In cybersecurity like in the emergency room, every moment is critical. Much like an emergency room, where nurses must quickly assess and prioritize patients based on the severity of their conditions, cybersecurity teams are faced with the daunting task of addressing a constant influx of vulnerabilities. The stakes are high, with approximately one in every three breaches caused by an unpatched vulnerability.
The sheer volume of vulnerabilities is staggering. In 2023 alone, over 28,902 common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) were published, increasing from 25,801 in 2019. Recent research from Cyentia Institute found the number of CVEs is increasing by 16% annually. This yearly growth of vulnerability data, coupled with the complexity of modern IT environments, has created the perfect storm. Faced with the onslaught of alerts, cybersecurity teams miss critical vulnerabilities.
The Vulnerability Management Crisis
Many organizations need help with outdated and inefficient vulnerability management (VM) processes. Research shows that the average mean time to patch (MTTP) ranges from 60 to 150 days, with about one-quarter of vulnerabilities remaining unpatched for over a year.
These statistics paint a jarring picture of the current state of vulnerability management. The consequences of the inefficiencies can be severe, as seen by the 2023 MOVEit data breach, which resulted in the compromise of personal data for over 40 million individuals due to the exploitation of a vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer software. Consider too, the wide-reaching Log4Shell vulnerability that originated in 2021. At its peak, 10 million Log4Shell exploitations were attempted every hour, and is still actively exploited today where it remains unpatched.
The Limitations of Traditional Methods
While vulnerability scanners focus discovering vulnerabilities, they fall short in helping organizations manage and prioritize them. These tools output large volumes of siloed data that often lack a business context and threat intelligence needed to prioritize the risk.
Many organizations have attempted to address this management issue with various tools and approaches, each with its limitations:
- Spreadsheets: While great for accounting, spreadsheets are inadequate for vulnerability management at scale. They require manual data entry and lack version history for compliance reporting.
- SIEMs and BI Tools: These tools provide high-level dashboards for monitoring but lack depth such as incorporating asset metadata for custom risk scoring or allowing changes to vulnerability status.
- Ticketing Systems: While seemingly logical, ticketing systems integrations are inconsistent across vendors, leading to inconsistent ticketing, data duplication and clutter.
- Homegrown Solutions: These will often work well initially. However, over time they fail to scale, meet the growing demands of the business, and become more expensive to maintain, and less reliable.
The Four Critical Features of Unified VM Tools
To navigate the chaotic “emergency room” of cybersecurity, organizations need a dedicated, scalable vulnerability management solution that offers these four critical features:
- Central Repository for Vulnerability Data: An effective unified VM tool should provide a single pane view so that security personnel can monitor the organization’s security posture and vulnerability management. It should integrate with and aggregate results from all scanning tools, assessments, and penetration tests.
- Automated Vulnerability Management Processes: Automation is key to efficient vulnerability management. The ideal VM tool should automate as many steps of the process as possible, including normalizing scan result data, prioritizing risk, triaging, creating tickets, assigning them to owners, and generating reports.
- Customizable Risk Prioritization Algorithms: Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. An effective VM tool should help organizations prioritize vulnerabilities and risks using customizable risk scores. These should be configurable based on the vulnerability and asset attributes that are most important to the organization.
- Integrated Response Orchestration Capabilities: Finally, a robust VM tool should automate and orchestrate response through integration with ticketing systems, issue trackers, SIEMs, and incident response tools. This integration enables organizations to respond to vulnerabilities up to 10 times faster.
The Path Forward: A Streamlined Approach to Vulnerability Management
As the volume and complexity of vulnerabilities continue to grow, organizations must adopt more sophisticated and efficient vulnerability management processes. By implementing a unified VM tool with the critical features discussed, cybersecurity teams can effectively triage and address vulnerabilities, much like skilled nurses in an emergency room, ensuring the most critical issues receive immediate attention. This approach not only improves an organization’s security posture but also frees up valuable resources to focus on driving the business forward in an increasingly digital world.
About the Author
Steve Carter is the co-founder and CEO of Nucleus, having spent nearly two decades in security helping organizations to automate, accelerate, and optimize vulnerability management workflows. Prior to founding Nucleus, Steve was a founding partner of Rampant Technologies, providing security, systems, and software engineering services to the Federal Government. Steve holds a Master’s of Computer Science from Florida State University. Steve can be reached online at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevecarter1337 and at our company website https://nucleussec.com/
Source: www.cyberdefensemagazine.com