What are vulnerabilities and how it can affect you and your company?
Vulnerabilities are weak spots in IT systems and applications we use every day. This weakness is an advantage for attackers to successfully compromise the security of a system.
Imagine a Vulnerability as a hole in the fence in your backyard. If you have a hole in the fence, an unauthorized person might poke through the hole and peek inside your backyard.
The same thing goes with computers and information systems, a developer might leave an unintentional “hole” in the system, which can be used by malicious actors to be exploited and wreak havoc by using your information, steal from you, or worse, cause you to lose all the data you have.
In businesses without proper security, in many cases, it can lead to data breaches, financial losses, operational disruptions, reputation damage, legal and regulatory consequences, and a lot more.
Three things that are common in the vulnerabilities you need to know and how they can be fixed:
Zero-day Vulnerability
A zero-day vulnerability is a flaw in a system or application that the hackers discover before the developers notice it exists. Hackers are constantly eyeing systems at this stage since they become easier to target than known vulnerabilities. Managed Service providers like us can help by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities based on certain parameters, detecting suspicious activities, and rapidly responding to mitigate the risks of zero-day attacks.
Patches
Continuous patches are required to keep your systems up to date and become less susceptible to vulnerabilities that were already fixed, this is normally done via a patch management system that can identify when a program has an update from a 3rd party vendor (such as Adobe) and apply the patch as soon as possible to mitigate the risks of a malicious actor using a known vulnerability that was already fixed.
Undeclared vulnerabilities
Applications use many parameters stored in your system in order to successfully provide you with the application services. However, many of those parameters can be exploited if they are not set in the correct way. Imagine this as if you’ve given an open check you have already signed for someone and they get to decide how much the check is worth. This can be mitigated by ensuring those parameters are pre-determined and will not allow for changes to be made, the same as simply writing up a check that has everything written on it already.
Part of the responsibilities a managed service provider has is to scan for those types of vulnerabilities, alert you on them and offer you the remediation – whether through automated software which will perform the remediation automatically based on parameters given to the application or via manual work to mitigate the exposure of your devices.
Want to stay one step ahead of cyber threats? Learn how our continuous monitoring and rapid response can keep your systems resilient – get in touch now!
The Gallop Technology Group is offering a complimentary assessment of your entire technology infrastructure and provide you with a custom solution to make your life easier and your technology secure, so you may focus on your business.
Call us at 480-614-4227 today or use the button below.
