How To Identify Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

by Daniel Albrecht, cybersecurity analyst at Field Effect

Identifying and eliminating security vulnerabilities that may be exploited by a threat actor is a key part of protecting you and your clients’ computer networks from compromise. Threat actors often exploit vulnerabilities to:

• Gain initial access to a network
• Spread malware to additional hosts
• Gain access to privileged user accounts

It’s equally important to identify security vulnerabilities in your organizational processes and user practices. Threat actors commonly target users with social engineering campaigns to steal account credentials or execute malware and gain initial network access. To reduce the success and impact of social engineering attempts, organizations can implement robust company-wide security policies and offer user training.

While it may not be possible to remove all vulnerabilities in a network, actively working to identify and eliminate them where possible can significantly decrease the likelihood of initial network compromise and hinder malicious activities post-compromise. It can also force threat actors to use a larger number of tools and techniques, making it easier for cybersecurity solutions to detect the attack.