What is Vulnerability Management?
Vulnerability management is the continuous, systematic procedure of detecting, assessing, reporting on, and patching security vulnerabilities across systems, workloads, and endpoints. Typically, an information technology (IT) security team will use a vulnerability management software to identify vulnerabilities and utilize different procedures to patch them.
The five stages of vulnerability management are:
- Assess
- Prioritize
- Act
- Reassess
- Improve
What are Vulnerability Management Tools?
A vulnerability management tool uses advanced threat intelligence and knowledge of business and IT operations to address vulnerabilities and prioritize risks as quickly as possible. According to a recent data breach report, the average cost of an enterprise data breach in 2021 is $4.24 million.
The most common initial attack vendor was compromised credentials, responsible for 20% of data breaches. It is clear to see the need for a strong vulnerability management software, especially as remote work becomes the new normal.
When selecting a vulnerability management software, keep these points in mind:
- Time is of the essence. A vulnerability management solution should detect vulnerabilities in a timely fashion. If not, the solution does not offer the overall protection you seek.
- Performance impact on an endpoint is vital. When looking for an agent-based solution, look for one with a lightweight agent. Bulky agents are hefty on an endpoint and often impact performance.
- Real-time, comprehensive visibility is key. You should leverage a solution that offers real-time, comprehensive network visibility. Network scans often produce delayed results with bulky reports that can compromise network security—real-time data interaction is crucial.
Also read: How to Prevent Third-Party Vulnerabilities
Top Vulnerability Management Software
Tenable.io Vulnerability Management
Tenable.io Vulnerability Management is a comprehensive vulnerability management software that is managed in the cloud and powered by Nessus, a proprietary vulnerability scanner. The cloud-based vulnerability solution provides complete visibility into the vulnerabilities and assets in your organization and helps predict which security issues require immediate remediation.
Key Differentiators
- Configuration management database (CMDB) integrations, cloud connectors, passive monitoring, agents, and active scanning provide a continuous view and unified visibility of all your assets, both known and unknown (previously).
- The vulnerability management tool provides extensive security configuration and common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) support with coverage for over 66,000 vulnerabilities.
- Tenable.io Vulnerability Management combines data science, advanced threat intelligence, and vulnerability data for easily understandable risk scores to rapidly assess risk and determine which vulnerabilities to tackle first.
- With the solution, you can obtain targeted alerts when new threats appear.
- You can obtain immediate insights for rapid analysis with intuitive dashboard visualizations.
- Leverage custom reports to inform IT security teams about critical issues.
Pricing: Fill out a short form to try the software, free of cost, for 30 days. Starting at 65 assets (and available for over 250 assets on a custom plan), Tenable.io Vulnerability Management offers three subscription options based on yearly rates. You can purchase the software at $2,275 for one year, $4,436.25 for two years, and $6,438.75 for three years.
InsightVM
InsightVM by Rapid7 is a scalable and efficient vulnerability and endpoint analytics platform. The solution leverages Rapid7’s vast library of real-time reporting, exposure analytics, Internet-wide scanning data, global attacker behavior, exploit knowledge, and vulnerability research to collect vulnerability data and convert it into answers.
Key Differentiators
- The solution enables you to gain clarity into risk, so you can work closely with technical teams.
- You can align traditionally isolated teams and drive impact with the common language and shared view of InsightVM.
- The vulnerability management software helps you take a proactive, progressive approach to security with metrics and tracking that recognize progress and create accountability.
- InsightVM is a lightweight endpoint agent that automatically collects data from all endpoints, including sensitive assets and remote workers.
- The software provides live, interactive dashboards which offer a live view into your risks and remediation, vulnerability, and asset analytics. You can easily build full dashboards and custom cards for any team member.
- InsightVM’s Real Risk Score provides an actionable, 1–1,000 scale backed up by business context and threat feeds to determine the likeliness of an attacker exploiting critical vulnerabilities.
- With IT-integrated Remediation Projects, IT security teams can track and assign remediation duties in real time, thereby providing continuous visibility into how threats are being remediated.
- Other features include cloud and virtual infrastructure assessment, attack surface monitoring with Project Sonar, container security, integrated threat feeds, goals and service level agreements (SLAs), InsightVM’s RESTful API, policy assessment, automation-assisted patching, and automated containment.
Pricing: Fill out a simple form to commence an InsightVM free trial. The solution starts at $22 per asset, and you can request a custom quote as well. The Rapid7 team recommends purchasing the product if you have at least 512 assets.
Qualys VM
Qualys VM provides continuous detection and protection against threats, anytime and anywhere. The fully cloud-based, scalable, and extensible solution provides advanced vulnerability management capabilities, including complete visibility into where your assets are vulnerable and how to secure them.
Key Differentiators
- The solution continuously scans and detects vulnerabilities with Six Sigma accuracy, protecting your assets.
- In addition to scanners, Qualys VM works with Qualys Cloud Agents, thereby extending its network coverage to assets that cannot be scanned. These lightweight, self-updating, all-purpose agents inhabit the assets they monitor.
- When paired with continuous monitoring (CM), Qualys VM helps information and security (InfoSec) teams tackle potential threats with proactive alerting.
- The executive dashboard provides access to remediation details and an overview of your security posture.
- Qualys VM generates role-based, custom reports for various stakeholders.
- You can prioritize remediation by assigning a business impact to every asset.
- Identify which certificates, services, ports, and operating systems (OSs) are on each device in the network.
- Overall, Qualys VM offers extensibility, robust scalability, accuracy, low total cost of ownership (TCO), and fast deployment.
Pricing: Try Qualys VM for free today. Contact the Qualys team for a custom quote.
Tripwire IP360
Tripwire IP360 is a seamless vulnerability management platform that provides prioritized, meaningful risk scoring, full network visibility, enhanced productivity, scalability, and flexibility. The platform eradicates unnecessary alerts and focuses on what really matters—detecting critical threats.
Key Differentiators
- The solution is flexible and scalable and meets your largest deployments and needs.
- Prioritized risk scoring helps you focus on the issues that really matter.
- You can improve efficiency by integrating the security tools you already use.
- With full network visibility, you can accurately detect, discover, and profile all assets on the network.
- With agentless and agent-based scans, you can locate previously undetected assets.
- The vulnerability management software cuts through the noise by ranking vulnerabilities numerically based on age, ease of exploit, and impact. The solution’s fingerprinting technology limits scans to relevant application and device types.
- The tool’s open APIs enable you to integrate vulnerability management with asset management and help desk solutions.
Pricing: Request a demo by filling out a simple form. A product specialist will contact you with a demo specially crafted to meet your security needs. You can directly request Tripwire IP360 pricing information as well.
GFI LanGuard
GFI LanGuard is a patch management and network security scanner tool that enables you to easily manage your network-patching needs, run over 50,000 vulnerability assessments and benefit from a virtual security consultant for free consultations.
Key Differentiators
- Patch management capabilities include automatic or on-demand network scans, auto-download of missing patches and patch roll-back for Windows, macOS, and Linux OSs.
- The solution provides patch management support for third-party applications as well.
- GFI LanGuard scans devices across multiple platforms, including the above OSs; Android and iOS devices; and network devices like printers, routers, and switches, and it gives you the power to detect and correct critical threats. The solution recommends a course of action and provides you with the tools to solve the issue(s).
- The solution’s auto-update system is kept up to date with the latest security updates and vulnerability checks.
- You can integrate with over 2,500 critical security applications, including categories like antivirus, patch management, and data loss prevention.
- GFI LanGuard’s in-depth network auditing reports give you a real-time snapshot of the network’s status.
- A powerful, interactive dashboard provides a history of all relevant network changes and the current network security status.
Pricing: A GFI LanGuard subscription costs $26 per asset for 10–49 assets on a yearly basis. A 1-year subscription for 50–249 assets costs $14 per asset, and a 1-year subscription for 250–2,999 assets costs $10 per asset. You can purchase 2- and 3-year plans as well. Alternatively, you can request a personalized quote to match your needs.
Choosing Vulnerability Management Software
Vulnerability management tools help avert future security breaches. In this guide, we covered the top vulnerability management software on the market. Each software is feature-laden and worth surveying. We recommend doing further research to determine the suitability of each product for your organization.
Visit the website of each solution, compare pricing plans, and go through reviews on popular customer forums. Only make a purchase once you have narrowed down on a solution and are sure that it meets all your company’s needs.
Read next: Top EDR Tools & Software 2021
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