Trustwave Blog

Managed Vulnerability Scanning Made Easy

Written by Jay Gill | Aug 30, 2023

There are few security tasks more important, yet more difficult, to conduct than a vulnerability scanning program.

A properly conducted scanning program requires a team of human-led experts with the technology to search for issues that might give a threat actor access to a network. Only the largest organizations with equally large wallets can afford to take on this task, but there is an option.

Trustwave’s Managed Vulnerability Scanning (MVS) program can take on the heavy lifting, allowing an organization to focus on what is important to its operation.

Through Trustwave's MVS offering, clients gain the advantage of a versatile and user-friendly approach that delegates the demanding aspects to skilled professionals. Our aim is to assist you in identifying false positives, allowing you to concentrate on addressing the vulnerabilities that have the most impact, thereby enabling you to resolve issues and move forward.

Managed Vulnerability Scanning constitutes a practical and human-driven service, wherein the adept SpiderLabs MVS team conducts vulnerability scans on your behalf. Trustwave's MVS offering provides clients with a flexible and hassle-free solution that delegates the challenging tasks to seasoned experts.

Trustwave MVS, available with options such as Tenable, DbProtect, and Invicti, presents our clients with a managed resolution for internal, external, and ASV scanning, all powered by a single engine. The MVS team will furnish you with the results of the scanning process, including findings and vulnerabilities to address, guiding you through comprehensive and feature-rich reporting.

 

Navigating the Challenges of Vulnerability Scanning

Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), and cybersecurity experts face the complex task of identifying, categorizing, remediating, or mitigating vulnerabilities that malicious actors could exploit to gain access to valuable data.

This endeavor is challenging because many organizations lack comprehensive insights into network vulnerabilities, making them susceptible to attacks or compromises both from external sources and within their corporate firewalls.

Moreover, addressing the ability to conduct thorough scans of critical infrastructure presents additional hurdles. This lack of visibility often stems from insufficient resources available to handle the extensive reporting demands for various audience levels, creating dashboards, and prioritizing risk management.

 

Trustwave's Approach to Managed Vulnerability Scanning

Trustwave employs a proven, human-led methodology for executing Managed Vulnerability Scanning, with key objectives including:

  • Providing visibility into IT assets and associated vulnerabilities
  • Minimizing time and resource expenditure by reducing false positive results
  • Mitigating risk by focusing on the most significant vulnerabilities

The Managed Vulnerability Scanning solution from Trustwave offers an extensive range of options that clients can select to scan their databases, networks, and applications. Clients have the flexibility to choose single or all three areas for scanning, and the scans can be conducted at different frequencies: one-time, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

Trustwave's MVS offering takes a systematic approach to vulnerability management, overseeing all aspects of the vulnerability scanning process to achieve the client's security objectives. This comprehensive service includes:

  • Initial setup
  • Scheduling and conducting scans
  • Reviewing and analyzing results
  • Sharing agreed-upon reports

In addition to these aspects, Trustwave also aids in:

  • Identifying and addressing high and critical vulnerabilities
  • Defining the organization's risk posture
  • Enhancing visibility into IT assets and their vulnerabilities

Network Scanning - Trustwave Network Scanning provides insights into an organization's network vulnerabilities, identifying areas where the client's network may be susceptible to compromises from internal or external sources.

External Vulnerability Scanning - Regularly scheduled or ad-hoc cloud-based external scanning reveals vulnerabilities that are exposed through the firewall to the outside world. The proficient Trustwave SpiderLabs MVS team can provide vulnerability reports as needed.

Internal Vulnerability Scanning - This internal scanning utilizes the same cutting-edge vulnerability technology as external scanning, offering insights into vulnerabilities within the network behind your firewall, from a hacker's perspective. Trustwave Managed Vulnerability Scanning is available as part of the Trustwave Managed Security Testing service.

Application Scanning - Assess applications before deployment or during production to safeguard the gateways to sensitive data.

Database Scanning - Trustwave Database Security solutions grant visibility into and protection for your critical business data, regardless of where it's generated, stored, or processed.

In addition to Trustwave Managed Vulnerability Scanning, the following services are provided:

  • Managed Network Scanning
  • Internal/External Network Penetration Testing
  • Internal/External Managed Application Penetration Testing

Optional Add-On Services

Refining False Positives - Through the Fine-tuning False-positive service, Trustwave reviews all Scanner-generated findings and eliminates false positives that can be addressed by available product functionality. Some findings may be recommended for further review.

On-Demand Scans - The On-Demand scans service responds to clients' requests for vulnerability scans as new threats emerge in their network environment or as new assets are deployed.

Threat Vulnerability Manager (Advisor) - Trustwave Vulnerability Manager offers clients a designated point of contact who guides them through the vulnerability process, contextualizes vulnerability reports, and tailors scanner details to the environment. This contact streamlines information exchange between Trustwave and the client, enhancing vulnerability remediation effectiveness.

Trustwave MVS is specifically designed for organizations with an extensive infrastructure, web applications and their security and risk management policy requires constant scanning of vulnerabilities but they lack specialists to conduct scans and analyze vulnerabilities.

Trustwave MVS is also an excellent fit for organizations that must meet the requirements of industry norms and standards (GDPR, OWASP TOP 10, SANS25, HIPAA, ISO: 27000, SOX) and want full visibility of vulnerabilities and threats across the organization.