What Is Vulnerability Management?
Vulnerability management (VM) is the continuous cybersecurity process of identifying, assessing, reporting, and remediating vulnerabilities to protect an organization's infrastructure.
Today, organizations use automated tools such as vulnerability scanners to detect known exposures that leave systems open to cyber attackers, often integrating these with threat intelligence feeds to contextualize risks based on active exploits in the wild.
Once these Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) are identified, they are typically categorized by severity using frameworks like the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), enabling security teams to prioritize patching efforts. Remediation may involve applying software patches, changing configurations, or implementing compensating controls.
Additionally, VM is increasingly integrated into broader security operations through centralized platforms that facilitate real-time monitoring, reporting, and compliance tracking to help security professionals respond quickly to emerging threats while maintaining a strong security posture.
What Is Risk-Based Vulnerability Management?
Risk-based vulnerability management is an approach to identifying, assessing, and prioritizing vulnerabilities based on the actual risk they pose to an organization rather than just the severity score (like CVSS) or quantity of vulnerabilities.
Compared to traditional VM, risk-based VM puts more emphasis on real-world context and threat intelligence to determine what vulnerabilities should matter most to your organization right now. Risk-based VM accounts for the exposure level of your most critical assets and improves operational efficiency by reducing excess alert noise. You can also think of risk-based VM in terms of being more proactive and strategic compared to the more reactive nature of traditional VM.
Risk-Based VM Is:
Context-Aware: Considers asset criticality, business impact, exploitability, and real-world threat intelligence
Prioritization-Driven: Focuses remediation efforts on vulnerabilities most likely to be exploited and that could cause the most damage
Dynamic: Continuously adapts to evolving threats and asset environments
How Does Vulnerability Management Work?
Vulnerability management is an ongoing effort. As an organization evolves, new users, applications, and other changes can create new vulnerabilities that threat actors can exploit. With new vulnerabilities constantly emerging, the following steps can be the difference between staying protected and experiencing a data breach.
Discovery
You won’t know what may threaten your organization if you don’t know what’s in it. An organization’s assets should all be categorized, assessed, and kept track of. Regularly auditing your IT environment and eliminating unauthorized applications and other shadow IT will ensure you know what needs to be protected.
Scanning and Reporting
Get a status check on all of your assets with a vulnerability scanner. These scanners check your network and web applications for any known vulnerabilities, creating a report using CVE identifiers that provide information. Additionally, CVEs are also given a rating using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to distinguish how severe these vulnerabilities are on a scale of 0-10.
Analysis and Prioritization
Vulnerability scans and reports are a great starting point for knowing which vulnerabilities are present in your environment, but while CVSS ratings give you some idea of the risk, they don’t account for the set up and circumstances of each individual environment.
Penetration tests add additional context by actually exploiting these discovered vulnerabilities. If a penetration tester can get into your environment by leveraging one of these vulnerabilities, so could an attacker. Pen tests determine which vulnerabilities are truly critical and most in need of remediation.
Response and Re-testing
With their priorities clear, security teams can go in and address the vulnerabilities that pose the most risk, which can be done through patches, updates, or other remediation techniques. Once action has been taken on, an additional penetration tests should be run to ensure that the vulnerability no longer exists, or at least no longer poses a threat.
Integration Across the Security Stack Is Essential
VM is most effective when applied comprehensively across your organization's entire tech ecosystem, including the other cybersecurity solutions in use. This enables faster detection and containment of threats by ensuring that tools work in tandem rather than in isolation. Integrated VM supports a more mature and adaptive cybersecurity posture, strengthening your organization’s resilience against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
What Does Integration Across the Stack Look Like in Practice?
For example, when a vulnerability is discovered on an endpoint, the system can automatically update firewall rules or endpoint controls to restrict access until remediation is complete.
Integrating VM across your organization’s entire security ecosystem begins with connecting vulnerability scanners and assessment tools with core security systems such as firewalls, endpoint protection platforms (EPP), intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS), and security information and event management (SIEM) solutions.
SIEM platforms aggregate data from these integrated tools to provide a unified view of vulnerability-related events and their potential impact, allowing for correlation with other threat indicators and more accurate prioritization. Integration with IT asset management (ITAM) and configuration management databases (CMDBs) further enhances visibility by mapping vulnerabilities to specific systems, ownership, and business impact.
How Do I Know If My Organization Needs Vulnerability Management?
Anyone who has assets connected to the Internet needs vulnerability management, so you can:
Know Your Risks.
Think Like an Attacker.
Meet Compliance Requirements.
Justify Cybersecurity Investments.
Top Benefits of Vulnerability Management
VM is one of the most essential cybersecurity controls and lays the foundation for a strong security posture. Across all industries, VM saves organizations time and money by automating the detection of vulnerabilities that could be exploited if left to linger on systems. Implementing a risk-based VM solution will:
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Healthcare
Benefit: Protects patient data and ensures compliance with HIPAA.
Example: A hospital uses risk-based VM with endpoint protection and SIEM to detect and respond to outdated medical device firmware, reducing the risk of data breaches or ransomware attacks on patient records.
Financial Services
Benefit: Enhances protection of sensitive financial data and supports regulatory compliance (e.g., PCI-DSS, SOX)
Example: A bank integrates vulnerability management with its firewalls and SIEM to immediately isolate vulnerable transaction servers, preventing exploitation while maintaining audit trails for compliance.
Manufacturing
Benefit: Secures operational technology (OT) and prevents disruptions to production lines
Example: A manufacturing plant integrates vulnerability management with network segmentation tools and threat detection to identify exposed IoT devices and automatically restrict access until patched.
Retail
Benefit: Safeguards customer payment data and supports PCI compliance.
Example: A retail chain uses vulnerability data to adjust firewall and POS system configurations, automatically applying patches to prevent exploitation of newly discovered vulnerabilities.
Government
Benefit: Protects sensitive information from nation-state attacks and aids in compliance.
Example: A government agency is subject to Command Cyber Readiness Inspections (CCRI) and relies on vulnerability assessment tools as critical components of their audit preparation process.
Key Considerations for Selecting a VM Solution
Read our Comprehensive Vulnerability Management Purchasing Guide to learn more.
Questions to Ask Your VM Vendor
Does it scan all devices on my network, including cloud and mobile?
Can it detect zero-day vulnerabilities?
Does it prioritize vulnerabilities by risk or exploitability?
Does it support automated remediation or patching?
Can it integrate with my existing SIEM, ticketing, or CMDB systems?
Does it help meet compliance standards like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, or ISO 27001?
What kind of reports can it generate?
What kind of training or onboarding do you offer?
How Fortra Can Help
Fortra VM distinguishes itself with its comprehensive risk-based assessment, advanced threat intelligence integration, and user-friendly interface, making it a robust choice for organizations seeking an effective vulnerability management solution.
Vulnerability Scanning & Assessment
Vulnerability management solutions help locate, analyze, prioritize, and track security weaknesses to maximize IT resources, effectively mitigate risks, and avoid costly breaches.
Application Security Testing
Application security testing scans customer-facing web applications, network applications, and product applications for security weaknesses and helps prioritize remediation efforts.
Threat Scanning & Monitoring
Threat scanning and monitoring detects security misconfigurations and active endpoint threats, like malware, trojans, and viruses, within a network, for timely protection and faster remediation.
Get Started With a Fortra VM Quote
Maximize existing IT resources and mitigate risks swiftly and effectively with Fortra VM. Provided via our SaaS platform, it is lightweight yet powerful and capable of scaling to meet your changing business needs.