Vulnerabilities in IT systems are an invitation for malicious attackers to compromise the security of corporate data. It is essential that IT managers are able to analyze their internal and external infrastructure in order to identify, classify and eliminate vulnerabilities. A vulnerability can result from human error, it can be a set of programming errors or configuration problems. Whatever its origin, it is a priority to know how to deal with these situations in the best possible way, under pain of compromising the entire business. In today’s article, we present the best strategies for dealing with IT vulnerabilities!
Define responsibilities
It is necessary to define a team responsible for the management of vulnerabilities. This team must be multidisciplinary and able to guarantee the security of the organization’s data even in the most extreme scenarios. The tasks of vulnerability management should be the responsibility of an internal security team that acts frequently, in order to permanently monitor the state of the company’s infrastructure.
Risk mapping
All possible risks must be recorded, even if the probability of causing problems is low. It is important to take extra care with software that handles sensitive data and personal and financial data. The timeliness with which vulnerabilities are analyzed will depend on the size and type of the company’s digital assets. The complete environment can be analyzed monthly and high-risk software can be analyzed daily. Vulnerability management is ongoing work.
Create a matrix for each identified risk
The risk matrix analyzes the vulnerability and consists of two components: probability of the risk occurring and the impact it will have if the threat occurs. The probability is divided into almost certain, high, medium, low and rare. The impact can be very serious, severe, medium, light and without impact. The greater the risk and the level of impact of the event, the more attention should be paid to the situation.
Define a ranking of importance
After placing all items in the risk matrix, it is necessary to create a degree of importance in order of severity and urgency of resolution. It is necessary to separate what is relevant to the business and what is not so important. In any case, all vulnerabilities must be corrected, otherwise they can develop into something more serious.
Define practical solutions
This is the most important step in the entire process as this is where you will define your action strategy for each threat. For each identified risk, you must prepare an action plan, to act immediately when the problem happens. Here you will define preventive and action solutions after the problem occurs. At this stage, you may have to consult an external information security team, as they will be the right team to indicate the most appropriate solutions for your reality.