Vulnerabilities Abound: Three Ways to Stay Ahead of Attackers

Gaurav Banga, the CEO and Founder of Balbix, outlines three ways companies can stay ahead of attackers, secure their cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and more. This article originally appeared in Insight Jam, an enterprise IT community that enables human conversation on AI.

This year, the cybersecurity industry has been marked by increasingly sophisticated cyber threats and growing vulnerabilities. Just this past month, a zero-day vulnerability in Rackspace’s ScienceLogic SL1 platform led to a data breach compromising customer data through its internal performance monitoring system. Earlier in the year, Ivanti dealt with two zero-day exploits in its Connect Secure VPN, affecting thousands from small businesses to government agencies, with delayed patches leaving systems exposed for three weeks—demonstrating just how critical rapid response is amid a surge in threat actor sophistication.

As new and critical vulnerabilities emerge daily, the ScienceLogic SL1 breach and Connect Secure VPN attack remain stark reminders for security teams that as tool sprawl continues, it is nearly impossible to have complete visibility into your attack surface at all times. As a result, vulnerability exploits have escalated 180 percent over the past year, according to the latest Verizon DBIR. Despite increasing complexities, security teams cannot afford to be even just one step behind bad actors.

I frequently counsel security leaders on how to reduce cyber risk in a fast-evolving threat landscape. Below are three ways CISOs are forging a proactive approach to risk and exposure management that ultimately lowers the cost of doing business.

You can’t fix everything. 

One of the biggest challenges security teams face is the sheer number of vulnerabilities they need to address. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the volume of vulnerabilities or patches that need to be deployed, especially when resources are limited. However, fixing every exposure and vulnerability is not viable or sustainable. Instead, organizations should prioritize vulnerabilities based on their potential impact.

On average, Fortune 500 companies have approximately 19,500 CVEs and 4 million CVE instances open, which can feel like an endless amount of patching for already overworked and understaffed IT  teams. With selective action, IT teams can focus on the most critical vulnerabilities rather than attempting to patch them all. By concentrating on the assets with the biggest impact on the organization, teams can make more meaningful progress without overwhelming their resources.

Aggregate all vulnerabilities and exposures.  

While prioritization is key, it’s impossible to protect against vulnerabilities that haven’t been identified. New data from Balbix on the state of AI in cyber risk management shows nearly half of the organizations have limited visibility, mainly due to silos of infrastructure related to IT, cloud, IoT, and OT. Aggregating vulnerabilities and exposures ensures centralized visibility, enabling security teams to act faster and before vulnerabilities can be exploited by bad actors. More importantly, centralized visibility brings security teams together, helping them rationalize where they should direct their resources for effective and efficient risk reduction.

Embrace AI.

AI offers organizations the ability to significantly improve their visibility into their attack surface, allowing them to identify vulnerabilities faster and more accurately. As bad actors start to use the technology for their own gain, it is equally important that organizations arm their security teams with the tools necessary to keep up with AI-powered attacks, which are happening at increased speed and scale, according to the FBI.

Additionally, AI doesn’t just help security teams identify vulnerabilities—it also aids in determining which vulnerabilities pose the greatest threat, enabling teams to prioritize and patch them more effectively. In a landscape where attackers are increasingly sophisticated—and security leaders face a growing cybersecurity talent gap—focusing on the most critical vulnerabilities allows organizations to mitigate risk effectively without overwhelming their resources.

Rather than reacting to each new threat as it is identified, forward-thinking organizations can take a proactive approach to cybersecurity—mitigating risks and cybersecurity attackers before they result in significant damage. In doing so, organizations can not only protect their data and assets but also position cybersecurity preparedness as a competitive advantage in a landscape where agility and innovation make all the difference.