Cybercrime costs are projected to hit $12 trillion in 2025 globally, a stark reminder of how vital network security is for businesses. But still, many organizations unknowingly harbor vulnerabilities in their systems – from outdated software to poorly secured IoT devices – leaving themselves exposed to breaches.
So, how can businesses protect their networks from ever-evolving threats? The answer begins with a network vulnerability assessment, a critical process that identifies weak points before they’re exploited.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through seven essential steps for conducting a thorough vulnerability assessment and show how tools like business VPN can strengthen your efforts to build a more secure network.
Simplifying Network Vulnerability Assessments for Enhanced Security
Conducting a network vulnerability assessment doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By following a structured approach and leveraging the right tools, organizations can identify and address security weaknesses effectively, safeguarding their systems against potential threats. A comprehensive assessment ensures that all aspects of your network including applications, devices, and infrastructure, are secure and resilient against emerging cyber risks.
Key benefits of conducting a network vulnerability assessment include:
- Improved Threat Visibility: Gain a clear understanding of your network’s weaknesses, enabling proactive action against potential exploits.
- Prioritized Risk Management: Focus on the most critical vulnerabilities first, ensuring efficient use of resources.
- Regulatory Compliance: Meet industry standards and compliance requirements by maintaining a secure network environment.
- Enhanced Decision-Making: Use data-driven insights to align cybersecurity measures with business priorities.
- Continuous Protection: Establish a recurring process to stay ahead of evolving vulnerabilities and threats.
With the right tools and a systematic approach, network vulnerability assessments become a straightforward yet powerful strategy to protect your organization from cyber risks.
How to Conduct a Network Vulnerability Assessment
Here are the seven key steps:
Step 1: Define Parameters and Plan Assessment
Before starting the assessment process, it’s crucial to define the scope and identify the specific components of your network that require evaluation. These may include hardware, user devices, applications, and network infrastructure.
A key part of the planning phase is the initial discovery process, where you identify assets and establish baselines for factors like security capabilities, risk tolerance, user permissions, and configurations. This step can be particularly challenging if your network includes BYOD mobile devices or IoT devices. However, certain vulnerability management tools can simplify identifying and assessing these assets.
Next, you’ll need to outline who will be involved in the assessment, the tools you’ll use, the timeline for assessment and remediation, and the frequency of future evaluations. If you’re not already utilizing third-party tools for vulnerability scanning and analysis, this is the perfect time to explore the market and ensure you have the necessary resources for a thorough assessment.
A focused approach ensures efficiency and accuracy and it includes:
- Identify assets: Catalog all devices, applications, servers, and cloud services connected to your network.
- Baseline security: Determine existing configurations, user permissions, and overall risk tolerance.
- Set goals: Decide what success looks like – whether it’s identifying misconfigurations, ensuring compliance, or prioritizing fixes.
Insider Tip: Using a premium business VPN like PureVPN for Teams can help secure your assessment process. The centralized admin dashboard gives control in the hands of the organization by letting you monitor team activities, control user access, and maintain encrypted connections across devices, reducing potential risks during the evaluation.
Step 2: Perform a Network Vulnerability Scan
Now it’s time to conduct a security vulnerability scan on your network, either manually or using automated vulnerability scanner tools. While some enterprise-grade scanners can be costly, there are also free and open-source options that may suit your organization’s needs.
During the scan, leverage threat intelligence and vulnerability databases to pinpoint security flaws and weaknesses while filtering out false positives. Don’t be alarmed if the scan reveals a large number of vulnerabilities – this is common, particularly when your organization is just beginning to prioritize vulnerability management and remediation.
Things to look out for:
- Outdated software versions
- Open or misconfigured ports
- Exposed credentials
- Known vulnerabilities in hardware or software
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Easily add up to 200 members to your plan and allow 50 members to share one secure IP address through a centralized dashboard, making it simple to scale security as your team grows.
Step 3: Analyze and Categorize Vulnerabilities
Your network vulnerability scan has likely generated a significant amount of unstructured data – now it’s time to analyze and organize it.
You can organize them by:
- Severity: Critical, high, medium, or low.
- Exploitability: Likelihood of being targeted.
- Impact: Potential damage if exploited.
Focus not only on the severity of each vulnerability and the likelihood of exploitation but also on the potential impact on network resources if that vulnerability is targeted. This information will be crucial when presenting your remediation plan to business stakeholders.
Additionally, don’t limit your analysis to vulnerability scan results alone. Incorporate data from firewall logs, penetration tests, and network scans for a more comprehensive assessment.
Step 4: Prioritize Vulnerabilities and Risks
Not all vulnerabilities demand immediate action. The most critical vulnerabilities identified in your scans should be prioritized and addressed first. These are the security issues that are already causing harm or providing unauthorized access to your network and must be tackled immediately. Following these are vulnerabilities with potential exploits that attackers could leverage in the future.
Focus on those with the highest impact and likelihood of exploitation, for example:
- Critical vulnerabilities: Flaws with active exploits that could lead to immediate damage.
- High-priority risks: Weak points in newly deployed systems or applications.
While all vulnerabilities should eventually be resolved, the sheer volume of issues from an initial scan can be overwhelming and impossible to fix all at once. Prioritizing them is a key step in transforming your assessment data into actionable and manageable tasks.
Step 5: Generate a Vulnerability Assessment Report
After completing the vulnerability scan, analysis, and risk prioritization, the next step is to compile your findings into a comprehensive vulnerability assessment report. This report should outline all identified vulnerabilities, their severity levels, potential attack vectors within the network, and recommended solutions.
A clear and concise report ensures everyone – from IT teams to stakeholders – is on the same page. Your report should include:
- A summary of identified vulnerabilities
- Their severity and potential attack vectors
- Recommended actions for remediation
While parts of the report can include technical details and instructions for cybersecurity professionals handling remediation, it’s also important to include clear visualizations and explanations. These elements will help non-technical stakeholders, such as the CEO, understand the scope of the work and its importance to the organization.
Step 6: Remediate and Mitigate Vulnerabilities
With security vulnerabilities identified, prioritized, and reported — along with your resolution plans — it’s time to take action. Act on your findings by implementing fixes such as:
- Applying security patches for critical software vulnerabilities.
- Enforcing firewall updates and configuring access controls.
- Introducing encryption protocols for sensitive communications.
Some of the most critical vulnerabilities may be resolved through patching, while others might require alternative mitigation strategies. Whatever approach you take, consistently refer to your vulnerability assessment to ensure you’re addressing the most pressing issues in the correct order.
Secure the Process: By taking advantage of business VPNs like PureVPN for Teams, businesses can secure their connection with AES 256-bit encryption, ensuring sensitive data stays protected during remediation efforts.
Step 7: Regularly Repeat Vulnerability Assessments
Cyberthreats evolve daily. Make vulnerability assessments a routine process, complemented by constant monitoring and regular updates to your security systems.
Vulnerability assessments offer valuable insights into your network’s security posture at a given moment. However, as soon as the assessment is complete, changes such as new applications, users, permissions, and datasets can alter your network and introduce new risks. To stay ahead of evolving threats, it’s essential to regularly repeat the vulnerability assessment process, as new vulnerabilities may surface and existing ones can become more critical over time.
Bottom Line
A comprehensive network vulnerability assessment is the cornerstone of a cybersecurity strategy. By following these seven steps and integrating tools like PureVPN for Teams, you can uncover hidden risks, prioritize fixes, and safeguard your business from costly breaches.
