(Last Updated On: January 25, 2023)

Introduction

OT Vulnerability Management is used to provide the security for the companies in order to overcome the threats made by the other companies or within the company itself. It is generally used to decrease the number of threats that are related to cyber attacks. Infact, most of the companies are facing an issue on these cyber related issues and getting over those issues using the cyber security providers or by using vulnerability management. If you are interested in this, you can join the course by using Cyber Security Training and explore your thoughts in it.

Generally, these vulnerabilities are used to find the loopholes in a system to provide the access for the systems or the confidential data for the unauthorized persons. Infact, vulnerability management provides an optimal solution for these kinds of attacks or threats. During this COVID pandemic situation, many of the companies provided online work for the employees and they call it work from home which leads to increased threats in a large number. Cyber hackers are increasing day to day because some people are trying to steal sensitive information from an organization.

What is Vulnerability Management in OT cyber security?

The process of finding, solving, prioritizing, and giving feedback on the loopholes which reduces security of a company in the software on a particular system used in Operating Technology (OT). It is used to put the network in a safe manner from unknown threats with some special requirements. It can be done in five different phases. They are:

1. First
2. Management
3. Define
4. Quantitative Management
5. Optimization

Five Phases of Vulnerability Management

• First

In the first phase, there will be a simple process and a procedure for a particular task. And the checking of the vulnerability can be done by the third party person who comes under the testing of penetration. The important things are scanned here 1 to 4 times a year by the auditor. The employee who has performed the audit will give the details of the vulnerabilities present in the company or industry. If the company thinks that it is a big vulnerability then the company takes a quick action on these risks. If you are working for a company, you have to make a strong code for the security of the company otherwise it may lead to several vulnerabilities.

• Management

In this management phase, the vulnerabilities which are present in the system will be taken to a specific location. Infact, any company provides a bunch of procedures or algorithms for scanning these vulnerabilities. Here, a company may solve the vulnerabilities issue otherwise it may take help from other organizations or people who are familiar with these aspects. If unauthorized people start accessing our data then it leads to a very big problem that you can’t even imagine. Most of the companies use low level management to save their money, it may help them for sometime then it leads to creating some vulnerabilities with some of the loose ends present within the system.

• Define

In the defined phase, the procedures and the process used for the data can be understanded by the whole company or industry. And the team which provides security for the company helps to support the people. Here, they proved that it is necessary for any organization they have to make their data in a safe and secured manner within the company itself. It is quite easy for any company to provide security for the employees who are working in the company. It is used to check the work that is done or completed in a week with the help of some people, nothing but users will be provided to the company’s high profile people.

• Quantitative Management

In the quantitative management phase, the particular key values of a code quantified and the metrics will be given to the team which is working on that task. While tracking there are many things to be considered in the particular team of the company. It is used to check that the number of systems related to business have undergone the vulnerability testing and will be noted separately. It is also used to check the mean score of vulnerability in the system which is related to a particular business. These readings will be broken down into smaller units to reduce the risk factors for a specific organization. Also, it is used for the deployment of a particular software.

• Optimization

In the optimization phase, the metrics which are done in the previous phase are used and modified to improve the software without getting any risks or vulnerabilities present in it. It is used to optimize the codes and making it to a simpler ones which helps to reduce the number of attacks on a particular 

organization. This optimizing of the codes will be done under the Information Security Team of a specific company. If we face any vulnerabilities in the system, it leads to the problems in a smaller number because the codes have already been splitted into simpler ones.

Future of Vulnerability Management

According to research, these vulnerabilities are increasing day by day which causes a heavy data loss for many companies. Hence, it is very important to manage these vulnerabilities to save our confidential information present in our systems. Most of the hackers used to exploit the important data which is present in the systems or in the softwares. It helps to find the loopholes present in the system and then the security team will automatically work on it and find a solution for it. This technique is used to get the location of the hackers who tried to enter our systems without any authorization.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have seen about the Vulnerability Management and the phases of Vulnerability Management such as First, Management, Define, Quantitative Management, and Optimization. Also, we have gone through the future of vulnerability management. Vulnerability Management is quite helpful to reduce the attacks on a particular organization.