Practical Vulnerability Management


Book Description

Practical Vulnerability Management shows you how to weed out system security weaknesses and squash cyber threats in their tracks. Bugs: they're everywhere. Software, firmware, hardware -- they all have them. Bugs even live in the cloud. And when one of these bugs is leveraged to wreak havoc or steal sensitive information, a company's prized technology assets suddenly become serious liabilities. Fortunately, exploitable security weaknesses are entirely preventable; you just have to find them before the bad guys do. Practical Vulnerability Management will help you achieve this goal on a budget, with a proactive process for detecting bugs and squashing the threat they pose. The book starts by introducing the practice of vulnerability management, its tools and components, and detailing the ways it improves an enterprise's overall security posture. Then it's time to get your hands dirty! As the content shifts from conceptual to practical, you're guided through creating a vulnerability-management system from the ground up, using open-source software. Along the way, you'll learn how to: • Generate accurate and usable vulnerability intelligence • Scan your networked systems to identify and assess bugs and vulnerabilities • Prioritize and respond to various security risks • Automate scans, data analysis, reporting, and other repetitive tasks • Customize the provided scripts to adapt them to your own needs Playing whack-a-bug won't cut it against today's advanced adversaries. Use this book to set up, maintain, and enhance an effective vulnerability management system, and ensure your organization is always a step ahead of hacks and attacks.




Asset Attack Vectors


Book Description

Build an effective vulnerability management strategy to protect your organization’s assets, applications, and data. Today’s network environments are dynamic, requiring multiple defenses to mitigate vulnerabilities and stop data breaches. In the modern enterprise, everything connected to the network is a target. Attack surfaces are rapidly expanding to include not only traditional servers and desktops, but also routers, printers, cameras, and other IOT devices. It doesn’t matter whether an organization uses LAN, WAN, wireless, or even a modern PAN—savvy criminals have more potential entry points than ever before. To stay ahead of these threats, IT and security leaders must be aware of exposures and understand their potential impact. Asset Attack Vectors will help you build a vulnerability management program designed to work in the modern threat environment. Drawing on years of combined experience, the authors detail the latest techniques for threat analysis, risk measurement, and regulatory reporting. They also outline practical service level agreements (SLAs) for vulnerability management and patch management. Vulnerability management needs to be more than a compliance check box; it should be the foundation of your organization’s cybersecurity strategy. Read Asset Attack Vectors to get ahead of threats and protect your organization with an effective asset protection strategy. What You’ll Learn Create comprehensive assessment and risk identification policies and procedures Implement a complete vulnerability management workflow in nine easy steps Understand the implications of active, dormant, and carrier vulnerability states Develop, deploy, and maintain custom and commercial vulnerability management programs Discover the best strategies for vulnerability remediation, mitigation, and removal Automate credentialed scans that leverage least-privilege access principles Read real-world case studies that share successful strategies and reveal potential pitfalls Who This Book Is For New and intermediate security management professionals, auditors, and information technology staff looking to build an effective vulnerability management program and defend against asset based cyberattacks




Network Vulnerability Assessment


Book Description

Build a network security threat model with this comprehensive learning guide Key Features Develop a network security threat model for your organization Gain hands-on experience in working with network scanning and analyzing tools Learn to secure your network infrastructure Book Description The tech world has been taken over by digitization to a very large extent, and so it’s become extremely important for an organization to actively design security mechanisms for their network infrastructures. Analyzing vulnerabilities can be one of the best ways to secure your network infrastructure. Network Vulnerability Assessment starts with network security assessment concepts, workflows, and architectures. Then, you will use open source tools to perform both active and passive network scanning. As you make your way through the chapters, you will use these scanning results to analyze and design a threat model for network security. In the concluding chapters, you will dig deeper into concepts such as IP network analysis, Microsoft Services, and mail services. You will also get to grips with various security best practices, which will help you build your network security mechanism. By the end of this book, you will be in a position to build a security framework fit for an organization. What you will learn Develop a cost-effective end-to-end vulnerability management program Implement a vulnerability management program from a governance perspective Learn about various standards and frameworks for vulnerability assessments and penetration testing Understand penetration testing with practical learning on various supporting tools and techniques Gain insight into vulnerability scoring and reporting Explore the importance of patching and security hardening Develop metrics to measure the success of the vulnerability management program Who this book is for Network Vulnerability Assessment is for security analysts, threat analysts, and any security professionals responsible for developing a network threat model for an organization. This book is also for any individual who is or wants to be part of a vulnerability management team and implement an end-to-end robust vulnerability management program.




Network Security Assessment: From Vulnerability to Patch


Book Description

This book will take readers from the discovery of vulnerabilities and the creation of the corresponding exploits, through a complete security assessment, all the way through deploying patches against these vulnerabilities to protect their networks. This is unique in that it details both the management and technical skill and tools required to develop an effective vulnerability management system. Business case studies and real world vulnerabilities are used through the book. It starts by introducing the reader to the concepts of a vulnerability management system. Readers will be provided detailed timelines of exploit development, vendors' time to patch, and corporate path installations. Next, the differences between security assessment s and penetration tests will be clearly explained along with best practices for conducting both. Next, several case studies from different industries will illustrate the effectiveness of varying vulnerability assessment methodologies. The next several chapters will define the steps of a vulnerability assessment including: defining objectives, identifying and classifying assets, defining rules of engagement, scanning hosts, and identifying operating systems and applications. The next several chapters provide detailed instructions and examples for differentiating vulnerabilities from configuration problems, validating vulnerabilities through penetration testing. The last section of the book provides best practices for vulnerability management and remediation.* Unique coverage detailing both the management and technical skill and tools required to develop an effective vulnerability management system* Vulnerability management is rated the #2 most pressing concern for security professionals in a poll conducted by Information Security Magazine* Covers in the detail the vulnerability management lifecycle from discovery through patch.




Effective Vulnerability Management


Book Description

Infuse efficiency into risk mitigation practices by optimizing resource use with the latest best practices in vulnerability management Organizations spend tremendous time and resources addressing vulnerabilities to their technology, software, and organizations. But are those time and resources well spent? Often, the answer is no, because we rely on outdated practices and inefficient, scattershot approaches. Effective Vulnerability Management takes a fresh look at a core component of cybersecurity, revealing the practices, processes, and tools that can enable today's organizations to mitigate risk efficiently and expediently in the era of Cloud, DevSecOps and Zero Trust. Every organization now relies on third-party software and services, ever-changing cloud technologies, and business practices that introduce tremendous potential for risk, requiring constant vigilance. It's more crucial than ever for organizations to successfully minimize the risk to the rest of the organization's success. This book describes the assessment, planning, monitoring, and resource allocation tasks each company must undertake for successful vulnerability management. And it enables readers to do away with unnecessary steps, streamlining the process of securing organizational data and operations. It also covers key emerging domains such as software supply chain security and human factors in cybersecurity. Learn the important difference between asset management, patch management, and vulnerability management and how they need to function cohesively Build a real-time understanding of risk through secure configuration and continuous monitoring Implement best practices like vulnerability scoring, prioritization and design interactions to reduce risks from human psychology and behaviors Discover new types of attacks like vulnerability chaining, and find out how to secure your assets against them Effective Vulnerability Management is a new and essential volume for executives, risk program leaders, engineers, systems administrators, and anyone involved in managing systems and software in our modern digitally-driven society.




Finding and Fixing Vulnerabilities in Information Systems


Book Description

Understanding an organization's reliance on information systems and how to mitigate the vulnerabilities of these systems can be an intimidating challenge--especially when considering less well-known weaknesses or even unknown vulnerabilities that have not yet been exploited. The authors introduce the Vulnerability Assessment and Mitigation methodology, a six-step process that uses a top-down approach to protect against future threats and system failures while mitigating current and past threats and weaknesses.




Effective Physical Security


Book Description

Effective Physical Security, Fifth Edition is a best-practices compendium that details the essential elements and latest developments in physical security protection. This new edition is completely updated, with new chapters carefully selected from the author's work that set the standard. This book contains important coverage of environmental design, security surveys, locks, lighting, and CCTV, the latest ISO standards for risk assessment and risk management, physical security planning, network systems infrastructure, and environmental design. - Provides detailed coverage of physical security in an easily accessible format - Presents information that should be required reading for ASIS International's Physical Security Professional (PSP) certification - Incorporates expert contributors in the field of physical security, while maintaining a consistent flow and style - Serves the needs of multiple audiences, as both a textbook and professional desk reference - Blends theory and practice, with a specific focus on today's global business and societal environment, and the associated security, safety, and asset protection challenges - Includes useful information on the various and many aids appearing in the book - Features terminology, references, websites, appendices to chapters, and checklists







Effective Cybersecurity


Book Description

The Practical, Comprehensive Guide to Applying Cybersecurity Best Practices and Standards in Real Environments In Effective Cybersecurity, William Stallings introduces the technology, operational procedures, and management practices needed for successful cybersecurity. Stallings makes extensive use of standards and best practices documents that are often used to guide or mandate cybersecurity implementation. Going beyond these, he offers in-depth tutorials on the “how” of implementation, integrated into a unified framework and realistic plan of action. Each chapter contains a clear technical overview, as well as a detailed discussion of action items and appropriate policies. Stallings offers many pedagogical features designed to help readers master the material: clear learning objectives, keyword lists, review questions, and QR codes linking to relevant standards documents and web resources. Effective Cybersecurity aligns with the comprehensive Information Security Forum document “The Standard of Good Practice for Information Security,” extending ISF’s work with extensive insights from ISO, NIST, COBIT, other official standards and guidelines, and modern professional, academic, and industry literature. • Understand the cybersecurity discipline and the role of standards and best practices • Define security governance, assess risks, and manage strategy and tactics • Safeguard information and privacy, and ensure GDPR compliance • Harden systems across the system development life cycle (SDLC) • Protect servers, virtualized systems, and storage • Secure networks and electronic communications, from email to VoIP • Apply the most appropriate methods for user authentication • Mitigate security risks in supply chains and cloud environments This knowledge is indispensable to every cybersecurity professional. Stallings presents it systematically and coherently, making it practical and actionable.




Cybersecurity - Attack and Defense Strategies


Book Description

Key Features Gain a clear understanding of the attack methods, and patterns to recognize abnormal behavior within your organization with Blue Team tactics Learn to unique techniques to gather exploitation intelligence, identify risk and demonstrate impact with Red Team and Blue Team strategies A practical guide that will give you hands-on experience to mitigate risks and prevent attackers from infiltrating your system Book DescriptionThe book will start talking about the security posture before moving to Red Team tactics, where you will learn the basic syntax for the Windows and Linux tools that are commonly used to perform the necessary operations. You will also gain hands-on experience of using new Red Team techniques with powerful tools such as python and PowerShell, which will enable you to discover vulnerabilities in your system and how to exploit them. Moving on, you will learn how a system is usually compromised by adversaries, and how they hack user's identity, and the various tools used by the Red Team to find vulnerabilities in a system. In the next section, you will learn about the defense strategies followed by the Blue Team to enhance the overall security of a system. You will also learn about an in-depth strategy to ensure that there are security controls in each network layer, and how you can carry out the recovery process of a compromised system. Finally, you will learn how to create a vulnerability management strategy and the different techniques for manual log analysis.What you will learn Learn the importance of having a solid foundation for your security posture Understand the attack strategy using cyber security kill chain Learn how to enhance your defense strategy by improving your security policies, hardening your network, implementing active sensors, and leveraging threat intelligence Learn how to perform an incident investigation Get an in-depth understanding of the recovery process Understand continuous security monitoring and how to implement a vulnerability management strategy Learn how to perform log analysis to identify suspicious activities Who this book is for This book aims at IT professional who want to venture the IT security domain. IT pentester, Security consultants, and ethical hackers will also find this course useful. Prior knowledge of penetration testing would be beneficial.