Why Vulnerability Management is difficult and expensive
… and how to improve it
“The problem isn’t too little data—it’s too little understanding.”
— Philip Harragan, CEO, Rebasoft
Sections:
Cybercriminals don’t care if you’re small
If your organisation uses IT, you are at risk from today’s cyber criminals as a global 500 organisation. Their automated hacking systems look for a weakness to exploit. Keeping on top of cyber security basics is a must, even if the skills, systems and budgets are not there:
- 74% of security breaches in 2023 involved assets that were misclassified or invisible to IT teams. ¹
- 61% of exploited vulnerabilities in SMBs had been flagged—but not prioritised or remediated. ²
Expensive vulnerability management (VM) with “scan, score, patch, repeat” is not the only option available. The latest VM systems offer more value for money, more capabilities and less effort for any organisation wanting improved cybersecurity.
This paper outlines how VM can be more effective and how forward-thinking IT management can take advantage of these new systems. They can shift from fragmented to integrated, intelligent systems, from static data to continuous awareness, and from security as a control to security as a business enabler.
Everything and Nothing Has Changed
“You Can’t Secure What You Can’t See.”
It is still true that, despite the modern IT patchwork of physical, virtual, cloud and other systems, vulnerabilities and weaknesses need to be remediated. Anything that requires manual effort or relies on out-of-date information is flawed as far as cybersecurity is concerned.
Yet traditional VM systems require you to target and schedule a scan. Require you to be certain it has found all the devices you need to protect. You to retain a memory as to what is and isn’t important.
Key Issues with Legacy VM:
| Weakness |
Impact |
| Static asset inventories |
Devices spin up and down without being included in vulnerability assessment |
| Reliance on CVSS alone |
Your most important systems with lower weaknesses could be left unpatched |
| Isolated workflows |
Humans have to work between the various systems needed to find, determine and finally resolve security issues |
VM is not just responding to the most severe weakness, it is about making the strategic choices as to which are the most important ones to you.
The Signal-to-Noise Crisis
“The Volume of Alerts Is Up. But the focus on the most important responses Is Down.”
According to Ponemon, 57% of security professionals say they ignore over half of vulnerability alerts because they lack time or confidence in prioritisation.³ Their tools flood them with events they need to deal with—CVEs, severity scores, scan results—but fail to show what matters most.
The result? Risk fatigue. High-severity vulnerabilities on low-impact devices take precedence over business-critical flaws. Teams fall behind. SLAs slip. Leadership loses trust.
Customer:
“Traditional VM tells me what’s vulnerable. It doesn’t tell me what’s important.” — SMB CISO, Financial Sector
The trick is reducing the noise, increasing the signal (the identification of what is important)
What “Good” VM Looks Like
Good VM is a step in a process (preferably automated) that starts with an accurate asset register of systems that need monitoring. It doesn’t just give the number of vulnerabilities found – rather the risk related to your most important assets. Good VM doesn’t silo security from operations—it integrates them, meaning seamless, and where possible automated work with as little as possible repeated/unnecessary work
Good vulnerability management includes:
| Strategic Pillar |
What It Delivers |
| Asset Intelligence |
Accurate, up-to-date, business-prioritised list of assets that need protecting |
| Risk-Based Prioritisation |
Assessment of vulnerabilities not just by severity, but by exploitability, asset business importance and exposure |
| Operational Integration |
Fix flows tied to ITSM, patching, and change management |
These pillars are available today. When the right systems are selected, improved security at an affordable cost is within reach of Global, SMB and government organisations alike.
Where Rebasoft Fits In
Rebasoft is built as a next-generation cybersecurity platform. It enables SMBs to:
- Automatically discover and classify assets in real time.
- Map vulnerabilities to business-critical systems.
- Integrate response directly into operational workflows.
- Reduce noise, shrink attack surface, and demonstrate control.
Rebasoft makes your VM process smarter.
Because we believe that security starts with knowing what you have, understanding how it matters, and acting before attackers do.
Closing Thought: From Compliance to Confidence
Traditional vulnerability management was designed to tick boxes. But today, ticking boxes doesn’t stop breaches. Clarity does. Context does. Action does.
The future of VM belongs to those who can see clearly, think strategically, and act decisively.
Is your business ready?
Footnotes:
- Verizon DBIR 2023
- NIST National Vulnerability Database (SMB analysis)
- Ponemon Institute “State of Vulnerability Management 2024”
