when possible, what is the best way to mitigate vulnerability in a specific service? course hero

Which vulnerabilities should you manage first?

When starting out with vulnerability management, it is recommended to start with the ones that are easy to fix (the least mitigation effort) and that have a (Very) High Risk. After this has been done, the more complex vulnerabilities can be tackled.

Why mitigate vulnerabilities?

In general, a higher mitigation effort means higher costs. Since security budgets are not unlimited, a smart selection of vulnerabilities to be mitigated is the key to achieve the highest reduction of risk. This heat map shows the risk levels of the checks plotted against mitigation effort.

What are the steps involved in vulnerability management?

Vulnerability management involves several steps ranging from vulnerability scanning to taking other aspects such as risk acceptance, mitigation, and remediation. Identify assets: The first step in vulnerability management is identifying assets in your company.

What is a vulnerability management solution?

Vulnerability management is an effective security solution that helps identify and address networks, applications, processes, and software vulnerabilities. Vulnerability management is somewhat of an umbrella term defined to cover the entire process of identifying and managing vulnerabilities in software. What is Vulnerability Management?

What does it mean to mitigate a vulnerability?

In the context of vulnerability management, the word “Mitigation” means the elimination of vulnerabilities, thereby preventing the possible exploitation of them. Once a vulnerability has been mitigated, the risk associated with this exploitation is eliminated and the total risk associated with the SAP infrastructure is reduced.

What does higher mitigation mean?

In general, a higher mitigation effort means higher costs. Since security budgets are not unlimited, a smart selection of vulnerabilities to be mitigated is the key to achieve the highest reduction of risk.

What is the art of mitigation?

The “art of mitigation” lies in: preventing exploitation of a vulnerability, while at the same time allowing business processes to function as normal. reducing the most amount of risk whilst staying inside your security budget.

What is Protect4S?

To get the most reduction of risk out of your budget, Protect4S enables a smart selection of vulnerabilities to be mitigated by presenting a heat map of all vulnerabilities found according to their mitigation effort:

What are the aspects of a project that can be monitored for risks that may come up during completion of a project

Cost, scheduling and performance or productivity are all aspects of a project that can be monitored for risks that may come up during completion of a project. The following example illustrates ways to monitor and evaluate risk and consequences that can impact a project’s completion.

What is risk mitigation?

Risk mitigation refers to the process of planning and developing methods and options to reduce threats—or risks—to project objectives. A project team might implement risk mitigation strategies to identify, monitor and evaluate risks and consequences inherent to completing a specific project, such as new product creation. ...

What is avoidance strategy?

The avoidance strategy present s the accepted and assumed risks and consequences of a project and presents opportunities for avoiding those accepted risks. Some methods of implementing the avoidance strategy are to plan for risk and then to take steps to avoid it. For example, to mitigate risk on new product production, a project team may decide to implement product testing to avoid the risk of product failure before final production is approved. The following examples are other ways to implement the avoidance strategy.

What is an accept strategy?

The accept strategy can be used to identify risks impacting cost. For example, a project team might implement the accept strategy to identify risks to the project budget and make plans to lower the risk of going over budget, so that all team members are aware of the risk and possible consequences.

How to avoid schedule implications?

Avoidance of schedule implications can be implemented by identifying issues that could come up that would affect the timeline of the project. Important deadlines, due dates and final delivery dates can be affected by risks, such as being overly optimistic about the timeline of a project.

What is the purpose of monitoring project schedules?

Monitoring project schedules can include weekly updates to evaluate each team member’s tasks and how long it takes for them to complete each task. The team can then reassess and keep track of any issues that could risk the project falling behind schedule. Computer software, like calendars and project management tools, can help monitor and evaluate time management and project schedule.

What is the strongest defense against password based attacks?

The strongest defense against password-based attack nowadays is multi-factor authentication (MFA), often simplified to two-factor authentication (2FA). The basic assumption is that the user must supply something that they know (the password) and use something that they have (for example, a smartphone or a hardware token). MFA is even part of the most recent compliance requirements for PCI DSS and more. However, not all MFA mechanisms are equally safe.

What is the ultimate security option for MFA?

The ultimate security option for MFA seems to be hardware tokens. Such tokens have been around for a while, in different forms. For example, since the late 90s, many banks issued tokens to their customers to let them access online services. Such tokens required you to get the access code based on the seed code displayed by the website. Devices like this were not only used by banks but, for example, even by game manufacturers (for example, by Blizzard since 2008, still supported till recently). There are banks that still use such physical tokens instead of or in addition to mobile apps.

What is the most common password policy?

The most common password policy enforced by administrators, both in the case of web applications as well as other systems, is a length and complexity policy. For example, a complex password may be required to contain at least 8 characters, uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. However, this policy is actually quite weak ...

What is dictionary attack?

However, there is also a cyberattack technique called dictionary attacks, which basically means password guessing based on commonly used words. For example, a password the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog would be cracked by a dictionary attack almost instantly.

Is MD5 hashing secure?

However, in many cases, the hashes are not secure. Many web applications use old and easy to compromise hash algorithms such as MD5. In such a case, the attacker needs much less time to find the password on the basis of a hash. Of course, the simpler your password, the faster it will be compromised.

Is MFA safe?

MFA is even part of the most recent compliance requirements for PCI DSS and more. However, not all MFA mechanisms are equally safe. The most common MFA technique is for the web application to send an SMS with a one-time code to the mobile number supplied by the user. This is also the worst idea for MFA.

Is password reuse bad for cybersecurity?

Weak passwords and password reuse are still some of the most serious concerns for cybersecurity. There are several ways to increase password security but they are often not adopted by users and administrators. Here’s how you can make sure that sensitive data in your web application is not compromised due to insecure user passwords.

What is the first step in a security patch?

The first step is to ensure that all IT software and operating systems are patched with the latest security and operational patches from the vendors. Microsoft and other vendors release monthly updates which should be applied as soon as possible. These updates contain patches that resolve the latest known exploits and vulnerabilities.

Why is insider threat detection important?

Make sure to identify external threats as well. It is important to make a plan of how to prepare for the worst-case scenario, such as a data breach of confidential information.

Why is it important to have a backup strategy?

For organizations, there is a much greater scope of mitigation activities which must be completed to help mitigate cybersecurity risk and protect data. It is essential to have proven system backup strategy. Such a strategy creates backup copies of your systems which you can roll back to in case of major incidents.

Why is it important to protect data?

Due to surging recognition in the value of data, it is especially important for individuals, businesses and enterprises to push a security-first agenda, mitigate cybersecurity risks, and protect all business-critical or otherwise sensitive data. Data breaches and security exploits are regularly reported in the media;

What happens if a virus is detected in an AV suite?

If a virus signature is detected, the AV software will simply intercept and quarantine the virus, preventing the virus spreading onto other systems.

Why is it important to have a trained support team?

Applications need to be tested and regularly monitored to ensure additional security, and it is important to have a trained support team that is able to instantly available to respond to problems. Frequent scans will also help organizations understand where sensitive data is stored.

What happens if companies are not aware of how their employees are using cloud computing services?

When companies are not aware of how their employees are using cloud computing services, they could lose control of their data assets and ultimately become vulnerable to breaches and insider security threats.

What is the most common cloud security risk?

Improper access management is perhaps the most common cloud computing security risk. In breaches involving web applications, stolen or lost credentials have been the most widely used tool by attackers for several years.

What are the types of misconfigurations in AWS?

Some types of misconfigurations include: AWS security group misconfiguration: AWS security groups are responsible for providing security at the source, destination, port and protocol access levels. These can be associated with EC2 server instances and many other resources.

What will happen to APIs in 2022?

Gartner estimates that by 2022, APIs will be the threat vector used more frequently by attackers to target enterprise application data. A recent study also revealed that two-thirds of enterprises expose their APIs to the public so that external developers and business partners can access software platforms.

What happens when you move data into the cloud without authorization?

When employees move restricted data into the cloud without authorization, the business contracts may be violated and legal action could ensue.

Why is cloud computing important?

While the cloud offers the benefit of ease of access, it also poses a security risk as it can be difficult to keep track of who can access the information in the cloud. Under compliance or industry regulations, it is important for organizations to know the details about their data storage and access control.

How to prevent loss of intellectual property?

How to Prevent Loss or Theft of Intellectual Property. Frequent backups are one of the most effective ways to prevent loss or theft of intellectual property. Set a schedule for regular backups and clear delineation of what data is eligible for backups and what is not.

What is compromised credentials?

Compromised credentials describe a case where user credentials, such as usernames and passwords, are exposed to unauthorized entities.

What is the term for a form of cyber-extortion in which users are unable to access their data

6. Ransomware. Ransomware is a form of cyber-extortion in which users are unable to access their data until a ransom is paid. Users are shown instructions for how to pay a fee to get the decryption key. The costs can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands, payable to cybercriminals in Bitcoin.

What is misconfiguration in a system?

With setup/app server configuration not disabled, the hacker can determine hidden flaws, and this provides them with extra information. Misconfigured devices and apps present an easy entry point for an attacker to exploit.

Why is Java prone to zero day attacks?

High-risk software components such as Java, Flash, and IE are prone to zero-day attacks due to a large number of inherent vulnerabilities – many of which are not publicly disclosed. Devices containing such high-risk software that are actively exposed to the web are especially prone to attack.

What is a DDoS attack?

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is a cyberattack against a network resource (e.g., server, website) by numerous compromised computer systems. The network resource is flooded with extraneous messages, which causes the target to slow down and/or crash, making it inaccessible to authorized users and systems. A DDoS attack normally occurs due to multiple systems being compromised. A potential mitigation method for this is to use CDNs, reverse proxies, HA proxies, etc. that put layers of defense in between systems serving content and clients requesting content.

What happens when you lose your credentials?

When lost, stolen or exposed, compromised credentials can give the intruder an insider’s access. Although monitoring and analysis within the enterprise can identify suspicious activity, these credentials effectively bypass perimeter security and complicate detection.

What is cyber attack vector?

Cyber Attack vector. The method or way by an adversary can breach or infiltrate an entire network/system. Attack vectors enable hackers to exploit system vulnerabilities, including the human element.

Some Quick Tips to Remember

Think before you click. Attackers employ a sense of urgency to make you act first and think later in phishing attacks. When you get a highly urgent, high-pressure message, be sure to take a moment to check if the source is credible first.

3. Set your spam filters to high. Your email software has spam filters. Check your settings, and set them to high to avoid risky messages flooding into your inbox. Just remember to check them periodically as it is possible legitimate messages could be trapped there from time to time

3. Set your spam filters to high. Your email software has spam filters. Check your settings, and set them to high to avoid risky messages flooding into your inbox. Just remember to check them periodically as it is possible legitimate messages could be trapped there from time to time.

What Is Vulnerability Management?

The Importance of Vulnerability Management

5 Vulnerability Management Best Practices

• Vulnerability management is a process that should be performed regularly in order to determine, assess, mitigate, and report software vulnerabilities. To stay abreast of the latest changes made in its software, new systems added to its network, and regularly discovering new vulnerabilities, here are some best practices that you should consider:

See more on cypressdatadefense.com

Final Thoughts

Length Or Complexity?

Is Length Enough?

The False Sense of Security

The Danger of Password Reuse

Security of Password Managers

Multi-Factor Authentication

• The strongest defense against password-based attacks nowadays is multi-factor authentication (MFA), often simplified to two-factor authentication (2FA). The basic assumption is that the user must supply something that they know (the password) and use something that they have (for example, a smartphone or a hardware token). MFA is even part of the m...

See more on acunetix.com

Hardware Tokens to The Rescue

All Passwords Matter