Centralizing Vulnerability Management
Introduction
In an era of escalating cybersecurity threats, protecting business infrastructure is paramount, especially for major financial institutions. This case study outlines how we helped a leading banking and insurance enterprise fortify their security by addressing infrastructure vulnerability across a large estate of servers.
Industry:
Banking/Financial Services
Service(s):
Service Oriented Vulnerability Management (SOVM)
Problem
Infrastructure Vulnerability in a Large Server Estate
Our client, a significant enterprise in the banking and insurance sector, sought to mitigate infrastructure vulnerabilities across an expansive estate of over 10,000 servers hosting about 800 business applications. Initial efforts were sluggish and resource-intensive, largely because the primary approach involved disseminating these findings to each business application owner individually.
Solution
Centralized Vulnerability Management and Optimized Processes
Recognizing the inefficiencies in the current approach, we leveraged commonalities across the entire business to build a centralized Vulnerability Management (VM) Operations service. We ran targeted campaigns to address the highest-impact vulnerability groups and optimized processes for diagnostics, automation, approvals, and execution of remediation solutions.
Result
Significant Reduction in Critical Vulnerabilities and Resource Utilization
Our intervention led to a significant reduction in critical vulnerabilities, with over an 80% decrease in less than 12 months. Furthermore, we managed to achieve and maintain key risk metrics, such as fewer than one defect per server. Importantly, by centralizing and optimizing the vulnerability management process, we reduced the effort and resources involved in the end-to-end process by up to 75%.
This case study underscores our commitment to enhancing cybersecurity for our clients in the financial industry, highlighting the substantial benefits of centralized vulnerability management and process optimization.
Key Takeaways
Centralized Vulnerability Management: By building a centralized Vulnerability Management (VM) Operations service, we streamlined the process of addressing infrastructure vulnerabilities across a large estate of servers. This centralization leveraged commonalities across the entire business, resulting in increased efficiency and enhanced security.
Targeted Remediation Campaigns: Running targeted campaigns to address the highest-impact vulnerability groups enabled us to prioritize and effectively mitigate the most significant threats to the client's infrastructure.
Optimized Processes: Our optimization of processes for diagnostics, automation, approvals, and execution of remediation solutions further streamlined the vulnerability management efforts. This optimization not only made the process more efficient but also more effective in addressing the identified vulnerabilities.
Significant Reduction in Vulnerabilities and Resources: The centralized and optimized approach resulted in an 80% reduction in critical vulnerabilities in less than 12 months and a 75% decrease in resource utilization for the end-to-end process. These results underscore the significant benefits of centralizing and optimizing vulnerability management processes.