Mitigating Risks with Threat and Vulnerability Management (TVM) - A Critical Element of Risk Management

One of the critical inputs into any risk management approach is knowing the scope of your assets and inventory – if you don’t know what you own, how can you assess the risks present? 

There are obvious questions for all assets-“Is it in warranty?” “Can I get parts?” “What do I do if it breaks?” “Does more than one person know how this all works?” In recent times “What happens if the country locks down, and we cannot get to that asset easily?” 

Effective risk management is essential for any business, and a crucial aspect of this is understanding the scope of your assets and inventory. Knowing what you own is necessary to assess the risks associated with them. 

There are further nuances for IT Assets and appliances, despite the fact you likely have a Patching policy that states all assets will be patched! 

The issue is that not even Microsoft guarantees to deliver all patches. Older Apple devices have a maximum limit of OS versions. Third-party application updates may give you the latest version but leave old Dlls and registry keys behind. As a result, obsolete software and hardware will not get any patches. This leaves vulnerabilities that malicious actors can exploit. 

This is where Threat and Vulnerability Management (TVM) comes into play. 

A full asset-based TVM solution will give you an accurate view of the risks in that area of the business and suggested remediations.  

Risk management outcomes can be shown as the following.

• Terminate: “Either change our process to displace that asset entirely, or more likely, bring in a replacement service.” 
• Tolerate: “If it breaks, we will put a process around it, and it will not impact our business operation.” 
• Transfer: “We will outsource the service /support.” 
• Treat: “We will apply patches, extend the warranty, train more people, get a second one for resilience etc.” 

Conosco's TVM service goes beyond the base cost of the software license. Our experienced analysts and consultants provide triaging and proactive recommendations to address vulnerabilities and mitigate risks. With economies of scale, our TVM service is competitively priced, providing added value to businesses seeking comprehensive risk management solutions. 

Effective TVM is crucial in today's rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape, where threats and vulnerabilities constantly evolve. By proactively managing risks through a robust TVM approach, businesses can safeguard their IT assets, critical data, and operations. 

Written by: Steve Hayton, Technical Manager

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