How to choose the right vulnerability management tool to manage cyber risk.

Many SMB decision-makers want to safeguard their technology assets but aren’t sure how. Without a robust IT department, it can be difficult to know which are the most important steps to take in terms of information security.

For instance, many wonder what is a vulnerability management tool? In a nutshell, application vulnerability management tools enable businesses to carefully evaluate their IT assets to help pinpoint security risks and then implement solutions to mitigate them. Through this process, data and technology resources are better armed through a vulnerability management process to protect them against threat actors.

Cybercriminals, unfortunately, are typically one step ahead of everyone else and always looking for ways to exploit businesses. The security vulnerabilities they uncover can compromise an organization’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. Vulnerability management tools can help businesses keep up the pace to avoid falling victim to threat actors. The best vulnerability management tracking tool can effectively identify vulnerabilities, classify them, prioritize the risks, and, finally, remediate any security threats uncovered.

Let’s take a closer look at how businesses can leverage a vulnerability management framework to better arm themselves and which are the best vulnerability scanners.

Vulnerability Management Tools Comparison

The vulnerability management tools market is comprised of numerous vendors that provide different capabilities to protect SMBs against vulnerabilities and potential exploits. Vendors will look to include unsecure system configurations, missing patches, critical software updates, or weaknesses in various software programs. Essentially, vulnerabilities can be found in a number of places both on and offline in IT assets. Utilizing vulnerability management tools can help to offset the growing number of risks businesses of all sizes face.

To determine the best solutions moving forward, we can look back to the best vulnerability scanner 2021 options. Currently, there are numerous products that are considered to be the best vulnerability management tools for businesses to integrate into their security protocols.

• Qualys vulnerability management
• Rapid7 vulnerability management
• Nessus Tenable Vulnerability Management

Trava also offers a vulnerability management solution that goes beyond the vulnerability risk assessment by providing personalized mitigation services, along with the added protection of cyber insurance.

To decide what’s best for their organization, decision-makers can take a look at vulnerability management tools Gartner, as Gartner presents a number of different reviews to allow readers a deeper look into vulnerability management tools comparisons to better glean their options.

Vulnerability Management Tools Free

Businesses will often look for a good free online vulnerability scanner to implement as a protective strategy. Many of these vulnerability scanner free download options are often fine, as long as the user knows what they’re doing and how to properly integrate the right tools. For instance, there are different types of vulnerability management tools free —so decision-makers will want to do a careful vulnerability scanning tools comparison before choosing.

Remember, when choosing a Windows vulnerability scanner, focus on enterprise options, not home network vulnerability scanner or individual website vulnerability scanner choices, because these may not fully encompass what’s needed. There are some drawbacks with the free vulnerability scanner options for Windows, Linux, and others involved, which we’ll cover in the next sections.

Vulnerability Management Tools Open Source

Not unlike other software types, there are open source scanning tools, many of which are free vulnerability scanning tools. For instance, open source vulnerability scanner Github offers numerous options on its development platform, and Security Weekly tested open source vulnerability scanner 2021 and goes into deep detail about the three open source vulnerability scanner solutions they tested. IBM also offers input about what tool is recommended for open source vulnerability scanning.

Looking at these and other websites can give a good overview of what is entailed with integrating vulnerability management tools open source into a business’s overall security plan. While free open source vulnerability scanner options are workable for some companies, it’s important to acknowledge that any open source software, including vulnerability management tools, comes with a level of risk, along with some significant drawbacks.

Vulnerability Management Tools List

The best vulnerability management tools are easy to install, not complex, and provide accurate results. Unfortunately, not all free versions of vulnerability management software can accomplish this. Common problems that occur include:

• False-positive results
• Difficulty with integration with other solutions (commercial or open source)
• Complex user open source vulnerability management dashboard interface
• Complex configuration getting tools set up
• Substantial time and effort invested in configuring and maintaining
• Open source burnout where contributors stop maintaining the software
• Licensing can be complex

Essentially, like any other open source software, vulnerability scanning tools open source management tools aren’t necessarily matured. This means businesses may also have to do a lot of trial and error to get things right and, unfortunately, many SMBs simply don’t have the resources to manage this along with balancing other vital core business processes. Not to mention, the reliability of these tools is only as good as its participants and, most of the time, there is no warranty to back up any failures.

In the end, many SMBs who go the open source vulnerability tools route end up turning to third parties to help sort through the software, when it may have been more cost-effective to go with a proprietary service in the first place.

Vulnerability Management Framework

Businesses interested in finding a good vulnerability management plan template might want to consider exploring Gartner’s “A guidance framework for developing and implementing vulnerability management” page. Its research covers topics such as vulnerability definitions, the Gartner vulnerability management framework, identifying assets, scanning for vulnerabilities, prioritization of risks, remediating problems, mitigating weaknesses, reassessing, and improvement, to name a few topics.

SMBs can also learn more by seeking out vulnerability management best practices pdf, such as offered by SANS or the vulnerability management framework NIST documents. Closely examining these and other vulnerability management plan template options, along with a variety of vulnerability management process flow chart options can help SMBs determine the right path to take for their vulnerability management tools journey.

Vulnerability Management Lifecycle

Understanding the best tools to use can help define the right journey to take in the vulnerability management lifecycle. To understand this better, take a look at the Qualys vulnerability management lifecycle, which consists of 6 stages of vulnerability management.

• Discover
• Organize assets
• Assess
• Report
• Remediate
• Verify

Other options to gain more insight into this critical security topic include vulnerability management life cycle CEH and vulnerability management lifecycle NIST to better understand why the process is so important. Pay close attention to the remediation phase of the vulnerability management life cycle, because this section not just fixes vulnerabilities, it helps prioritize according to business risk, establishes controls, and demonstrates progress.

As cyber criminals actively exploit businesses of all sizes, SMBs are particularly at risk since they often don’t possess the skills, tools, and personnel to actively identify and mitigate security gaps. To help bring down costs while having access to the best vulnerability management tools, SMBs often turn to an expert cybersecurity service provider who is well versed in this area and has solid tools to provide the best protection. To learn more, try a Trava Security demo today.

Sources

• https://snyk.io/learn/risks-of-open-source-software/
• https://gigaom.com/report/key-criteria-for-evaluating-vulnerability-management-tools/
• https://github.com/topics/vulnerability-scanners