Given the importance of cybersecurity for businesses in all industries, it’s vital that companies can identify and address any weaknesses in their defenses. Vulnerability remediation, therefore, is critical for maintaining system security, preventing attacks, and staying safe in the face of evolving threats.
As such, it’s important to understand vulnerability remediation, its best practices, and how automated vulnerability remediation can help businesses stay safe. Let’s explore…
What is Vulnerability Remediation?
Vulnerability remediation is the process of finding, addressing, and resolving security vulnerabilities in an organization’s IT environment or network. It’s a key factor in cybersecurity, as it helps businesses ensure their security is up to date and closes any potential weaknesses hackers or other bad actors could leverage.
Sometimes vulnerability remediation is as simple as installing a security patch. Other times it’s a lengthy, complex process requiring updates and training. However, the end goal is the same: optimized cybersecurity.
Why Vulnerability Remediation is Critical for System Security
If an organization’s IT environment has security vulnerabilities, it’s susceptible to attacks from viruses, malware, hackers, and other threats. It’s vital to identify and remediate any vulnerabilities before they compromise security.
As such, security vulnerability remediation is vital for maintaining system security, protecting IT environments from cyber threats, and ensuring operational security across an organization. Without it, companies are leaving gaping holes in their network security.
How Vulnerability Remediation Works
The vulnerability remediation process is a proactive approach to identifying and addressing security vulnerabilities. That requires identifying the vulnerabilities and the risks they present, developing and executing a plan to address each one, and, once each is verifiably addressed, consistently monitoring to watch for any future issues.
The Vulnerability Remediation Lifecycle
Vulnerability remediation best practices can be broken down into four steps:
1. Find
Naturally, you need to find security vulnerabilities before you can address them. The first step in the vulnerability remediation process is identifying security vulnerabilities in your company’s software, systems, or networks.
There are several ways to identify weaknesses, including vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and even hiring white hat hackers. Using multiple methods is recommended to gain a holistic understanding of your security, any weaknesses it may have, and the threats it faces.
2. Prioritize
As convenient as it would be to fix every security vulnerability at once, that simply isn’t possible. As such, the second step of the vulnerability remediation process is prioritizing which vulnerabilities must be addressed first.
It’s recommended to prioritize vulnerabilities based on how severe they are, how easily they can be exploited, and the potential impact. Focus on the most critical vulnerabilities first, and then you can tend to the less catastrophic ones afterward.
3. Fix
Once you know what your vulnerabilities are and which take priority, addressing them is the next step. Start by developing a plan outlining each step you must take to fix the vulnerabilities, whether it’s through security patches or entirely new security measures. This should also include what teams are responsible for which steps and a reasonable timeline for the repairs.
After that, you can follow the plan and begin addressing the vulnerabilities. This can include security updates, installing new software, new security policies, training, and so forth. Make sure your IT, security, and operations teams are aligned and coordinating for a smooth rollout and training process.
4. Monitor
The work isn’t done just because the security updates are finished. After you've repaired the vulnerabilities, you still need to verify that the fixes work. This means repeating step 1 to ensure all the vulnerabilities have been patched, and monitoring systems to watch for new vulnerabilities.
This also requires maintaining security systems and keeping them up to date, as well as staying updated on emerging threats. Security is not a one-and-done project – it requires consistent maintenance and updating to keep networks and systems secure.
Key Challenges in Vulnerability Remediation
Vulnerability remediation can be a lengthy and complex process, depending on your company’s size and security. Several challenges can create obstacles for the unprepared, including:
Limited IT resources: Vulnerability remediation can require multiple scans, penetration tests, and even new security systems altogether. This can take time and resources your IT department might not have, so it’s key to plan and budget accordingly.
Inaccurate or incomplete reports: Not all vulnerability reports are equally effective. Some scanners may be outdated or fail to cover an entire environment, which can lead to incomplete or inaccurate results. This is why it’s essential to use multiple sources for testing and ensure each tool is fully up-to-date.
Lack of guidance: Vulnerability tests can reveal your security system's weaknesses, but not necessarily how to fix them. Organizations will need security analysts and developers to work together to find out how to fix any vulnerabilities, which can require additional tests and attempts.
Unclear priorities: While prioritizing the most pressing vulnerabilities is important, determining which should take priority is easier said than done. Some vulnerabilities can threaten an entire system, while others may only impact less essential applications, and vulnerability tests could reveal multitudes of potential issues to address. It’s vital to identify how each vulnerability can impact a system to prioritize the most pressing issues.
Implementing Vulnerability Remediation Best Practices to Enhance Security
If you want to identify and address any vulnerabilities in your IT security, there are some vulnerability remediation best practices you can follow, including:
1. Use Vulnerability Assessment/Management Solutions
Vulnerability assessment doesn’t have to be a manual process — you can use vulnerability management solutions to optimize each step. Some solutions can also help IT teams identify not only what your vulnerabilities are, but also what’s causing them and the damage they can cause, helping you prioritize and target vulnerabilities.
2. Track Your Metrics and KPIs
It’s useful to track your progress by following KPIs, including your overall progress, speed, efficiency, and net gains. These can help indicate how successful your vulnerability remediation process is and identify areas for improvement.
3. Utilize Reporting Tools
The most efficient way to track and manage your remediation progress is by using reporting tools and software. These can create detailed lists showing the progress of your remediation process, keeping all parties involved updated and on the same page throughout the process.
4. Automate Scanning
Automated vulnerability remediation tools can continuously scan and monitor your systems for vulnerabilities, enabling you to identify and address them quickly.
5. Prioritize
Not only should you prioritize what vulnerabilities are the most pressing, but your business also needs to prioritize the remediation process. The longer the process takes, the longer you’re leaving your systems vulnerable, and the greater the risk of a cyberattack getting through.
How to Create a Vulnerability Remediation Plan
One of the most important things you can do for an efficient vulnerability remediation process is to create a plan. These simple steps cover what you should do when identifying and addressing vulnerabilities:
Identify vulnerabilities and systems affected
Assess the potential impact and damage the vulnerability could cause
Recommend solutions to address the vulnerability
Set priorities and timelines
Assign roles and responsibilities
How to Automate Vulnerability Remediation
Automating vulnerability remediation is one of the best methods for fast and efficient vulnerability detection and repairs. The vulnerability remediation process can be lengthy and time-intensive, especially for larger systems, but automation makes it far easier to locate and analyze potential vulnerabilities quickly.
Automated vulnerability remediation can take several forms, including:
Patch management, which can automatically roll out security patches across devices
Configuration management tools, which automate configuring and hardening systems against vulnerabilities
Remediation workflow management tools, which provide a centralized platform for managing vulnerability remediation
Security orchestration and automation tools, which help identify and address vulnerabilities
Each of these helps automate parts of the remediation process, making it easier and more efficient every step of the way.
Boost Unified Endpoint Security and Manage Vulnerabilities with Splashtop AEM
One of the best ways to address vulnerabilities and endpoint security is with a platform that lets you manage and secure multiple endpoints from a single interface, like Splashtop AEM (autonomous endpoint management).
Splashtop AEM makes it easy to address vulnerabilities across systems by rolling out updates and patches to multiple endpoints at once. It provides visibility into all your endpoints from a single dashboard, with consolidated management for your endpoint policies, alerts, patching, and more.
Additionally, you can purchase the Splashtop Antivirus add-on to protect your business from cyberattacks. Splashtop Antivirus can be managed and deployed across endpoints from within Splashtop, complete with customizable policies and device scanning to identify any threats or vulnerabilities.
With Splashtop, it’s easy to monitor, manage, and protect your network and devices. Experience it for yourself with a free trial today:
