What is vulnerability management?

Vulnerability management is the process of identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, and mitigating security vulnerabilities or weaknesses in computer systems, networks, applications, and other IT assets. The goal of vulnerability management is to reduce the risk of security breaches by proactively identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by attackers.

Vulnerability management typically involves several key steps, including:

1. Vulnerability scanning: The process of scanning IT assets to identify known vulnerabilities using automated tools.
2. Vulnerability assessment: The process of evaluating the severity and impact of identified vulnerabilities to determine the level of risk they pose to the organization.
3. Risk prioritization: The process of ranking vulnerabilities based on their severity and potential impact, and prioritizing them for remediation based on risk level.
4. Remediation: The process of addressing vulnerabilities by implementing patches, updates, or other fixes to eliminate or mitigate the risk.
5. Ongoing monitoring and testing: The process of continually monitoring and testing IT assets to identify new vulnerabilities and ensure that existing vulnerabilities have been effectively addressed.

Effective vulnerability management is an important component of any comprehensive cyber security strategy and can help organizations proactively protect their critical assets and reduce the risk of security breaches.