by Stephanie Dunn
August 5, 2015
Patches are released on a daily basis, and organizations need to ensure the timely patching of vulnerabilities in order to maintain confidentiality, integrity and availability of network systems. Management is also responsible for monitoring remediation efforts and keeping abreast of current and mitigated vulnerabilities. This report presents data on patch management rates, and provides trend analysis across various time frames on a network.
The executive summary chapter contains two tables that present mitigated vulnerabilities over different periods of time. The tables in this chapter provide two views, one with vulnerabilities mitigated by severity, and the other displays the total number of vulnerabilities mitigated over the course of 60 days. When provided with vulnerability and mitigation metrics, management gains the required information to assess the organizations security posture. This also helps to identify potential shortfalls with security controls, and can shift management’s focus by investing more in critical areas of risk.
The report is available in the Tenable.sc Feed, a comprehensive collection of dashboards, reports, assurance report cards and assets. The report can be easily located in the Tenable.sc Feed under the category Executive. The report requirements are:
- Tenable.sc 4.8.2
- Nessus 8.5.1
When provided with vulnerability and mitigation metrics, management gains the required information to assess the organizations security posture. This also helps to identify potential shortfalls with security controls, and can shift management’s focus by investing more in critical areas of risk.
Tenable's Tenable.sc Continuous View (Tenable.sc CV) is the market-defining continuous network monitoring platform. Using Tenable.sc CV, an organization will obtain the most comprehensive and integrated view of a network, providing detailed information on mitigation efforts.
Chapters
Executive Summary - This chapter provides an executive summary of mitigated vulnerabilities over different periods of time. The tables in this chapter provide two views, one with vulnerabilities mitigated by severity, and the other displays the total number of vulnerabilities mitigated over periods of time.
Vulnerabilities Over Time - The chapter provides a summary view of active vulnerabilities over the past 90 days. Using a line chart, area chart, and a table, the risk mitigation via patch management can be analyzed. By gaining an understanding of the history of the patch management efforts, the security manager is better able to understand where focus needs to be applied to better mitigate overall risk.
Days Since Mitigation - This chapter shows a historic analysis of patch dates or the ‘Days Since Mitigation’. ‘Days Since Mitigation’ allows the user to filter results based on when the vulnerability was mitigated or when a patch was applied. The chapter contains three sections with differing dates ranges, thus showing the security manager a detailed trend analysis of when patches were applied.
Days to Mitigate - This chapter shows a historic analysis of patch rate or the ‘Days to Mitigation’. ‘Days to Mitigation’ allows the user to track the number of days since a vulnerability was moved to the mitigated database. The chapter contains three sections with differing dates ranges, thus showing the security manager a detailed trend analysis of time taken to apply patches.