Vulnerability Management: Tools, Challenges and Best Practices

In today's competitive marketplace, companies cannot afford to lose time, money, or integrity due to security incidents. Businesses can suffer immeasurable losses if a data center has a production outage as a result of a worm or virus, a hacker defaces a website, or critical customer information is lost or stolen. The fear of revenue loss should motivate smart businesses to begin taking proactive measures against vulnerabilities. The concept of Vulnerability Management is a critical process that should be followed in large and small organizations as a way to identify, assess and respond to new threats before they become a reality. This paper will outline the key steps to Vulnerability Management, and provide an in-depth look at the tools, challenges and best practices of each part of the VM lifecycle.