Like it or not, your organization is always working against you by installing insecure software, code, or systems that you are responsible for safeguarding. And things are only going to get worse, as we’re on track to break the previous high of approximately 54 CVEs every day in 2021.

These flaws aren’t just minor inconveniences. Cybersecurity breaches resulting from exploited vulnerabilities account for roughly 60% of all incidents, according to some estimates. All your other security measures, including firewall management, access controls, and other endpoint protections, are only reducing a small fraction of your overall business risk.

To put it another way, patching and other mitigations for security vulnerabilities are soon becoming a necessity.

What are the five questions you should ask yourself to help you achieve this goal?

Is it possible to automatically identify all the assets that could be at risk?

This may be more difficult than it appears. It’s possible that you have an up-to-date list of all the operating systems installed on your on-premises machines. Can you, on the other hand, quickly identify all of your organization’s injectable Web apps and out-of-date software?

What makes you so certain? You’ll be exposed even after you think you’ve safeguarded yourself if you don’t look for weak assets. That’s because doing so increases your window of vulnerability.

It is important to know what hurdles may stand in the way of remediation once you have identified an asset that is vulnerable.

SecOps personnel isn’t usually given the authority to promptly respond to any vulnerability they discover. As a result, the remediation is often delayed because of the time it takes to coordinate with other departments and/or IT groups who “own” the asset in question.

Patching may have to be put on hold for a few days if the vulnerable asset is essential to the organization’s operations.

Does your remediation of vulnerabilities consider the danger to your business?

If you don’t have the resources to fix every vulnerability in your environment at once, it makes sense to focus on the most critical ones first.

In contrast, spending two weeks patching 1,000 inconsequential assets exposed to a single “well-known” CVE is a waste of time. It’s possible that throughout that period, one vulnerability could have been overlooked that could have had far-reaching effects on your company.

So, what is your current strategy for prioritizing your work on vulnerability management? Is there a way to prioritize them more intelligently, utilizing automated context collection to find valuable assets? Alternatively,

How long does it take from the time a CVE is published until you fix the last affected asset?

For many organizations, comparing their average time-to-remediate to what they believe is an industry average of two weeks is a common way to evaluate their capacity to remediate security vulnerabilities.

In many ways, this is a huge mistake. First and foremost, the average time to remediate does not establish your risk. When it comes to assets that could put your company’s finances at risk, the following factors come into play: your longest time to fix “high likelihood of exploitation” vulnerabilities; risk is a function of the probability and the severity of the consequences.

As a second point, self-reported numbers on remediation times can be deceptive. However, even though they have months or years’ worth of vulnerabilities that need to be remedied, many businesses still report an average time-to-remediation (TTR) of just a few weeks. They don’t pay attention to those flaws because they don’t think they’re important. What are you doing to guarantee that the mean remediation time computation is not influenced by confirmation bias?

As a final point, the wide average is a lousy benchmark because it’s still a low bar to measure against. It’s very uncommon for a known vulnerability to be present in an organization’s network for months or even years before it’s discovered and exploited. As a result, being merely “average” is a grave mistake.

Are you able to secure the resources required to expedite and assure the thoroughness of your remedial activities?

Per CVE (remember, there are 50+ every day) or other vulnerabilities, it would be fantastic if there was a magic wand that allowed you to reply instantaneously to every affected asset. and deploy the required repairs everywhere. However, this is not the case. It’s difficult to find There is a balance between operational IT risk and information security risk. Regardless, we know that speedier recovery requires greater funds and a repeatable risk-based prioritization methodology. Reduce the danger of these security vulnerabilities by increasing your resources or making better use of those you already have, if you desire to do so.

A common theme throughout the five questions is the security vulnerability patching process’ impact on your organization’s cybersecurity. After pondering the foregoing, you’ve come to a new conclusion about this topic.

And if you’re still not sure how to proceed, don’t hesitate to give us a call if you think we can help. We’ve compiled a list of possible replies for you.

Conclusion

According to some estimates, 60% of all cyberattacks exploit vulnerabilities. We’ll break the daily record of 54 CVEs in 2021. Soon, security patches and other mitigations will be required. Many companies compare their average remediation time to a two-week industry average. Many firms have months or years of vulnerabilities that need to be fixed, but they don’t.

Can you get the resources needed to speed up and thoroughly complete your remedial activities? Do you use risk-based prioritization? Do you know how patching affects your company’s cybersecurity?