What are the most cost-effective and efficient ways to scan for vulnerabilities?

Consider also using agencies of whitehat freelancers, since they have the most up-to-date tool set. Some companies provide Health Check (usually a cheap service) which covers the requested areas of your project.

Open Source Tools: Many open-source vulnerability scanning tools, like Nessus Essentials, offer free versions that can scan for known vulnerabilities in your systems. They can be powerful and cost-effective solutions. Manual Testing: While not entirely automated, you can perform manual vulnerability assessments by following best practices and using checklists and guides provided by organizations like OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project). Regular Auditing and Logging: Set up logging and auditing for your systems. Regularly review these logs to identify any signs of suspicious or unauthorized activities that might indicate vulnerabilities.

When considering the cost of tooling it's also important to consider the real-cost of using the tool. A more expensive, feature/automation rich tool may actually work out cheaper than a tool that is cheaper with less features. This is because the cheaper tool may need far more time spent by cyber security professionals to gain the same results, and therefore offers a false econony. What is key is that all factors are considered and the correct tool that matches the business requirements is the one purchased.

One step ahead I can put some exact tool which are helpful to find vulnerabilities in Web App, Mobile and API - - Radware Bad Bot Analyzer (Web & Mobile OWASP 21 Automated Threats) - Radware Application Vulnerability Analyzer (Web Application & Mobile OWASP top 10) - Radware Bot Vulnerability Scanner(Web & Mobile OWASP 21 Automated Threats) - Akto (API OWASP top 10) - pynt (API OWASP top 10) - Solarwinds (DDoS) - Datadome BotTester (Web & Mobile OWASP 21 Automated Threats) - Radware Bot Risk Scanner@Splunk (Web & Mobile OWASP 21 Automated Threats)

Cost-effective and efficient vulnerability scanning is crucial for maintaining the security of your systems and networks. Here are the top strategies to achieve this: 1. Utilize automated vulnerability scanning tools for ongoing monitoring of your systems and applications. 2. Prioritize authenticated scanning whenever possible, as it provides a more comprehensive view of vulnerabilities by accessing the target system with proper credentials, thereby revealing configuration issues and misconfigurations. 3. Incorporate passive scanning solutions to promptly detect and alert you to network vulnerabilities, enhancing your overall vulnerability management

Prioritize your assets: Not all assets are created equal. Some assets are more critical than others, and some assets are more exposed to attack. Prioritize your assets and scan the most critical and exposed assets more frequently. Use a variety of scanning techniques: No single scanning technique can identify all vulnerabilities. Use a variety of scanning techniques to get a more complete picture of your security posture. Automate your scanning: Vulnerability scanning can be time-consuming, so it is important to automate as much of the process as possible. This will help you to scan your assets more frequently and efficiently.

Once you paid for the tools, scan as soon as possible and set the coverage as large as possible. Most license model did not related to number of scanner you have, therefore, deploy more scanners whenever necessary. 1st step is to discover everything. 2nd step is determine ownership. 3rd step is define minimal frequency for critical area. 4th step is define adhoc scanning as a service. 5th step is to define scanning of exposed vulnerabilities (after protection) versus the existence of vulnerabilities (stripped protection). Hunting for rogue devices is a critical benefit for scaning unless it is covered by other means already.

Identify your critical assets. What assets are most important to your business and could have a significant impact if they were compromised? Prioritize these assets and scan them more frequently and thoroughly. Create a scanning schedule. Decide how often you need to scan your assets and when you will scan them. Be sure to factor in your business needs and the resources available. Develop a remediation plan. What will you do when you find vulnerabilities? Have a plan in place for remediating vulnerabilities quickly and efficiently.

Knowing where your physical scanners and virtual agents are is an obvious, but often overlooked consideration. Zero Trust and segmentation should be a core piece of most environments and will impact your scan capabilities.

Use a vulnerability management tool. A vulnerability management tool can help you to automate many of the tasks involved in reviewing and validating scanning results. For example, a vulnerability management tool can help you to identify and eliminate false positives, prioritize vulnerabilities based on their severity and impact, and track the progress of remediation efforts. Involve your team. The security team should be involved in reviewing and validating scanning results. This will help to ensure that all vulnerabilities are identified and remediated.

As the outcome of the review process should be prioritization and a roadmap of fixes. Usually, a good agency or freelancer provides a report with urgency and a recommended roadmap.

You couldn’t do prioritization without understanding the impact that could be done by vulnerability, so impact analysis is also an essential part of the process

Use a variety of tools and methods. There are a number of different tools and methods that you can use to verify vulnerabilities. You should use a combination of tools and methods to ensure that you are getting a complete and accurate assessment of the vulnerability status of your systems and applications. Test in a production-like environment. When verifying vulnerabilities, it is important to test in a production-like environment. This will help you to identify any potential problems with the remediation before it is deployed to production.

When everything is a CVSS of 9 it can be hard to identify which vulnerabilities to prioritize. A thorough understanding of your vertical's OSINT, known exploited vulnerabilities and active threat actors will help you prioritize. As always, it will come down to balancing risk appetite with actionable intel and imminent threats.

Consider using open-source vulnerability scanning tools like OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment System) and Nessus which offer robust vulnerability scanning capabilities without the high costs associated with commercial solutions. You can deploy these tools to regularly scan your network, servers and applications for known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. You can automate scans and schedule them during off-peak hours to minimize disruption to your operations.

Many organisations utilise 3rd party penetration testers on a scheduled basis such as annually and then use the results to remediate any vulnerabilities. Whilst this is very important, having a properly resourced and managed vulnerability programme will allow vulnerabilities to be identified and remediated quickly throughout the year. This has 2 key benefits, the obvious one of vulnerabilities being remediated quicker, & a second benefit of better resource management. Vulnerabilities remediated throughout the year, a bit at a time is far easier to resource than a longer list of vulnerabilities identified all at once.