- Network vulnerability assessment
is a way to discover potential security weaknesses
in a computer network.
There are different types of network vulnerabilities.
One is vulnerable configurations, such as open ports.
Another type is known software vulnerabilities
for both operating systems and applications.
The third type is vulnerabilities associated
with compliance to policies and standards.
This one is more human factor oriented
rather than technical.
For more technical vulnerabilities,
especially those related to security misconfigurations,
please check out this national vulnerability database
by NIST, or National Institute of Standards and Technology.
A lot of vulnerability assessment tools use
the common configuration enumeration,
or CCE, provided by NIST.
The process of removing security vulnerabilities as much
as possible is referred to as system or network hardening.
The hardening can be done technically by installing patches
and fixing configurations,
or it could be managerial like auditing and monitoring.
To harden your system properly,
you should understand the nature
of network security vulnerabilities first.
For example, the number of vulnerabilities
is always too many to address.
The second problem is that
the vulnerabilities themselves are dynamic.
They evolve and new vulnerabilities show up all the time.
If you're looking for the best vulnerability assessment tool
for your organization, here are things to consider.
First, you want to know whether the tool can quantify
the severity of the vulnerabilities.
Because there are just too many vulnerabilities
it's often necessary to prioritize
and severity helps you prioritize.
Next is the presentation,
which is how well the vulnerability assessment
tool organizes and conveys the information.
How comprehensive the vulnerability assessment tool is
and how much support is available
are important factors too.
Another critical thing to look at
is the ability to schedule periodic scans.
Network scans cannot be done just once.
It has to be done over and over again periodically.
Therefore, the tools ability to do periodic scans
automatically is imperative.
Employing a vulnerability assessment tool
is a must in securing an industrial strength network.
Finding the best tool for you is another challenge.
I hope you learn the list
what you need to look for from this lesson.