We all know where vulnerability management fits into an overall security strategy; it provides the raw data that analysts use to figure out what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed. The problem is, traditional VM stops there – leaving analysts to do all the work.
Today’s companies don’t have the luxury of doing that anymore. Experts are needed on the front lines, not vetting false positives, and VM solutions that deliver nothing but a data dump are on the road to becoming obsolete.
What is taking their place? New, workflow-centric VM solutions are evolving which do everything that old VM solutions do, and more. They not only gather the data, but analyze it, remove duplicates, prioritize it, and integrate it directly into your cyber workflows for you.
Now, you can have more time – and more experts – on your hands.
The Problem with Data-Centric VM Tools
Data-centric VM tools produce a lot of data – a lot. Nobody needs a list of thousands of CVEs. As the old saying goes, too much information is just as good as not enough.
This leaves security teams trying to sift through and action on impossibly long vulnerability lists, performing the same process for each one: verifying its existence, confirming its impact, and assessing its severity. This can mean resorting to multiple tools and manual processes, including:
- Reverse engineering
- Exploiting the vulnerability in a safe environment
- Creating a report with viable remediation steps
And often more. Now imagine doing this for each one. For those working off traditional VMs, you don’t have to imagine. What SOCs need now is actionable, operationalized threat intelligence that makes sense - right off the bat, and ready to go.
Enter workflow-driven VM.
The Shift to Workflow-Driven VM
Integrating VM into security operations workflows is the saving grace that will allow SOCs to keep up with vulnerability-driven threats in the future. Unpatched vulnerabilities cause as many as 60% of all cyberattacks, and with threat actors leveraging force-multiplying tools like generative AI, who knows how high that number will be in the future.
The writing on the wall is clear: the companies that try to do VM in a quasi-manual way will be surpassed sooner rather than later; if not by adversaries, then by competitors. And we all know it’s the weakest link that gets picked off by attackers.
With automated ticketing, prioritization, and remediation next steps, workflow-driven VM provides the answer teams need to keep up with today’s threats at scale.
Benefits of Workflow-Centric VM Solutions
With a workflow-centric VM solution in place, companies benefit from the following results:
- Faster response times: No more lagging research period before your SOC can move to block threats.
- More SOC availability: Now that your analysts aren’t spending time doing what technology can do alone, they have more time to action on remediation steps when they come and get through more threats faster.
- Better accuracy, better data: Drastically reduce the risk of human error in the early stages by automating the threat identification and vetting process.
What to Look for in a Workflow-Enabled VM Platform
When investing in a workflow-enabled VM platform, organizations want to look for:
- API integrations with IT Service Management (ITSM) tools: Leverage APIs to automate data exchange, improve collaboration and efficiency, and quickly get important information where it needs to go.
- Role-based dashboards: Don’t make your teams parse out their own data. Deliver custom insights and context specific to their roles for faster response.
- Built-in remediation workflows: Streamline the process from start (identification) to finish (remediation) with built-in flows that work off playbooks. Eliminate low-level busy work so your team can pursue the threats that count.
How Fortra’s Digital Defense Can Help
Fortra’s Digital Defense helps bridge the gaps between where VM is today and where companies need to be in the future, to take on threats at-scale.
Key capabilities include:
- Network Map asset visualization: See and control your network like never before; view at-risk assets, leverage threat intelligence and metadata, and create scans and labels all in one place.
- Security GPA: Find out your organization’s overall security score, based on all vulnerability inputs. See it improve as you do.
- Connect API: Integrate with a range of platforms (IBM QRadar, Cisco, McAfee, etc.) to discover, score, analyze, and prioritize findings automatically.
All these features (and more) combine to deliver the kind of VM program that can keep up with the number of threats found across the cloud, SaaS applications, and on-premises environments in a modern digital enterprise – and do it with fewer than 1% false positives.
As the attack surface widens for companies across the board, workflow-driven VM will help teams turn vulnerability data into autopilot results in a way that keeps them ahead of attackers and the competition.
For a full list of Fortra’s Digital Defense workflow-centric VM capabilities, download the Buyer’s Guide.
Break the Attack Chain with Fortra®
Advanced offensive and defensive security solutions. Complete attack chain coverage. Shared threat intel and analytics. Add Fortra® to your arsenal.
