Two Sides of the Same Coin: Vulnerability Detection and Exposure Management

Part One of Three: Exposure Management that Drives Tangible Cyber Risk Reduction Outcomes

Those of us in cybersecurity know how challenging and dynamic this field can be. At any moment, evolving threats and vulnerabilities could cripple your organization’s systems, applications, and networks – systems that evolve as fast as the threats that target them. It’s a constant battle, figuring out which systems are most at risk, which vulnerabilities might get used against you, and how to patch before attackers find their way in. Just when you think you have a handle on it, attackers raise the stakes with new ways to weaponize vulnerabilities – including those you might have deprioritized – putting your organization at even greater risk.

Effective risk reduction requires a solid bridge between vulnerability detection and exposure management. These two processes are closely related, but they have different objectives and functions. In this three-part blog series, we will explore:

• How vulnerability detection and exposure management work together to enhance your security posture and reduce your cyber risk.
• Effective strategies for risk reduction beyond specific tools or services.
• A future of exposure management that is built on continuous vulnerability prioritization.

Vulnerability Detection is the Act of Finding What You Have

Exposure Management is the Art of Knowing Your Next Steps

Exposure management is your prioritized vulnerability detection data in action – it is “what you do with what you have.” Through the process of analyzing and prioritizing the vulnerabilities that you detected, you can take appropriate actions to mitigate or remediate what you found.  Exposure management is achieved through a combination of methods and frameworks, such as patching, configuration changes, compensating controls, or risk acceptance.

This process, while critical to your security posture, is harder than it might seem and is often ineffective in practice. It requires a deep understanding of rapidly changing operating environments, keeping up with shifting threat landscapes, knowing which assets are at greatest risk (as they constantly change), and assessing the severity and potential impact of each vulnerability. Then you must consider the environment in which each vulnerability exists and align remediation efforts with your business goals, available resources, and risk appetite.

Putting Vulnerability Detection and Exposure Management Together for Cyber Risk Reduction

So then, how do you know that your strategy is working?

Cyber risk reduction can be measured and articulated using various metrics and indicators, measured regularly, and compared over time, including:

• The number of vulnerabilities remediated between scans
• The actions taken and how they meet risk appetite (i.e., percentage of risks mitigated/fixed vs. accepted)
• Mean time to detection (MTTD) and mean time to remediation (MTTR)
• Remediation percentages by risk score
• Comparison of security posture against that of industry peers

With the right tools, people, and processes in place, you don’t just accelerate risk reduction — you also demonstrate the effectiveness of your security stack, illuminate weaknesses before they become costly blind spots, and justify budget requests for new tools and talent with data.

Be sure to subscribe and follow us on social media so that you don’t miss the next installment of this three-part blog series, where we’ll take a tool-agnostic look into vulnerability prioritization strategies that really work.