Introduction
As technology continues to drive business forward, cyberattacks are becoming increasingly frequent.
With this rise in risk, many businesses are taking a much more proactive approach to cybersecurity, using penetration testing and vulnerability assessments to find vulnerabilities and ensure business continuity.
So, without further ado, here are the top 5 benefits of regular vulnerability assessments.
1. Better Protection Against Cyberattacks
Obviously, and most importantly, regular vulnerability assessments help to protect your business against cyberattacks.
According to the Office of National Statistics, UK businesses faced approximately 7.78 million cyberattacks in 2023-24, which is approximately 21,315 cyberattacks per day.
Regular vulnerability assessments enable you to identify vulnerabilities and patch them before they can be exploited by cybercriminals.
If these vulnerabilities go unnoticed, you put your business at serious risk of being on the receiving end of a cyberattack, which could result in major financial losses, data leaks, and, in the most extreme cases, business closure.
2. Regulatory Compliance
Many industries are subject to stringent regulations that require organisations to implement security best practices, including vulnerability assessments.
Standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS require regular security evaluations to protect sensitive data.
Regular vulnerability assessments enable you to remain compliant regardless of where you’re based or which industry you operate in—while vulnerability assessments can be expensive, failing to comply with industry regulations can be significantly more costly.
3. Risk Prioritisation
Not all vulnerabilities pose the same risk—this is important to understand—and while perfect cybersecurity is a noble goal, it is widely accepted that it is impossible to achieve.
This means that businesses must decide how much risk they are willing to accept, and the only way to do that effectively is through risk prioritisation.
When vulnerabilities are found during a vulnerability assessment, they are graded. This grade corresponds to how much damage could be caused should someone successfully exploit this vulnerability.
Using these grades, businesses can prioritise high- and medium-risk vulnerabilities and leave low-risk vulnerabilities for later (this is especially useful if the business lacks the resources to fix everything at once).
Warning: Even low-level vulnerabilities can cause major issues if part of an attack chain that uses multiple low-level vulnerabilities to cause widespread damage.
Additionally, since most vulnerability assessments are automated, these tools can grade things incorrectly due to a lack of context, leading to many false positives and missed vulnerabilities.
If you have the funds to do so, it is better to invest in regular, or at the very least, annual penetration testing to avoid this.
Check out our comprehensive guide to penetration testing.
4. Continuous Improvement
Cybersecurity is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process.
Regular vulnerability assessments provide insights into the effectiveness of your organisation’s security controls and help identify recurring issues or gaps that need to be addressed.
This iterative process promotes a culture of continuous improvement, where your organisation’s defences evolve to meet emerging threats.
Over time, this reduces the attack surface and enhances your overall resilience against cyberattacks.
5. Protection of Business Reputation
Finally, a data breach can severely damage your organisation’s reputation, leading to lost customer trust and revenue.
Vulnerability assessments help prevent such incidents by identifying and addressing security gaps before they can be exploited.
Investing in regular assessments shows customers and partners that your organisation takes cybersecurity seriously.
In an era where trust is a key differentiator, this proactive approach can be a significant competitive advantage.
Conclusion
So, there you have it—the top five benefits of carrying out regular vulnerability assessments. From exposing and fixing vulnerabilities and maintaining regulatory compliance to protecting your brand, it should be clear that the effects of proactive cybersecurity are far-reaching.
If you are looking to protect your business from cyberthreats, book a call with one of our cybersecurity experts today.