Choose the Top Vulnerability Scanners
In order to choose the best vulnerability scanner for your needs, you need to consider the requirements you’re trying to meet. If you are scanning 50 or 100 hosts, you won’t have to worry about efficiency, but if you’re trying to scan thousands, you will need to choose one with scalability.
A good vulnerability scanner will find any cybersecurity weaknesses that may exist on your website and then report them to you in a timely manner. The best vulnerability scanners will also assign threat levels to the vulnerabilities that they detect and find remediation solutions that you can implement to make your site more secure. This makes it the ideal tool to help your website secure against cyberattacks.
Nmap is a classic open-source vulnerability management tool. It works by sending packets to network hosts and reading their replies. It can also detect different types of network services, so it can be useful for advanced vulnerability discovery. Nmap, however, relies on command-line methods and lacks an intuitive user interface. As such, it’s best suited for advanced security professionals. Most administrators will want a more user-friendly and streamlined vulnerability scanner solution.
OpenVAS is another of the best vulnerability scanners available. It has an extensive set of vulnerability checks and is able to run both authenticated and unauthenticated scans. It is very fast and can handle large-scale scanning. Another great vulnerability scanner is Tenable Nessus. Its in-depth scans can detect security vulnerabilities before attackers have time to exploit them.
How to Choose the Top Vulnerability Scanners
While most vulnerability scanners can detect and report vulnerabilities, not all of them offer immediate fixes. Some are designed to help you solve a system challenge, while others are aimed at helping you manage threats across a wide network. Some can even automatically respond to threats across multiple computers. For this reason, vulnerability scanning software is an important first step to protect your network.
While the best vulnerability scanners will help you protect your data and network from security threats, you should also be careful to use the right tools. Fortunately, there are plenty of options available. You can download a free trial of many of these to try before making a decision. It’s always best to use a vulnerability scanner that can perform continuous scans.
The cloud-based Qualys vulnerability management system is another option. This software as a service tool identifies and manages vulnerabilities throughout your network. It also offers patch management features, which enable you to deploy and enforce software updates. And if you’re on a budget, it’s worth taking a look at Qualys’s $2995 professional subscription plan, which can help save your IT department a lot of money.
While it’s possible to manually scan for vulnerabilities, most organizations benefit from using automated vulnerability scanners. Automated tools capture the majority of vulnerabilities, which makes them an essential tool for organizations of any size. They also help prioritize problems and automate the process of system provisioning.
