Using Vulnerability Assessment Technology to Protect Critical Infrastructure

This blog post is the second of an ongoing cybersecurity training series sponsored by OPSWAT Academy which reviews the technologies and processes required to design, implement, and manage a Critical Infrastructure Protection program.

2020 marked the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking numbers for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) published by U.S. authorities and, according to Hitachi Systems Security, 95% of all cyberattacks exploit known vulnerabilities. Clearly, a strong vulnerability management program is a key element of any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. The first stage of such a program is “discovery”: identifying which software packages (such as applications, operating systems, firmware, and other binaries) have known vulnerabilities and which endpoints within the organization are hosting that software.

Unfortunately, this cannot be a one-time effort. Vulnerability oversight groups are constantly discovering and publishing new vulnerabilities on existing applications. Most organizations are continuously getting an influx of new program updates and endpoints, especially now that IoT devices and their firmware updates have become so prevalent.

How does a cybersecurity manager stay on top of this?

OPSWAT has the answer! OPSWAT’s Vulnerability Assessment technology detects application and other file-based vulnerabilities residing within systems, or even before they are installed. We use our patented technology to correlate vulnerabilities to software components, product installers, firmware packages and many other types of binary files, which are collected from a vast community of users and enterprise customers.

OPSWAT products embed this technology to support many common use-cases, such as:

• Flagging and alerting any vulnerable application, patch, binary, firmware, etc. that comes into the organization’s perimeter through any data channel, such as web downloads, email attachments, and external media transfers.
• Scanning file storage systems and repositories for vulnerable application, patch, binary, firmware, etc.
• Flagging endpoints or even blocking them from accessing certain network resources if vulnerable applications exist on that endpoint, even if that application is not running.

Vulnerability Assessment is one of OPSWAT’s most robust and fastest-growing technologies, yet we find that many of our customers are still unsure of how the technology works and unfamiliar with proper implementation methods to meet their cybersecurity needs. Luckily, the OPSWAT Academy offers several cybersecurity training courses on the various aspects of this technology. Topics range from understanding fundamental concepts to implementation and administration. These courses highlight how Vulnerability Assessment is utilized through both MetaDefender’s file-based analysis and MetaAccess’ endpoint security platform.

Vulnerability Assessment, and many other cybersecurity training courses, are available 24/7 through OPSWAT Academy for free! Sign up at OPSWAT Academy today to learn about our leading-edge cybersecurity technologies, as well as fundamental concepts in Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Read the first post in this series: Understanding Deep CDR in Critical Infrastructure Protection Cybersecurity