How to Make the Process of Vulnerability Management as Effective and Easy as Possible

Australian organisations are under constant attack from cyber criminals.

ASD’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) found in its Annual Cyber Threat Report 2025–26:

1. It received over 82,000 cybercrime reports – on average one every 6 minutes.
2. Publicly reported common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) increased 30%.
3. It is consistently seeing cyber security incidents resulting from unpatched vulnerabilities, including the successful exploitation of a vulnerability identified in 2008.

These statistics shed light on just how serious things have become. As a result, more and more companies are ramping up their security efforts and taking a proactive approach.

While there are a plethora of strategies available that run the cybersecurity gamut, one of the most effective is vulnerability management.

What is Vulnerability Management?

This is a process that involves identifying, classifying, remediating and mitigating vulnerabilities. It’s designed to help companies proactively defend against vulnerabilities in their software, applications, operating systems and network.

With attacks on the rise, this is one of your best bets for defence and is part of a well-rounded cybersecurity strategy. In Australia, it also underpins two of ASD’s Essential Eight mitigation strategies: patching applications and patching operating systems.

A Roadblock

There’s just one problem. Vulnerability management is notoriously complex (or at least that’s a common perception).

Many businesses feel that…

1. Software solutions are onerous to deploy
2. They eat up a high volume of network bandwidth
3. Reports aren’t always clear and open for misinterpretation
4. Remediation is a separate process entirely and comes with additional effort and costs
5. Maintenance is equally as arduous

These are just a few of issues that scare away companies from partaking in vulnerability management. In their eyes, the pros are simply outweighed by the cons.

It’s this perceived complexity, effort level and inconvenience that stops them from integrating this type of solution.

Some organisations also feel that vulnerability management is somewhat antiquated and no longer needed if they’re implementing other defensive measures such as IDS, firewalls and anti-malware. However, ASD reports that compromises continue to come from well-known weaknesses such as unpatched systems, and you simply can’t rely on boundary defence and leave critical assets vulnerable.

This is what puts companies at unnecessary risk and increases their odds of encountering an attack.

Simplifying the Process

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this difficult. It’s really just a matter of simplifying your objectives and breaking them down into five manageable steps.

Here’s what those steps look like:

Identify your organisation’s critical assets

Which software, devices, etc. are most integral to your company’s productivity and profitability? Which assets would have the most profound impact on operations if compromised? Having a clear idea of what your critical assets are provides you with direction so that you can ultimately keep them safe.

Pinpoint vulnerabilities that could compromise those assets

Some examples include buffer overflow where there’s more data than a buffer can handle, missing security patches and an SQL injection where an attacker can trick a database into doing unscrupulous things.

Prioritise vulnerabilities in terms of importance

Which vulnerabilities are most severe? Which would cause the biggest problems if unremedied? Ranking these in sequential order provides you with a detailed outline of what demands your attention first.

Resolve issues accordingly

This is where you remediate vulnerabilities in order of their importance.

Validate

This is basically a follow-up where you validate your efforts to ensure that all issues have been addressed and known vulnerabilities have been patched.

However, you’re not done there.

Why?

Cybersecurity isn’t a one-off type of deal. Modern businesses are caught up in a never-ending game of cat-and-mouse with cyber criminals. There are always new software updates, bugs, viruses, etc. being released meaning that companies must never let their guard down. ASD also warns that AI is reducing the expertise and effort needed to find and exploit vulnerabilities, likely shortening the time to exploit.

Vulnerability Scanning

Another way to streamline things is to use a vulnerability scanning service. This is where you partner with a third-party provider and use powerful integrated vulnerability scanning and testing tools to do the heavy lifting.

These tools help you pinpoint vulnerabilities and prioritise them by ranking. From there, you’ll receive recommendations on how to fix those vulnerabilities and the most efficient path to take.

Some services, like StickmanCyber’s Vulnerability Management service, will even fix potential weaknesses in your network for you, then retest to confirm the fixes, which is ideal for many SMBs who lack a formal IT department or a dedicated in-house cybersecurity expert. This can truly be a lifesaver if your organisation lacks the technical know-how.

By examining trend analysis reports, you’ll also get an idea of whether or not your network security is improving over time. This way you can really tighten up your cybersecurity and greatly reduce your odds of falling victim.

The best part is that it’s very hands off, so you can concern yourself more with core business operations rather than fixating on security.

Simplifying the Complex

There’s no denying the importance of vulnerability management for 21st century Australian companies. As many have already found out, it’s not a matter of if but when your data will be compromised.

With ASD’s Annual Cyber Threat Report 2025–26 putting the average self-reported cost of cybercrime per report for Australian businesses at $93,500, up 16%, this simply isn’t a risk worth taking.

However, some organisations are reluctant to get on board because of the perceived complexity that often comes along with implementing a vulnerability management solution. And this is understandable.

But fortunately, they don’t have to go it alone.

Cybersecurity has evolved dramatically in recent years, and using a vulnerability scanning and penetration testing service takes the burden and guesswork out of it. This way you can ensure that your company’s critical assets are covered and prompt remediation takes place whenever an issue arises.

The end result? Smoother operations, stronger support for compliance with data regulations and greater peace of mind.

Frequently asked questions

What is a CVE?

A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) record is a unique public identifier for a known security vulnerability, such as CVE-2024-27834. Vendors, scanners and security advisories all use the same ID, so your team can match a scan finding to the vendor’s patch and to threat information. ASD’s ACSC reported that publicly reported CVEs increased 30% in 2025–26.

Should you prioritise vulnerabilities by CVSS score alone?

No. A CVSS score indicates a vulnerability’s severity relative to other vulnerabilities, and the CVSS v4.0 specification says base scores should be combined with threat and environmental information for risk assessment. Also consider whether the vulnerability is being exploited, for example if it appears in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, and how critical the affected asset is to your business.

How often should you run vulnerability scans?

ASD’s Essential Eight Maturity Level One sets a useful baseline: scan at least daily for missing patches in online services and internet-facing servers and network devices, at least weekly for office productivity suites, web browsers, email clients, PDF software and security products, and at least fortnightly for workstation and other server operating systems. Always use a scanner with an up-to-date vulnerability database.

What is the difference between vulnerability management and patch management?

Patch management is the process of testing and applying vendor updates. Vulnerability management is broader: it finds, prioritises and verifies the fixing of weaknesses, including misconfigurations and flaws with no patch yet, where other mitigations may be needed. Patching is usually the most common fix, and ASD’s Essential Eight treats patching applications and patching operating systems as two of its eight strategies.

Do you need permission to scan cloud services such as AWS?

It depends on the provider. AWS, for example, lets customers run security assessments, including vulnerability scanning, on their own AWS infrastructure for listed services without prior approval, but it prohibits activities such as denial-of-service testing. Always check your cloud provider’s current testing policy, and never scan systems you don’t own or don’t have written permission to test.