Identifying NIS2 and DORA Vulnerabilities in Minutes

Ofer Regev, CTO and Head of Network Operations at Faddom, explains how companies can identify NIS2 and DORA vulnerabilities in minutes. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.

As cybersecurity threats evolve, organizations operating within the European Union face stringent regulatory requirements to ensure operational resilience and digital security. The Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2) and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) became mandatory in October 2024 and January 2025, respectively, and organizations must take proactive measures to comply. However, many enterprises struggle to meet the demands of these compliance requirements in time.

The challenge is to identify vulnerabilities, ensure compliance, and maintain resilience without deploying time-consuming and expensive solutions. A real-time Application Dependency Mapping (ADM) platform provides a streamlined solution to this challenge. By leveraging an agentless approach, organizations can accurately identify critical vulnerabilities, ensure regulatory compliance, and strengthen operational resilience in minutes, eliminating complexity and uncertainty.

The NIS2 and DORA Compliance Challenge

NIS2 and DORA establish strict cybersecurity and risk management requirements for organizations in critical sectors such as finance, energy, healthcare, and supply chain services. Key mandates include:

• Proactive ICT Risk Management: Organizations should continuously monitor and address cybersecurity risks.
• Real-Time Incident Detection and Reporting: Identifying and responding to cyber incidents is essential.
• Third-Party Risk Oversight: Enterprises must ensure their external vendors comply with strict security protocols.
• Operational Resilience and Business Continuity: Companies must regularly test their ability to withstand cyber disruptions and demonstrate their readiness.

Achieving full compliance with these regulations requires complete visibility into IT environments, which traditional security tools often fail to provide effectively.

How an Application Dependency Mapping Platform Identifies Vulnerabilities in Minutes

A complete IT visualization and agentless dependency mapping platform offers a groundbreaking approach to compliance by providing real-time, comprehensive visibility across IT environments. Here’s how such a platform facilitates rapid compliance with NIS2 and DORA:

1) Unmatched ICT Risk Management

An automated, agentless ADM platform allows organizations to visualize their entire IT infrastructure, from on-premises servers to cloud applications, mapping critical business processes in real-time. This comprehensive visibility empowers companies to:

• Identify security gaps instantly.
• Prioritize vulnerabilities based on their business impact.
• Strengthen their cybersecurity posture by continuously monitoring ICT risks.

Such platforms automate risk assessments, accelerating compliance efforts and eliminating manual processes, often slowing down risk management.

2) Rapid and Accurate Incident Reporting

Timely incident reporting is essential for compliance with both NIS2 and DORA regulations. In the event of a cyberattack, organizations must detect the threat, assess its impact, and report it quickly to regulators. A complete IT visualization platform simplifies this process by:

• Providing real-time detection of security threats, including CVE vulnerabilities and unauthorized access attempts.
• Offering instant insights into the affected areas and their dependencies.
• Facilitating clear, business-oriented communication to help IT teams and executives make informed decisions.

With enhanced IT visibility, compliance teams can respond to incidents more swiftly, minimizing downtime and reducing the risk of regulatory penalties.

3) Third-Party Risk Monitoring

Modern organizations increasingly rely on various third-party service providers, heightening their exposure to cybersecurity risks. An agentless dependency mapping platform enhances oversight by:

• Continuously monitoring external traffic (North-South) to detect unexpected interactions.
• Conducting SSL certificate analysis to verify the security of third-party communications.
• Uncovering shadow IT elements that may pose compliance risks.

By identifying external risks before they escalate into threats, organizations can meet DORA’s stringent third-party oversight requirements while improving overall cybersecurity.

4) Operational Resilience with Dynamic Testing

The DORA regulation requires rigorous operational resilience testing to ensure financial institutions and critical infrastructure can endure cyber disruption. A real-time IT visualization platform offers:

• Automated Resilience Testing: Simulating cyber incidents and mapping their impact in real-time.
• Change Management Support: Visualizing IT changes before deployment to prevent potential vulnerabilities.
• Ongoing Business Continuity Assurance: Ensuring that core business functions remain operational during disruptions.

A proactive approach to resilience planning ensures that organizations maintain business continuity at all times rather than waiting for an incident to occur.

Why Organizations Need a Comprehensive IT Visualization Solution

Unlike traditional solutions that require complex integrations and extensive deployment times, an agentless application dependency mapping platform offers:

• Rapid Deployment: No agents are required, and operations are not interrupted. Full deployment can be achieved in minutes.
• Cost-Effective Compliance: Avoid costly consulting fees and manual audits with automated compliance mapping.
• Comprehensive Security: In addition to compliance, enhanced cybersecurity is achieved through continuous monitoring, anomaly detection, and risk analysis.

With NIS2 and DORA now in effect, the need for compliance is more urgent than ever. Organizations that leverage real-time IT visualization will meet regulatory requirements and strengthen their overall cybersecurity posture.

Final Thoughts

Compliance is no longer a future goal for organizations subject to NIS2 and DORA; it has become a vital operational necessity. The deadlines have passed, and regulatory scrutiny is on the rise. Failing to comply is not just a financial risk but a threat to operational integrity and business continuity. As a result, having an automated and consistently accurate application dependency mapping solution is more critical than ever.

Achieving and maintaining compliance should not be an overwhelming challenge. Using real-time application dependency mapping and automated IT visualization, organizations can gain complete visibility into their IT infrastructure, swiftly identify security gaps, and continuously monitor compliance without adding operational overhead.

An agentless, real-time dependency mapping approach, like Faddom,  ensures organizations maintain an up-to-date and comprehensive view of their IT environment. This enables proactive risk management, streamlined audits, and rapid incident response. With the right tools, businesses can confidently navigate the evolving cybersecurity landscape, ensuring ongoing compliance, enhancing cyber resilience, and protecting critical operations from disruptions.