What You Need to Know to Improve Your Enterprise Vulnerability Management Strategy

Enterprise vulnerability management is vital to having a robust, proactive endpoint security strategy that enables organizations to identify and address data and network security issues before they lead to an attack or cloud security breach. This cyclical process involves identifying IT assets and correlating them with a continually updated vulnerability database to identify network security threats, misconfigurations, and bugs. Such management prioritizes the urgency and impact of each issue so your company can respond to critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities swiftly prior to exploitation.

Despite the value of establishing and maintaining vulnerability management tools to strengthen and improve security posture, too many organizations still fall short in obtaining such a service due to various challenges and roadblocks. Unfortunately, more businesses fall victim to breaches than ever before; in fact, global cyberattacks increased by 38% in 2022.

In order to protect against cybersecurity vulnerabilities, enterprises need an end-to-end vulnerability management and compliance solution that provides 360-degree visibility into their security risk exposure and offers built-in remediation. In this article, we will discuss the obstacles businesses face when setting up their enterprise vulnerability management, the benefits of having this effective service, and how it can help defend against damaging cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities.

Why Are Vulnerability Management & Compliance Critical Challenges for the Enterprise?

Despite the central role that vulnerability management holds in an effective endpoint security strategy, there are common roadblocks that organizations face that impede their ability to reliably identify and fix security risks and shortcomings. In most organizations, there are simply too many cybersecurity vulnerabilities across thousands of heterogeneous assets in distributed networks to be tracked manually, and not all of them pose an equal risk.

With the window between network security threats and hackers shrinking, organizations must be swift in their detection and remediation of such cybersecurity weaknesses. It is unrealistic for organizations to move forward without the assistance of an automated enterprise vulnerability management and compliance solution, as so few companies have the time, resources, and knowledge to be able to combat network security issues effectively on their own.

Anandraj Paul, Head of Development and Endpoint Security at ManageEngine, states, “Many vulnerability management tools on the market offer patching through a third-party integration, but juggling multiple tools for vulnerability assessment and patch management results in a fragmented and inefficient workflow. Moreover, if an adversary does use a vulnerability to gain access to the network, they will exploit overlooked misconfigurations to laterally move and compromise other machines within the network. To prevent this, every loophole and software vulnerability must be addressed to minimize the attack surface and strengthen security."

Linux Security expert and LinuxSecurity.com Founder Dave Wreski adds, “While issuing vendor-published patches to affected machines is the ideal remediation option, having a fail-safe plan to fall back on in the case of unpatchable circumstances like end-of-life software and zero-day vulnerabilities is essential to preventing attacks and breaches.”

Security Spotlight: How ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus Meets Our Criteria for an Effective Vulnerability Management Solution

ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus is a multi-OS vulnerability management and compliance solution we love since it is an effective and efficient solution. It is an end-to-end vulnerability management tool delivering comprehensive coverage, continual visibility, rigorous assessment, and built-in remediation of cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities, all from a single console, wherever your endpoints are located. Let’s take a closer look at what makes ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus a great option for organizations looking to improve security posture without sacrificing convenience.

Cybersecurity Vulnerability Assessment

With the plethora of network security issues that exist in OSes, third-party software, programs, and applications today, organizations need to be able to identify and prioritize real data and network security threats, as new vulnerabilities are identified every 90 minutes. ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus enables organizations to assess and prioritize cybersecurity vulnerabilities based on exploitability, severity, age, affected system count, and the availability of the fix.

ManageEngine’s cybersecurity vulnerability assessment tool regularly scans your network for weaknesses, delivers insights into risk, and helps close the vulnerability management loop instantly with direct remediation from the console. With ManageEngine, organizations can:

• Eliminate blind spots and keep track of assets.
• Gain extensive vulnerability coverage.
• Catch online and web application security vulnerabilities as they appear using continuous monitoring logs.
• Assess vulnerability risk and prioritize response.
• Enable cybersecurity vulnerability management to see critical network security issues at a glimpse with dashboard widgets (pictured below).
• Leverage built-in security patching to ensure swift and accurate remediation.

Compliance 

Modern IT’s dynamic nature causes inevitable security gaps, as IT teams are forced to make constant changes to configurations, which can lead to newer systems and software being overlooked, leaving them with insecure setups. Poorly configured systems pave the way for malicious hackers and pose significant compliance risks by incurring hefty fines from regulatory bodies. The Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks provide prescriptive guidance for establishing a secure baseline configuration for assets. However, the requirements are challenging to meet, monitor, and maintain without the help of a solution like ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus.

ManageEngine’s CIS compliance feature helps accomplish and maintain data and network security as well as audit objectives, as over 75 CIS benchmarks regularly monitor your endpoints for all applicable CIS benchmarks, instantly detecting violations and suggesting detailed, corrective actions. The feature allows organizations to easily:

• Group policies.
• Map targets and schedule audits.
• Audit and improve compliance.

Patch Management

Once your cybersecurity vulnerabilities get identified and assessed, the next step is to utilize security patching to protect your company against damaging exploits in cybersecurity. In order to be effective, efficient, and secure, patch management must be carefully planned and orchestrated. If not, it can potentially cause more harm than the vulnerabilities it is supposed to address.

ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus has a built-in patching module that helps you customize, orchestrate, and automate complete patching so that the process is to your liking. The module gives organizations the ability to: 

• Seamlessly patch a heterogeneous, multi-platform IT infrastructure.
• Test, approve, and decline patches.
• Automate patch deployment.
• Customize the patch management process with flexible deployment policies

Security Configuration Management

Zero-day cybersecurity vulnerabilities are inevitable. Without ensuring you have established and maintained ideal data and network security configurations in your endpoints, a single vulnerability could shake your organization to the core. Effective security configuration management tools involve continually detecting configuration drifts and misconfigurations across various components in your endpoints so you can focus on bringing them back into alignment.

ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus facilitates the entire cycle of security configuration management from a single interface, including detecting misconfigurations, categorizing and profiling them, resolving them with built-in remediation, and reporting the final configuration posture. The solution’s capabilities verify that the data and network security of systems is enforced with complex passwords, least privileges, memory protection, and CIS and STIG security guideline compliance.

Web Server Hardening

Web servers are the point of contact between a business and its customers. Servers deliver web pages to clients upon request and host websites and web-based applications. Since a web server is an Internet-facing device, it can provide an entry point for attackers if not configured properly. 

In order to keep pace with industry demands, enterprises must constantly make changes to their server configurations, but making these changes manually often results in dangerous configuration drifts. ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus continuously monitors your web servers for default and insecure configurations so it can display them in the console. With a vulnerability management tool, administrators and IT teams can identify servers whose communications are not secured via a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. SSL certificates are valuable for ensuring data encryption and decryption to protect companies from unauthorized interception.

ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus provides a detailed description of the cause, impact, and remediation of each server misconfiguration. These critical insights can be used to help set up a secure server that is protected against attacks in network security, including URL manipulation attacks, input validation attacks, Denial of Service attacks, brute-force attacks, session hijacking, clickjacking, and source code disclosure, among other network security threats.

High-Risk Software Audit

The proliferation of different devices and software in recent years, especially post-pandemic, has inevitably put enterprises at risk of unsupported and unauthorized software, including end-of-life software, peer-to-peer software, and remote desktop sharing software. This software can compromise a corporate server with network security threats like information disclosure, malicious code injection, and unauthorized access, all of which can damage an organization's data network security and reputation. It is of critical importance to audit such high-risk software installed in network systems without administrators’ knowledge. With ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus at your disposal, you can:

• Monitor your network endpoints continuously and detect end-of-life software, peer-to-peer software, and remote sharing tools present in them.
• Get details on the expiry date and the number of days before software in your network faces end-of-life.
• Obtain real-time information on the number of machines that are affected by this software.
• Eliminate this software with just a click of a button from the console.

Zero-Day Vulnerability Mitigation

Though we would all love to put an end to cybersecurity vulnerabilities once and for all with security patching, such a solution is not always realistic. In some cases, patches aren't available to fix flaws, mainly when they are zero-day vulnerabilities and other publicly disclosed network security threats. Luckily, ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus can help organizations harden their systems and software against network security issues that have no patching options. This vulnerability management tool allows enterprises to:

• Leverage a dedicated view for zero-days.
• Deploy mitigation scripts.
• Stay up-to-date with the latest security patching opportunities.
• Get notified about zero-day patches.
• Keep track of OS and application end of life.

With ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus, you can stop waiting around for patches and deploy pre-built, tested scripts to secure your network with zero-day mitigation solutions.

Beyond the Capabilities of Traditional Vulnerability Management Tools

ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus exceeds the capabilities of traditional vulnerability management and compliance solutions in the following critical areas to provide stronger, more reliable protection against cybersecurity vulnerabilities:

• Executive reports: Review and improve security posture to make informed decisions with holistic reports.
• Antivirus Audits: Gain insight on antivirus protection across your network systems.
• Deployment Policies: Decide when to patch, what to patch, and how to patch.
• Role-Based Administration: Define roles and delegate tasks to technicians based on enterprise needs.

Final Thoughts on Securing Your Organization Against Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities  

With the increase in cybercrime and the growing complexity of the modern IT infrastructure, a comprehensive, automated vulnerability management tool and strategy has never been more important for your enterprise. ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus exceeds the capabilities of traditional vulnerability management solutions to improve security posture, increase visibility, and help businesses meet compliance standards.

Anandraj Paul, Head of Development, Endpoint Security, ManageEngine, explains, "There's no silver bullet solution that renders your network impenetrable to cyber exploits. But by constantly reevaluating and strengthening the security stance of your network with Vulnerability Manager Plus, you stand a much better chance against detecting and thwarting cyber trespassers in your network."

Ready to improve your vulnerability management and compliance strategy to ward off cyberattacks in network security and cloud security breaches? We encourage you to download ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus and see for yourself why we recommend it so strongly!