5 Steps to Move Beyond Vulnerability Discovery to Risk Remediation

This guest article was contributed by Deepak Kumar, Founder and CEO of Adaptiva Vulnerabilities are growing rapidly in both volume and complexity. One recent article shows the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) continues to struggle to keep up with last year’s unprecedented surge in reported vulnerabilities. Yet, despite cybersecurity teams detecting more issues than ever, breaches continue to slip through the cracks. Why? Because identifying vulnerabilities isn’t a magic fix – it’s only half the battle.

Threat actors are exploiting known vulnerabilities that organizations fail to remediate. According to the CSA’s latest Annual Report on Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities, threat actors are most successful within the first two years after a vulnerability is publicly disclosed. After all, in cybersecurity, failing to promptly address problems is like having a state-of-the-art alarm system that never rings when it should. 

Here’s what to know to move beyond vulnerability discovery to risk remediation:

The Challenge Lies in Remediation 

According to research, 77% of organizations take over a week to deploy patches, while attackers typically exploit vulnerabilities within just five days. 

Organizations know they should act fast, but the process is too manual, resources are insufficient, and the number of vulnerabilities seems insurmountable. Nevertheless, when teams hesitate and delay updates, they’re left vulnerable to attacks. 

Attackers only take days to cause harm, so closing the gap between vulnerability detection and remediation must be a top priority. It also means organizations need to expand their focus from detection to how quickly vulnerabilities are fixed. 

Traditional Approaches to Vulnerability Management Hit Roadblocks 

A common issue in remediation is that siloed IT and security teams traditionally cause bottlenecks in patching. While security teams identify threats, IT teams are responsible for maintaining operations and applying patches. As such, communication gaps increase, which slows down processes. 

Many security teams still rely on static spreadsheets or CSV files to share vulnerability data with IT teams – formats that lack crucial, real-time context such as exploitability, asset exposure, and patch availability. As such, IT teams need to manually validate threats and search for remediation options, a time-consuming and error-prone process, particularly when facing thousands of vulnerabilities. 

At the core of the issue is a fundamental disconnect: outdated, static data workflows are misaligned with the urgent need for real-time, actionable intelligence.

The Shift: 5 Steps to Prioritize Remediation 

Unpatched vulnerabilities remain a priority for threat actors, and some known vulnerabilities have been exploited for years. This is largely because patching known vulnerabilities can be complex, time-consuming, and costly.

Timely patching, centralized patch management, and a sharp focus on time-to-remediation are essential pillars of a strong security posture. It’s time for organizations to evolve their mindset—from simply counting vulnerabilities to asking the more urgent question: “How fast are we fixing them?”

Here are five steps for organizations to streamline vulnerability patching and remediation:

1. Connecting processes – exposure management and vulnerability remediation: A modern vulnerability management platform continuously assesses endpoint exposure, correlating common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and rating them by risk factors such as exploitability and business impact. 

To drive effective remediation, these platforms should also integrate with patch management solutions that can automatically identify available patches and correlate them to specific vulnerabilities. This end-to-end visibility empowers administrators to detect, prioritize, and swiftly address exposures across the entire attack surface with greater precision and efficiency.

2. Tailor remediation strategies to fit organizational needs: Effective patching requires customization to overcome remediation challenges. According to research, 64% of organizations cite coordination between detection and remediation as their biggest challenge when it comes to patching. As such, organizations should define patching strategies based on their unique needs, with humans setting the priorities and software executing deployments.

3. Streamline patch deployments with automation: Fast, accurate patching follows a controlled process. Automation helps coordinate approvals, testing, and update configurations before installation. Real-time vulnerability data ensures critical patches are deployed immediately, while other patches are applied based on severity.

4. Stay proactive with adaptable controls: Proactive remediation means staying ahead of patching issues. By monitoring user experience and leveraging controls, administrators can anticipate and resolve potential problems by providing notifications to varying teams about patch deployments and pausing, canceling, or rolling back patches as needed.

5. Use compliance to your advantage: Real-time reporting and monitoring provide visibility into the patching process, closing the loop from identification to remediation. Live progress updates help administrators track where updates are installed, monitor compliance improvements, and measure risk reduction.

Final Thoughts on Moving from Detection to Protection

Closing every security gap is a challenge, especially with the increasing number and complexity of vulnerabilities. To stay ahead of threats, organizations should focus on proactive remediation. This means fostering better collaboration between security and IT teams while leveraging automation to streamline the patching process.

With the right tools, organizations can continuously monitor their digital assets, ensuring vulnerabilities are addressed before they become exploits. And by incorporating autonomous patching, they can accelerate deployments, minimize disruptions, and ensure remediation keeps pace with detection – ultimately strengthening their overall security posture.