What is Vulnerability in CyberSecurity?

Last Updated on
August 3rd, 2021

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Last updated on : August 3rd, 2021 by R Yadav

A cybersecurity vulnerability is defined as any weakness within a company’s system processes, internal controls, or information systems that can be exploited by cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to your system. Unlike cyber threats that are introduced to your system, vulnerabilities are present from the beginning.

Exploiting these vulnerabilities, hackers can install malware, run malevolent codes, and steal sensitive and valuable information from your systems. These weaknesses can lie in your system’s design, implementation, operation, or management.

What is Vulnerability in CyberSecurity
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With digital transformation and rapid automation taking place across all sectors, 7 in 10 organizations see cybersecurity as a necessity, rather than a choice. This is why cybersecurity is on the rise and will continue to be a lucrative field for career opportunities. To become a cybersecurity professional, you need a wide set of skills and these skills can only be acquired by joining some of the best cybersecurity courses available online.

Zero-day vulnerability

A vulnerability that is not known yet and therefore hasn’t been addressed is known as a zero-day vulnerability. In case, hackers learn of this vulnerability before you, they can exploit it to adversely affect your computer system, network, and data warehouse. To limit the chances of a zero-day attack, you must monitor your systems continuously and remain diligent.

When should you publicly disclose vulnerabilities?

Whether you should publicly disclose your system’s vulnerabilities publicly or not continues to remain a controversial issue. There are 2 options:

1. Immediate full disclosure

Some cybersecurity experts support immediate disclosure including information about how to exploit that vulnerability. They believe it results in safe software and improves software security, computer security, application security, information security, and operating system security.

2. Limited to no disclosure

Some cybersecurity experts believe if more people know about a vulnerability, your system is at risk. They think restricting information to selected groups will minimize the risk of exploitation.

Whichever side you pick, you must know that it is very common for cybercriminals to frequently search for vulnerabilities in your systems and test known exploits. Many companies have hired in-house security teams whose responsibility is to assess IT security and other security means as part of their cybersecurity risk assessment and information risk management process.

Other companies offer bug bounties to whoever is successful in identifying and reporting vulnerabilities to them, instead of exploiting them. These programs are great at reducing the risk of your business.

As technology advances every day and the threat landscape keeps on changing, it is becoming more and more important for businesses to be able to identify and address multiple types of cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

When should you publicly disclose vulnerabilities?
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Reasons for cybersecurity vulnerabilities

1. Faulty defences

Faulty defences mean penetrable security measures that allow hackers to gain unauthorized access to your systems. Defence techniques, such as encryption and authorization, when implemented properly have the capability to protect your business company from a number of cyberattacks. However, if not, they just create an illusion of security while in reality, your organization is at risk.

2.Poor management

Creating, using, transferring, and destroying resources within a system means resource management practices. If the management of resources is not up to the mark, it will expose your business to various vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflow, path traversal, and the use of potentially different functions.

3.Insecure connection

If the interaction between the components of your system and network is secure, your organization is safe from a number of threats, such as SQL injection, open redirect cross-site scripting, and more. To ensure your system is secure, make sure you pay special attention to how data flows across your systems and networks.

If you wish to learn more about vulnerabilities in cybersecurity, you can join an advanced cybersecurity course. In order to protect your company from data breaches and data leaks, it is important you identify and resolve all the vulnerabilities present in your systems before an attacker does. With networks becoming more and more complex in nature, your company’s success depends on managing cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

FAQs

Q1: What are the 4 main types of vulnerabilities?

Ans: Network vulnerabilities, human vulnerabilities, process vulnerabilities, and operating system vulnerabilities are the 4 main types of vulnerabilities.

Q2: What is WannaCry?

Ans: WannaCry is a self-spreading worm. It replicates all by itself, finds new victims, breaks in, and launches on the next computer automatically. 

Q3: What are the types of exploits?

Ans: Exploits are mainly of 2 types: known and unknown. Known exploits have been identified by cybersecurity teams, whereas unknown exploits are created by cyberattackers as soon as they identify a vulnerability.

Please Also Read: Best cybersecurity courses online in 2021

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