You’ve been asked for a Vulnerability Assessment Report for your organization and for some of you reading this article, your first thought is likely to be “What is that?”
Worry not. This article will answer that very question as well as why you need a Vulnerability Assessment Report and where you can get one from.
As it’s likely the request for such a report came from an important source such as the Board, a partner, a client, or an auditor, there isn’t a moment to waste. So let’s drive straight in.
What is a Vulnerability Assessment Report and why do you need one?
A Vulnerability Assessment Report is simply a document that illustrates how you are managing your organization’s vulnerabilities. It’s important because, with tens of thousands of new technology flaws being discovered every year, you need to be able to prove that your organization does its best to avoid the attack if you want to be trusted by partners and customers.
A best security practice recommended by governments across the world, a vulnerability assessment is an automated review process that provides insights into your current security state. The vulnerability assessment report is the outcome of this review. Used as a roadmap to a better state of security preparedness, it lays out the unique risks your organization is up against due to the technology you use and reveals how best to overcome them with minimal disruption to your core business strategy and operations.
The help it provides is clear but why do you need one? As mentioned above, it’s likely you were asked for a Vulnerability Assessment Report by the Board, a partner, a client, or an auditor as each of these groups needs reassurance that you’re on top of any weaknesses in your infrastructure. Here’s why:
— Customers need to trust you
Weaknesses in your IT systems could affect your customers’ operations. With supply chain attacks on the rise, a vulnerability in a single company could leave the whole range of organizations paralyzed, as demonstrated by the infamous SolarWinds hack last year.
It doesn’t matter how small your business is; if your customers will be entrusting you with any of their data, they may wish for a Vulnerability Assessment Report first to confirm that your IT security practices are tiptop.
— The Board wants a better understanding of the business’ risk
Cyber security is a growing concern across many businesses, so chances are your board members want to take a better grip of their risk, before the lack of insights into vulnerabilities is turned into a much more serious business problem. With ransomware attacks regularly making headlines, having proper vulnerability management in place and presenting an “all clear” report, can give your business heads that needed peace of mind.
— Your auditors are checking for compliance
Many of the regulatory or compliance frameworks related to security and privacy, like SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS, advise or outright require regular compliance scans and reporting, so if the request for a vulnerability assessment report was made by your auditor, it is likely to be for compliance purposes.
— Your CFO is renewing your cyber insurance
It could be the case that your insurance provider is seeking a vulnerability assessment report as part of the underwriting process. If you don’t want to run the risk of being denied your insurance payment or wouldn’t like to see your premiums rise, then you could benefit from supplying these reports regularly.
Read more: https://bit.ly/3OK9Q6N
You can also read this: Researcher Releases PoC for Recent Java Cryptographic Vulnerability