What is vulnerability Assessment?
It is process of identifying and prioritizing the loopholes in an organization’s environment which may impose potential threat on its security.
Identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities well in advance is essential as if there are vulnerabilities present in a system, it can give hackers an opportunity to exploit valuable resources of that system.
Types of vulnerability Assessment
- Network-based Scans : It helps in identifying security threats present in the network, be it wired or wireless. It is further categorised as internal and external scans. An internal scan is performed inside the network, whereas external scanning is done by host outside the network, analysing the network from hackers’ perspective.
- Host-based Scans : In this type of scan, vulnerabilities in particular hosts, such as workstations, servers etcetera are identified. Moreover, system misconfigurations, missing patches and ports are also examined.
- Application-based Scans : This type of scan focuses on identifying loopholes in web applications.
- Database Scans : It scans selected database and identify potential threats such as default username and password, missing security patches etcetera.
- Wireless network Scans : This type os scan includes scanning of wireless network infrastructure of organisation to check its compliance and potential threats such as presence of Rogue Access Points in network.
Vulnerability Assessment Process
- Discovering and cataloging all assets within your network
- Assigning a value to identified assets
- Identifying potential threats that exist for each asset
- Assessing the likelihood that threat may be exploited
- Building a recommendation for cost-effective mitigation
