Vulnerability management is not a one-time scan; it's a continuous process of discovery, prioritization, and remediation.
1. Asset Discovery
You can't protect what you don't know exists. Step one is maintaining a real-time inventory of all hardware, software, and cloud assets.
2. Vulnerability Assessment
Use automated tools to scan your environment for known CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) and misconfigurations.
3. Prioritization (Risk Scoring)
Not all vulnerabilities are equal. Use CVSS scores combined with your business context to decide what to fix first.
4. Remediation
Patching, configuration changes, or implementing compensating controls. This is where the actual risk reduction happens.
5. Verification
Always re-scan after remediation to ensure the vulnerability is truly closed and no new issues were introduced.