Vulnerability Analysis: Understand the Importance of This Task!

This functionality involves a combination of processes that map any issues that could affect an organization’s IT infrastructure and systems. Therefore, it is essential for assisting in decision-making or security measures.

Continue reading the article to understand why vulnerability analysis NEEDS to be part of your company’s cybersecurity routine. Check it out!

What is vulnerability analysis? In the following text, you will learn about the benefits and how the stages of vulnerability analysis are performed. But first, let’s highlight what this functionality really entails.

Vulnerability analysis is a range of processes aimed at mapping problems that could affect and harm the IT infrastructure and systems of your client’s businesses.

Thus, all actions performed identify flaws and gaps that could expose data and compromise business security. The analysis indicates weaknesses and helps to eliminate or reduce major risks.

It’s important to understand that these gaps can occur for various reasons, such as human error, programming mistakes, or even damage to a device.

The importance of vulnerability analysis Having the opportunity to identify and fix system gaps is synonymous with improved performance and security.

The objectives of vulnerability analysis give an idea of its importance to the company. They align with the benefits that vulnerability analysis brings to the environment.

In addition to improved performance and security, finding configuration flaws and identifying the absence of updates or security patches are also significant gains from the analysis.

In summary, vulnerability analysis is important because it ensures the continuous improvement of a company’s infrastructure. This happens in various aspects, as the analysis includes important practices that reduce risks.

The main threats to corporate systems occur due to some internal problems:

• Poorly structured security policies;
• Outdated systems and devices;
• Use of incompatible IT solutions;
• Human errors;
• Lack of system monitoring;
• Lack of support and maintenance.

Therefore, it is crucial to conduct vulnerability analysis, as it becomes evident how essential it is to address internal failures and virtual attacks.

This process also helps companies make better decisions related to data security, as it is possible to gather essential information about system health.

In this way, the company can better implement security policies, assisting in compliance with regulations.

Differences between threats, risks, and vulnerabilities Before continuing with the analysis of vulnerabilities, let’s explain the differences between this concept compared to risks and threats.

Threats Starting with the simplest, threats are the chances of incidents arising from system weaknesses, which can be internal or external.

They can be caused either intentionally or accidentally.

Risks When we talk about risks, we usually mention risk and vulnerability analysis, as it involves more than one study.

Thus, when referring to risks, we mean what is at stake in cases of vulnerabilities. That is, the risk can be calculated based on probability and impact on the business.

This justifies the need for risk and vulnerability analysis!

Vulnerabilities In risk and vulnerability analysis, vulnerabilities are clearly identified. These are weaknesses or gaps in a company’s IT security that can be exploited by hackers for network attacks.

Stages of vulnerability analysis With the constant emergence of new technologies, vulnerability analysis needs to be conducted frequently to identify existing weaknesses and make necessary corrections.

To be carried out strategically and effectively, the analysis is divided into several essential stages.

Risk Assessment Initially, it is necessary to identify all assets that are part of the company’s IT infrastructure. This includes servers, software, mobile devices, workstations, etc.

By mapping these assets, it becomes much easier to visualize critical activities that require attention in the following stages.

At this stage of the assessment, it is important to understand the business's operations and structure, as each business has its own context, priorities, and specifics. Having input from all teams in the company is very helpful to understand the infrastructure and fundamental processes of that business.

A recommended practice by experts is to classify all analyzed data, often using a scale from 1 to 5:

• Public information about the organization;
• Non-confidential internal data;
• Sensitive information (e.g., business plans);
• Data available only to specific employees;
• Confidential information.

Vulnerability Assessment Once the risk assessment information is available, the next step is to evaluate the identified vulnerabilities. Based on the related threats, vulnerabilities can be assessed using STRIDE, a well-known method for categorizing threats.

Here’s how it works:

• S (Spoofing of Identity): identity theft or forgery;
• T (Tampering with Data): data breach or alteration;
• R (Repudiation of Transaction): transaction repudiation;
• I (Information Disclosure): unauthorized information disclosure;
• D (Denial of Service): denial of service attacks;
• E (Elevation of Privilege): privilege escalation.

Risk Treatment Once the previous stages are completed, it will be clear where the greatest gaps and threats to your business’s information security are. Now, it’s time to move on to the final stage of vulnerability analysis: risk treatment.

It is ideal to start by prioritizing the IT infrastructure assets that are under the greatest threat of attack. Additionally, knowing the threats allows for a better understanding of which tools are most effective for fixing the issues.

Finally, it is advisable to conduct penetration tests, which can identify flaws that may not have been found during the other stages of the process.

Benefits of Vulnerability Analysis In addition to preventing cybercrimes, vulnerability analysis brings a range of benefits to your company, starting with protection against threats that occur daily in the virtual world.

Here are some of the most common benefits:

• Speed in identifying flaws;
• Security and control;
• Data confidentiality;
• Improvement in integrity;
• Continuous support in implementing internal security policies.

As you can see, these are fundamental benefits for the smooth operation of a company!

We also have a guide on best practices on BugHunt’s blog that helps with 10 steps to conduct vulnerability analysis in your business. Don’t miss it!