A network security assessment is a meticulous audit of an organization’s network to find hidden security vulnerabilities and the risks they pose in view of remediating them. It provides key insights so organizations can incorporate robust security controls and reduce their exposure to internal and external threats while adhering to compliance requirements.
Network security assessments keep organizations’ networks, devices, and sensitive data safe from unauthorized access. How? They enable security teams to discover potential internal and external attack vectors. Certain industries, such as financial services and healthcare, also require providers to perform them to comply with mandated regulations like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), respectively.
Table of Contents
- What Tests Are Performed in a Network Security Assessment?
- What Are the Steps in a Network Security Assessment?
- What Questions Does a Network Security Assessment Answer?
Network Security Assessment: A Deep Dive
What Tests Are Performed in a Network Security Assessment?
Network security assessments typically comprise two test types—vulnerability assessments and penetration tests—that organizations need to perform.
Test #1: Vulnerability Assessment
A vulnerability assessment identifies, classifies, and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities found in an organization’s network. It provides an overview of the weaknesses, misconfigurations, open ports, malware, and other security issues using automated tools.
Apart from using intrusion detection systems (IDSs) and intrusion prevention systems (IPSs) to scout for internal vulnerabilities, organizations can automate external vulnerability assessments using an external attack surface management (EASM) platform.
The IDS, IPS, and EASM platforms can together scan the entire network to identify all of the organization’s assets then inspect them for vulnerabilities. Bugs can then be analyzed and classified based on exploitability and severity to help prioritize remediation. Continuous monitoring then ensues that every weakness is identified even as the network expands over time.
Test #2: Penetration Testing
Penetration testing goes beyond a typical network audit, including a vulnerability assessment. How? While it encompasses most vulnerability assessments, it dives deeper into internal and external testing.
Pen testing, also known as ethical hacking, involves simulating cyber attacks on an organization’s network and applications to uncover otherwise-hidden vulnerabilities. In that sense, pen testers or ethical hackers use the same techniques and tools threat actors employ to assess an organization’s current security posture.
Unlike vulnerability assessments, however, penetration tests are manually performed following controlled methodologies to actively probe systems, outline a threat’s potential impact, and establish countermeasures.
What Are the Steps in a Network Security Assessment?
Conducting a network security assessment requires going through four steps.
Step #1: Gather Information
Gathering network information means collecting every bit of data available on all of an organization’s assets. That means enumerating all hardware, software, and other network components. Every nook and cranny—internal (e.g., weak passwords, access controls, and misconfigurations) and external (e.g., open ports, unpatched software, and third-party access controls)—must be searched for gaps.
Organizations can hasten this process via automation aided by an external attack surface management (EASM) platform. Such a solution can perform thorough asset discovery to find security weaknesses and vulnerabilities through an extensive scan of the entire network.
Step #2: Document and Report Findings
Security teams must document every discovery. That means enumerating all vulnerabilities and weaknesses in a comprehensive report. It also helps if they are classified in terms of exploitation likelihood and impact severity. The report will guide designated security team members to address all issues according to the findings and agreed-upon recommendations.
Step #3: Implement Controls and Update
After all network weaknesses have been uncovered, it’s time to act. Security team members must implement the security controls, including software and firmware updates, device reconfigurations, and system patching, following security regulations and industry best practices.
Step #4: Monitor Continuously
Like EASM and any other cybersecurity endeavor, network security assessment isn’t a one-time thing. Continuous monitoring, along with regular software and firmware updates and hardware maintenance, is critical to ensuring a network can withstand attacks amid the ever-evolving threat landscape.
Network security assessments are time-consuming and resource-draining. But automation can help with that. An EASM platform, for instance, can automate external network security checks, giving security teams more time for manual processes. It can specifically perform automated attack surface discovery, vulnerability prioritization and remediation, and continuous monitoring—all critical to vulnerability assessment.
What Questions Does a Network Security Assessment Answer?
Any kind of security assessment aims to answer questions. In a network security assessment’s case, those questions help teams plug holes and address gaps that can put an organization’s data, systems, and applications at risk.
| QUESTION | HOW CAN NETWORK SECURITY ASSESSMENT HELP? |
| What assets are at risk of a breach or compromise? | Creating an accurate and attributable asset inventory and vulnerability catalog can help security teams identify what assets are at risk, which an EASM platform can do automatically in the attack discovery phase. |
| What threat vectors can attackers use? | Performing an extensive asset audit, scanning them for vulnerabilities, and assigning risk scores can help security teams go after the most critical ones first. An EASM platform automates this process as well. |
| What damage can a successful attack inflict on a specific asset? | Conducting pen tests on each vulnerable asset can help security teams determine how bad certain attacks can affect it and the entire network and business operations. |
| What data can get exposed in case an attack succeeds? | The comprehensive asset inventory created at the start of the network security assessment should include the data that all systems, including cloud-based ones, hold. |
| What mitigation steps can thwart similar future attacks? | Network security does not stop when an attack ends. Security teams must keep up not just with threat actors but also network expansion. Automating some of the steps aided by solutions like an EASM platform may help. |
Key Takeaways
- A network security assessment is a meticulous audit of an organization’s network to find hidden security vulnerabilities and the risks they pose and then remediate them.
- Network security assessments typically comprise two test types—vulnerability assessments and penetration tests—that organizations need to perform.
- Network security assessors follow four steps—gathering information, documenting and reporting findings, implementing controls and updating, and continuous monitoring.
- Network security assessments answer five questions—what assets are at risk, what threat vectors may be used, what damage can successful attacks inflict, what data can get exposed, and what mitigation steps can be taken.