Identification of security vulnerability
To remove vulnerabilities and make the business strong, it is necessary to identify the security vulnerabilities because if we know the ways of identification and easily handle the risk of vulnerabilities with the correct method. Here are some of the ways of identifying security vulnerabilities:-
- AnalyzingAnalyzing system log data
While working in the real-time environment computer system generates historical and real-time logs representing the IT’s stack performance and health. Analyses of real-time log data reveal hidden flaws in the system, strange entities and signs of malfunctioning due to misconfiguration. Experts can correlate log data across computing elements to prevent the vulnerabilities from turning into an attack vector and detect the root cause of issues. This helps them to identify the various security vulnerabilities and other issues too. - When network audit run
When working on a network, at an interval of time, network audits help in finding any undocumented and unauthorized entries at work. It’s better to perform a network audit after a business expansion, a transformation event like a merger to check about inherited technical debt, the sprawl of network assets, non-compliance with new industry standards, and audit reveals software, hardware and services running on your network. - Leverage a threat intelligence database
The cyber threat intelligence database collects the vulnerabilities and attack information, i.e., compiled data from various computing environments. Vulnerabilities can be identified by leveraging open source databases like Google safe browsing, FBI's InfraGard Portal, SANS Internet Storm Center, Cisco Talos Intelligence (free edition), Spamhaus and partnership with the security vendor which collect threat intelligence data from various organizations. These databases help organizations analyze their IT landscape against them and fag any violation per these known threats. - Using of white-hat hacker or penetration tester
Penetration testers or white hat hackers can identify security vulnerabilities by placing themselves in the cybercriminalscriminal's shoes to detect vulnerabilities that sometimes pass underneath the radar. These white hat hackers act as the third-party perspective into the system status, which is also useful to detect zero-day vulnerabilities unknown to the InfoSec community. - For the detection of hidden flaws, process mining is used.
Process mining technique is applied to the security vulnerabilities and find the loopholes in the system by breaking down enterprise infrastructure and their possible solutions. It answers how you could optimize enterprise processes, yet it is a data analysis technique; therefore, it investigates data from system-generated events and reveals any deviation from enterprise security protocols or hidden shadow processes responsible for the increment of attack surface area. - Simulating a social engineering attack
Vulnerabilities can be identified by simulating a social engineering attack as they address and mitigate psychological vulnerabilities that may be present in the workforce. OrganizationOrganization like Net Sentries or Redscan and other similar organizations offer specialized social engineering simulation services. In this, phishing messages are sent in a controlled environment to observe the user's susceptibility, and its result is documented to overhaul the user awareness training program. - Review of the source code
When an enterprise or organization has to deal with sensitive user information regularly, finding the vulnerabilities becomes mandatory as all the further functioning depends on the initial data. If it is the default, then the whole work effects. Therefore source code review is a must at the code level to find security vulnerabilities. This can be done by inadequate testing at the software development stage, vulnerable open source code snippets or logical flaws used by software vendors. Due to this reason, whenever a new application landscape is implemented overhaul, then it is advisable to request the source code and if full source code isn't available, then request at least a reverse-engineer. - Audit the IT supply chain
Vulnerabilities in the IT supply chain and lack of visibility could create new backdoors to be exploited by hackers. This can be explained if an organization's policy prohibits IT procurement from a specific location because of national security requirements and geographical conflicts. However, if a supplier who hasn't been audited relies on the prohibited region for a small component and service, it's a loss to both sides. Therefore, IT supply chain audits are necessary to secure the system and hardware manufacturing level, write down the source code and track back your ecosystem's origins. - Automation of security testing process
Security of a system can be maintained by regularly testing it at an interval, and human testers and automated testing can do this. Human testers can't detect all the flaws as they are bounded, but automated security testing is unbounded; it checks for bugs, unknown issues and vulnerabilities at crucial points of the software development life cycle. To identify the inherited vulnerabilities in the system, software companies run automated security testing at the development or code designing stage to prevent flawed code from going into production. - Document the hardware landscape
In addition to software maintenance and testing, the hardware landscape must be documented. An enterprise's app and software should maintain up-to-date docs that require scrutiny. The hardware landscape scrutiny includes documenting its trust relationship with another system component, mapping its origin, analyzing hardware behaviour logs and keeping track of firmware update schedules at regular intervals. During security audits in an enterprise, the hardware documentation is studied by auditors to find vulnerabilities in the working environment.
Ways of identification of security vulnerabilities in a business, particularly
- Up to the date of software and operating systems
- Ask the right question
- Full vulnerability assessment
- Evaluation of physical security of network