Importance of vulnerability assessments

A vulnerability assessment provides an organization with information on the security weaknesses in its environment and provides direction on how to assess the risks associated with those weaknesses and evolving threats. This process offers the organization a better understanding of its assets, security flaws and overall risk, reducing the likelihood that a cybercriminal will breach its systems and catch the business off guard.

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Types of vulnerability assessments

 

• Host-based scans are used to locate and identify vulnerabilities in servers, workstations or other network hosts.
• Database scans can be used to identify the weak points in a database so as to prevent malicious attacks, such as SQL injection attacks.
• Wireless network scans of an organizations Wi-Fi networks usually focus on points of attack in the wireless network infrastructure.
• Application scans can be used to test websites in order to detect known software vulnerabilities and erroneous configurations in network or web applications.
• Network-based scans are used to identify possible network security attacks. This type of scan can also detect vulnerable systems on wired or wireless networks.