The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management
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The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management TO CONTROL CYBER RISK The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Threat and vulnerability management (TVM) has never been more difficult. The stakes are much higher. It’s hard to evaluate cost-to-value, and security expertise is limited. Even with multiple scanning tools, threat and vulnerability management doesn’t get easier. In fact, many organizations are running into data overload, but that’s all about to change. RiskSense is bringing a new perspective Let’s look at an overview of today’s and visibility into what alters cyber risk. cybersecurity challenges, followed The RiskSense platform will enable by a walk-through of the six defining organizations to replace their current pillars that RiskSense is focused on options of “ignore, defer, or continue to as we work to define risk-based do what we do today with limited insight”, vulnerability management. into a context-intelligent and proactive approach in order to achieve risk-based vulnerability prioritization. 2 The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk TODAY’S CRITICAL CYBERSECURITY ISSUES It is no secret that threat and vulnerability “As digital transformation progresses from the world management is the dirtiest job in cybersecurity. of monolithic applications to cloud-native component Security analysts must wade through piles architecture, the question of risk becomes more difficult to quantify when everything can be considered to be connected. of vulnerabilities, without knowing what else In that case, everything can be considered high risk!” –– is around the corner. The result is “cyber risk Stephen Magnani, Senior Vice President-Office of the Chief of Information Security-Application Security Management, Citi (1) mayhem”, where it becomes impossible to fix everything. To complicate matters further, the risk posed by a given vulnerability can The Increased Focus on Cyber Cybersecurity efforts must now include the entire spectrum of risk change day-to-day. identification and remediation steps, including cyber risk assessment, Risk Accountability prevention, mitigation, resilience, and recovery scenarios. “Issuers and other market participants must take their periodic and current disclosure The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is obligations regarding cybersecurity risks seriously, and failure to do so currently looking closer at corporations that are not reporting may result in an enforcement action,” according to Clayton. Although on their cyber risk properly. According to Jay Clayton, Chairman the SEC is increasing its focus on accountability, there aren’t really any of the SEC, “Even the most diligent cybersecurity efforts will not clear guidelines on how to accomplish this. In essence, it is accountability address all cyber risks that enterprises face. That stark reality without a path. makes adequate disclosure no less important. Malicious attacks and intrusion efforts are continuous and evolving, and in certain It’s not just the SEC increasing its focus on cyber risk. Rep. Jim Himes cases they have been successful at the most robust institutions introduced the Cybersecurity Disclosure Act of 2019, a bill that would and at the SEC itself.” make the SEC issue a new set of rules requiring U.S. companies to tell their investors whether or not they have someone who has cyber expertise on their board. (1) Mighty Guides: The Essential Guide to Understanding Risk and Quantification 3 The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk The Cost-to-Value Problem Community Contribution Some organizations, if they could, would just throw more Most organizations today rely on the severity scores of the bodies at the vulnerability problem, but there simply aren’t National Vulnerability Database (NVD) and a version provided enough people with the necessary security expertise to fill all by their vulnerability scanners. The of the available roles in every company. Even if an enterprise sourcing and curating of vulnerability is lucky enough to have a highly skilled security team, a scan and threat intelligence has just begun and patch approach is not going to reduce their cyber risk. to evolve. With AI-assisted analysis and Vulnerability weaponization is happening at an increasing rate. human verification, vulnerabilities and Quantity vs. Quality With the absence of in-depth cyber risk intelligence, the security their true risk to a business become team is making decisions with narrow viewpoints. They are apparent by looking at the internal Managing cyber risk used to be all about patching volume, driving the organization’s costly security resources into action asset criticality and the shifting external but accurate measures of cyber risk management and their (or more likely, reaction), but they are not statistically changing intelligence. More sources are needed effectiveness requires a qualitative assessment. An effective the risk equation. to truly under cyber risk and vulnerability TVM solution must provide a way to show results that are exposure. Just like crowdsourcing, understandable by the organization’s IT and security teams, all As a result, enterprises are spending on multiple scanning tools tapping into the collective value of those of the way up to C-level executives and board members, without and analyzing the data, but they are struggling to understand in security, like penetration testing experts with their experience needing interpretation. This measurement or score will facilitate why their investments aren’t driving down the frequency of of code weaknesses and security configuration knowledge, planning, versus simply reacting to activity-based vulnerability security incidents. Frustrated, many turn their attention to other is essential. These individuals have the skills to move a remediation metrics. areas of security hoping they will have better outcomes and to vulnerability from concept to a proven risk with exploitable minimize their vulnerability programs as necessary ‘hygiene’. code and tools. From the intelligence side, more focus on A cybersecurity score or value provides a way to measure dangerous vulnerabilities with capabilities for remote execution the effectiveness of an organization’s risk-based approach to or privilege escalation is needed. Significant risk occurs from vulnerability management. In addition, enabling security teams to these vulnerabilities when they have active exploits trending in run “what if” scenarios give visibility to the actions will positively the wild. make a difference and allows them to align activities to current resource availability and business concerns. Quality results need up-to-the-moment calculations based on the business criticality of systems, weaponization, and context-intelligence. 4 The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk The Future of Threat and Vulnerability Management to Control Cyber Risk SIX PILLARS Threat and vulnerability management platforms need to adapt to meet the growing challenges of digitized businesses, ever-increasing IT expansion, and deliver better outcomes for overwhelmed security teams. OF FUNCTIONALITY 1. Reclamation 2. Collaboration 3. Intelligence AND VISION FOR With highly trained security expertise at a premium, We envision a future where the functions of IT, Today’s security teams are dealing with data what if your organization could make better use DevOps, and Security act as a fully integrated overload. It is no longer possible to get results RISKSENSE: of the personnel it already has? Imagine how team. But in most organizations today, one group using a human-driven solution alone. Google has one or two security FTEs could be used for other, is responsible for vulnerability scanning, the optimized the search function so much that you can • Reclamation more pressing, security aspects in your business. security team is responsible for setting priorities, find anything digital almost instantly. Vulnerability Continuous, prioritized, and prescriptive risk-based and the IT team is then responsible for performing and threat intelligence need to take a similar approach. Mine as many sources as possible, vulnerability management allows you to get to remediation actions. As a result, security and IT • Collaboration curating the information using both AI-driven remediation activities faster. are often at odds. Security is responsible for cyber ntelligence and human-assisted verification, and risk, but IT is fielding the burden of work to fix or elevate the top trending threat results. Access to • Intelligence Every organization is competing for the same mitigate. To make matters worse, IT often doesn’t statistically proven intelligence, and not just scarce security resources today. If every security have visibility, or get feedback as to the importance gathered data, will be a new requirement. • Measurement team could obtain just a small amount of of their efforts. efficiency, collectively we’d get a lot better at Understanding trending exploits, and predicting • Coverage controlling cyber risk. The United States still leads Shared Responsibility with No More Silos those to come, will grow with crowd-sourced