There’s a lot of information to keep track of regarding cyber security. Many experts offer tips like patching vulnerabilities, monitoring firewalls and backing up data to prevent breaches.
But implementing these digital defenses alone won’t protect you from physical threats. That’s why it’s important to use a defense-in-depth strategy.
Check for Potential Flaws
CVE is a database of public cyber vulnerabilities that help standardize how weaknesses are recognized. Each flaw is given a unique identifier that makes it easier for organizations and vendors to find, communicate and work on them.
It also allows for a more efficient comparison of security tools to ensure they provide the coverage needed. For example, CVE numbers can determine what vulnerabilities are covered by different products, which can then be used to evaluate the best solution for an organization.
Vulnerabilities can cause costly damage to a business, such as data breaches and malware infections that lead to lost productivity. In addition, many are exploited by hackers for their financial gain. They are often discovered by researchers, white hat hackers or other members of the community, who then report them to one of the official CVE Program Partners. Today, a lot of companies are using CVE to improve security defenses. These organizations are responsible for assigning CVE IDs, maintaining a list of the CVE vulnerabilities they cover and ensuring that new vulnerability reports are incorporated into the system. Several government agencies, including the Office of Cybersecurity and Information Assurance (OCSIA) at the Department of Homeland Security, provide funding for the program.
In addition to this, a board of industry experts from cybersecurity tools providers, research institutions, end-users and government departments/agencies govern the CVE Program through an open process. Their inputs into the program’s goals, strategic direction and other opinions are visible in their email discussions and meeting archives on the CVE website.
Evaluate Your Security Strategy
Whether you’re working on a new app or just trying to improve the security of your existing business, having a clear and comprehensive cybersecurity strategy is essential. A security strategy provides a framework for creating and implementing your security policies, procedures, and processes while providing a roadmap to success. Although a strategic plan may not be explicitly required by HIPAA, GLBA, or SOX regulations, most industry security frameworks recommend establishing a formal strategy to help mitigate the risk of attacks and breaches.
CVE provides a standard identifier for vulnerabilities, allowing you to access information about specific cyber threats across various sources quickly. While the CVE database mainly serves to identify vulnerabilities, it does not necessarily include information about their nature, impact, or solutions. Refer to the corresponding information sources, such as IT vendor websites and other vulnerability databases, to learn more about individual exposures.
In addition, you should try to avoid relying solely on CVE, as it’s often inaccurate and incomplete. Instead, it would help if you strived for a defense-in-depth approach to making it more expensive for an attacker to breach your system than it is to profit from stealing your valuable data and assets.
Implement a Detection Strategy
CVE is a set of standards that help identify hardware and software system vulnerabilities. Its main purpose is to standardize how vulnerability information is determined by assigning standard IDs that allow security administrators to quickly and accurately access the necessary technical information about a specific vulnerability from various CVE-compatible sources.
The CVE system also promotes cooperation between organizations to reduce cyber attacks and improve overall cybersecurity. It encourages coordination and collaboration among vendors, researchers and other stakeholders by providing a public repository of vulnerable information. This helps to increase transparency and consistency in managing vulnerability threats, which can reduce the impact of such incidents on a business.
Developing a detection strategy informed by the CVE system can greatly improve your business’s ability to detect potential flaws. It can also help to prevent costly cyber attacks from gaining a foothold in your network by making attackers aware of potential weaknesses that can be exploited.
Some people are concerned that publicizing these issues could make hackers more aware of them, accelerating their exploitation. However, the cybersecurity community has a growing consensus that this risk is minimal. This is reflected by the presence of the CVE Numbering Authorities, CVE Working Groups and the CVE Board, all of which include key professionals and organizations in the field.
Automate the Process
When the CVE system compiles vulnerability information, it undergoes a rigorous process. The goal is to ensure that each entry in the database is accurate and verifiable and has a significant impact on computer security. This is achieved by assigning CVE identifiers to vulnerabilities, which link to additional information on IT vendor websites and in the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD).
The CVE Board manages the CVE program, which comprises cybersecurity tools suppliers, professionals, researchers, government agencies, scholars and users. The board looks after tasks such as proffering imperative data source inputs and managing the program’s operating structure. The board also oversees the list of authorized CVE numbering authorities (CNAs). This includes software vendors, open-source projects, coordination centers and bug bounty service providers.
To qualify as a CVE, the vulnerability must be found by one of these entities and must meet certain criteria. These include that the issue is repairable by installing a patch or upgrade, it must be discovered in unpatched systems, and the entity reporting it must be able to prove the vulnerability through documentation or present the software vendor’s confirmation.
The CVE system is an invaluable resource for organizations that want to improve their vulnerability management capabilities. However, this is only possible when they incorporate the vulnerability IDs in their detection processes. For example, they can integrate the CVE scanning capability into their CI/CD pipelines to detect the use of vulnerable packages and stop them from merging into their code repository.