuous process is perspective. VM can be manageable because you do not need to address all of the vulnerabilities you uncover. Some may be a high risk to your organization while others might not be much risk at all.  This is especially important to remember when faced with a rising number of CVEs and shrinking cybersecurity manpower.

A VM solution that employs risk context will help you cut through the noise and distill your to-do list down to what matters most.   

With a new wave of vulnerabilities at our door, there are definite steps organizations should take to step up their VM game.  

1. Leverage threat intelligence tools | When it comes to hunting down threats and preventing lurking exploits, timely threat intelligence is worth its weight in gold. Early warning systems like honeypots can enable teams to identify cybercriminals’ tactics, techniques, and methods before they strike, giving them time to patch, remediate, and prepare in advance.  

1. Apply critical context | Be sure your vulnerability management solution considers asset inventory and mapping, exploitability, and public risk factors in addition to threat intelligence. This vital context assesses whether or not a vulnerability is actually a risk to business-critical assets in your environment, so you know which weaknesses to prioritize for swift remediation. 

1. Use employee resources wisely | If your VM solution provides you with sensible priorities, you can leave the scanning, vetting, and even prioritizing up to technology and save your valuable team members for tasks that need their skillsets. 

While all vulnerability management programs are integral to securing an environment, employing an enterprise-grade, risk-based VM has some unique components that make it especially suited to handling the big tasks – like sifting through a growing number of CVEs. The right vulnerability management platform will also help you maintain compliance with industry privacy regulations and ultimately help you justify (or readjust) your cybersecurity investments.  

Look for the following in your VM solution:  

1. Vulnerability Scanning and Assessment 
2. Dynamic Asset Correlation and tracking 
3. Threat intelligence and risk context  
4. Intuitive scoring and reporting  
5. Superior customer support 

Use Quick Scanning When Needed 

Feature-rich technology does not have to be a complex user experience. While it’s good to have advanced settings available, sometimes you just need to get in and scan something quickly. Versatile VM tools provide both Standard and Advanced scan capabilities. With its new Standard scan setting (coming August 2024), Fortra VM can get you in and scanning a web server, IP address, or IP range in just a few clicks. Requiring minimal set up, the single-step Standard scan configuration is as accurate as the Advanced scan configuration option, providing the vulnerability information you need to prioritize remediation efforts fast.  

Demand Security that Grows with You  

A growing attack surface is just the price of progress these days. The more new devices, software applications, platforms, web-based content, employees, solutions, cloud migrations, etc. that you add, the more there is to protect. Be sure to provide your team with a powerful, versatile VM solution that will keep pace with the risks that come from a growing list of endpoints and potential CVEs. 
 

1. according to Coalition’s Cyber Threat Index 2024
   
2. Helpnet Security https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2024/05/13/kev-catalog-prevalent-vulnerabilities
3. Dark Reading https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/mttr-most-important-security-metric 
4. Cloudflare https://www.scmagazine.com/news/vulnerabilities-exploited-faster-than-ever-says-cloudflare