How can you scale vulnerability scanning as your organization grows?

2 Segment your network

Another way to scale your vulnerability scanning is to segment your network into smaller and more manageable units. Segmentation can help you reduce the scan time, bandwidth, and load on your network, while also improving the accuracy and relevance of your results. You can segment your network based on criteria such as location, function, risk level, or compliance requirements. For example, you can scan your high-risk or regulated assets more frequently or with more depth, while scanning your low-risk or internal assets less often or with less detail.

3 Prioritize your vulnerabilities

As your organization grows, so does the number of vulnerabilities you'll have to deal with. To scale your vulnerability scanning, you need to prioritize your vulnerabilities based on their severity, impact, and exploitability. Prioritization can help you focus your resources and efforts on the most critical and urgent issues, while avoiding wasting time on false positives or irrelevant findings. You can use tools like CVSS or risk scores to rank your vulnerabilities, or create your own criteria based on your business context and goals.

4 Delegate your tasks

Scaling your vulnerability scanning also means scaling your team and their responsibilities. You can't expect one person or one department to handle all the scanning and remediation tasks for your entire organization. You need to delegate your tasks to the appropriate stakeholders, such as asset owners, system administrators, developers, or security analysts. You can use tools like roles or permissions to assign different levels of access and control to your scanning tools, or use tools like workflows or alerts to notify and assign tasks to the right people.

5 Review your results

Finally, scaling your vulnerability scanning also requires reviewing your results and measuring your progress. You need to analyze your scan data and reports to identify trends, patterns, and gaps in your scanning program. You also need to track your key performance indicators, such as scan frequency, coverage, accuracy, and remediation rate. Reviewing your results can help you evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of your scanning program, and identify areas for improvement or optimization.