Lack Of External Vulnerability Scanning

Organizations need to do an honest self-assessment of every vulnerability, risk and opening in their environment that adversaries could leverage as part of a cyberattack, said Nick Biasini, head of outreach for Cisco Talos. From drive-by downloads and buying access into networks to actively exploiting systems, adversaries employ a wide variety of techniques to take advantage of unknown victim systems.

Organizations should do vulnerability scanning from outside and inside their environment to get a better sense of what visibility an adversary would have when starting an attack as well as if they’re able to breach the victim’s systems, Biasini said. Companies should identify the key servers or pieces of technology they need to safeguard and address any weaknesses by put compensating controls in place.

Organizations should start by dealing with vulnerabilities inside their own systems, according to Biasini. And as their security posture matures, businesses should begin setting up their servers externally and doing external scans to get a better sense of what the organization looks like to a threat actor on the outside, Biasini said.