As organizations of all sizes rely more and more on new technologies to support their day-to-day business operations, the organizational and financial impact of even the smallest system disruption can be irreversible. For some business, the cost of a security compromise can be measured in thousands or even in millions of dollars an hour. Sustained technology disruptions have even given cause for a number of organizations to wearily go out of business.

Addressing Your Vulnerability Levels

From a network security standpoint, security is a combination of confidentiality (the ability to securely obtain and retain information), availability (the ability to provide secure access to required resources), and integrity (the achievement of a sound, unimpaired network environment).

By utilizing a proven six-step process, CSR can accurately assess the threats to your network environment and provide a remediation plan which should be taken to reduce them:

1. CSR will interview your organization’s key members to gather the data needed to support the technical aspect of our assessment. Follow-up interviews may also be conducted after technical reviews in order to clarify various points or gather any additional information which may be needed.
2. CSR will gather any relevant information regarding the administrative, physical, technical, and logical controls within your organization’s network environment.
3. CSR will perform a perimeter vulnerability assessment. As part of this assessment, CSR’s security team will assess the security of your organization’s network perimeter based on established security policies and guidelines. This assessment will then determine whether or not your physical system components are compliant with these guidelines. Any discrepancies will be recorded for future analysis. A thorough perimeter vulnerability assessment will also identify any vulnerabilities which could provide outside users with unauthorized access to your network system.
4. Using sophisticated network-based assessment tools, CSR will assess and scan your internal network to identify vulnerabilities that could put your network environment at risk. All findings will be carefully recorded.
5. CSR’s security team will analyze all data gathered during our perimeter vulnerability and network-based assessments to determine existing vulnerabilities, the potential for exploitation, and the impact of such exploitation.
6. CSR will provide your organization with a comprehensive set of reports in executive summary format that outlines your administrative, physical, technical, and logical risks. Specifically, these reports will include:
   
   • A comprehensive assessment of your network’s main points of vulnerability.
     
   • A thorough identification of exploitable vulnerabilities including (if applicable) ineffective password controls, weak system configurations, and dangerous security practices.
   • An accurate profile of your essential security systems.
   • A security roadmap illustrating the most effective ways to mitigate or eliminate security vulnerabilities based on your organizational priorities. This roadmap will detail all identified vulnerabilities, recommend corrective actions, and present a step-by-step plan outlining the most effective ways to put these actions into motion. This roadmap will also provide information on measuring the ongoing impact of suggested security measures, enabling you to easily track the progress of your security system.

Identifying Problem Areas Before Any Damage is Done
The purpose of CSR’s six-step vulnerability assessment is to proactively identify any problem areas so they can be repaired before any harm to your organization takes place. As individual vulnerabilities are corrected, they will impact the overall effectiveness of your network; correcting these vulnerabilities before they are exploited, however, is the key to the entire vulnerability assessment process. As system improvements are implemented and monitored over time, the root cause of specific vulnerabilities will be addressed and resolved as you then move on to lower-priority vulnerability issues.

Maintaining a Secure Network
Maintaining a secure network is a continuous process; by undertaking a strategy of identifying and consistently fixing your system’s areas of greatest vulnerability, monitoring their status, and analyzing any recurring problems, CSR can help your organization enter a mode of continuous security improvement.

Well-planned and well-implemented, an effective ongoing security assessment, management and monitoring process will improve and maintain the overall security of your network-and the overall security of your organization as a whole.