Vulnerability scanning automatically checks your systems for known security weaknesses—missing patches, misconfigurations, outdated software, and known flaws. It's like a health check for your IT security.
Quick answer: Vulnerability scanning automatically checks your systems for known security weaknesses—missing patches, misconfigurations, outdated software, and known flaws. It's like a health check for your IT security.
How It Works
A vulnerability scanner:
- Discovers systems on your network
- Identifies what software they're running
- Checks against databases of known vulnerabilities
- Reports what it finds with severity ratings
What Scanners Find
Missing patches Operating systems, applications, and firmware with known vulnerabilities that patches would fix.
Misconfigurations Default passwords, unnecessary services enabled, weak encryption settings, overly permissive access.
Outdated software End-of-life software no longer receiving security updates.
Known vulnerabilities Specific flaws in specific software versions (CVEs) that attackers know about.
Compliance issues Settings that violate security standards or best practices.
Types of Scanning
External scanning
Scans your internet-facing systems from outside. What can attackers see and exploit from the internet?Internal scanning
Scans from inside your network. What vulnerabilities exist once someone's inside?Authenticated scanning
Logs into systems to check more deeply. Finds more issues than unauthenticated scans.Web application scanning
Specifically tests web applications for common vulnerabilities (SQL injection, XSS, etc.).Scanning vs Penetration Testing
| Vulnerability Scanning | Penetration Testing |
|---|---|
| Automated | Human-led |
| Finds known vulnerabilities | Finds and exploits vulnerabilities |
| Breadth over depth | Depth over breadth |
| Regular (weekly/monthly) | Periodic (annual) |
| Lower cost | Higher cost |
| Lists what's vulnerable | Proves what's exploitable |
What Good Scanning Looks Like
Regular: Weekly or monthly, not annual. Vulnerabilities are discovered constantly.
Comprehensive: All systems, not just the ones you remember.
Prioritised: Focus on critical and high vulnerabilities first.
Actionable: Clear guidance on fixing issues.
Tracked: Monitor whether vulnerabilities get fixed.
Contextualised: Consider what's actually exploitable in your environment.
The Challenge: Noise
Scanners generate lots of findings. A typical scan might report hundreds of items. The challenge is:
- Which actually matter?
- Which are false positives?
- Which are priorities?
- How do you track remediation?
Our Approach
Vulnerability scanning is part of our security services:
For managed clients:
- Regular automated scanning
- Results reviewed and prioritised by our team
- Integration with patching and remediation
- Tracking to closure
- Scheduled scans
- Analysed reports (not just raw output)
- Remediation guidance
- Verification rescans
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about vulnerability scanning.
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