What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: The Critical Need for Vulnerability Assessment and Ongoing Management

Think about the last time you cleaned out your garage or closet. If you’re anything like me, you probably discovered things you never remembered buying, plus an item or two that you thought you’d gotten rid of a long time ago.

The same is probably true of your network.

The ghosts of IT departments past could be lurking about, undetected. Not only do these forgotten servers, outdated software and misconfigurations clutter up your network, but, more significantly, they put your company at risk.

If a remote attacker strikes, these network outliers act as open doors to company data, with the potential to do extensive damage before you’re aware that anything is going on.

That’s why an accurate, comprehensive vulnerability assessment is the foundational element of your ongoing network security efforts. And, the time to act is now.

How a Sentinel Vulnerability Assessment Works

Using industry leading, cloud-based diagnostic tools, the Sentinel team analyzes your organization’s firewall, web server and everything running on your internal and external network. The tool basically sends out a signal, identifies what IP addresses within network range respond, then scans these to identify each device’s operating systems, open ports, missing patches and other vulnerabilities. This is a non-disruptive process that we can set up within days.

If attackers are already in, they won’t stay hidden for long. Sentinel quickly identifies infected devices, then automatically prevents those compromised computers from beaconing outbound to malware, ransomware or adware command and control servers.

Based on the results, we’ll produce a comprehensive report that shows you:

• An inventory of your network assets
• Identification of unprotected access points
• A list of system vulnerabilities by severity level and type
• A rundown of software patches or updates needed
• A comprehensive, prioritized list of required remediation steps

As always, our team is available answer any questions, or go over the report in detail.

After the changes are made, Sentinel Internal Intelligence will continually scan your LAN for new issues. So, if an employee clicks on an attachment in a phishing email and the machine is compromised, you’ll get an alert so you can take immediate action. Our support team can also work with you to configure additional visibility for East/West traffic, and customize reporting and alerts to your internal systems, so, you only get the information and types of alerts you want to see.

Just like Sentinel is the first line of defense at the perimeter, we also can be your last line of defense, protecting you from the inside-out.

Why It Pays to Work with Security Pros

Yes, you could go directly to a company that makes vulnerability scanning tools and attempt to “do it yourself.” The challenge is, these scanning tools require security technology expertise to configure and run. Get it wrong and you could get false positives. Worse yet, you could miss a vulnerability and put your company at risk.

Most importantly, with Sentinel, you get a team of security experts who act as your partners, ready to answer questions, help you interpret results and provide the insight to keep you safer down the road.

In a world where attacks, breaches and cybercrime are on the rise, it’s critical for businesses of all sizes to stay one step ahead of the threats. It starts with knowing what you have, and where you’ve left a virtual door unlocked.

To find out more about our vulnerability assessments or our suite of intrusion prevention and detection products, click here.

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