What is the Best Vulnerability Scanning Appliance?

Vulnerability Scanning & Assessment is a key defense in the battle against blackhat hacker & Ransomware attacks coming to the network.

Daily Vulnerability Scanning is key to network security

Daily vulnerability scanning can help to identify the weakness in a network.

The user can in this way easily identify wrongly configured devices such as firewall or servers that are wide open to attacks.

This can include:

Unpatched services
Open SQL servers
Open Firewalls
Wrongly configured file sharing services
Vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) devices

Vulnerability Scanning Software Vs Appliance?

What is the difference about vulnerability scanning software and an appliance?

1U Rack Vulnerability Scanning Appliance

First of all an appliance comes in different format such as 1U Rack Appliance that can easily be deployed in a Rack Cabinet.

This is suited for a hosting center or a server room in a corporation.

A 1U Rack appliance requires more cooling and will have a higher noise level due to the build in multiple fans that are running at full speed.

The key benefits with a 1U rack Appliance is the increased hardware performance such as Quad or Hexacore CPUs, 16-32 GB Ram, High performance SSD.

Small Form Factor (SFF) Vulnerability Scanning

Another solution is a Small Form Factor (SFF) that is more suited to be placed in an office with several users sitting.

The Small Form Factor (SFF) Box features a noise free device that still has high performance such as Quad core CPU, min 4gb ram, High Performance SSD.

1U Appliance or SFF allows for instant operation

The Key benefit using a 1U Rack Appliance or a SFF is that just in a matter of few minutes or minute after power on it is available for operation.

There is no need to download Software.

Key Benefits using Vulnerability Scanning 1U Appliance or SFF over Software

No need to download software.
Instant Power on fast operation in few minutes or just 1 minute.
All is managed from a Web Browser no software required.
Easy to unplug move to a different location.
In case of physical damage easy export Database configure & Restore on new unit.
Low total cost of ownership.
High performance running on Raw Linux not relying on virtualization or another host operating system.
Higher network throughput with Raw access to the network ports without any layering.
Professional Form Factor with easy to fit in Rack or Office environment.
More power for the WiFi Pentesting when no virtual connection is required.
Higher security since no base operating system is required. Runs on raw Linux.
Easily build SaaS model and scale for multiple locations.
All data is stored physically only in the Appliance or SFF at customer location.

If you are a security-conscious organization, then you should take proactive measures to detect vulnerabilities in a lot of your systems, applications, web applications and services before your customers or visitors can exploit them. Vulnerability scanning software plays a crucial role in detecting the vulnerabilities in a company’s system. However, it is very difficult to handle and monitor vulnerabilities in large enterprises and even for a small organization. This is where vulnerability scanning appliances come into play.

Vulnerability Scanning Appliance

It is a software, which scans your system for weaknesses that can be used to attack your organization and various applications. These tools have advanced scanning and analysis technology, which helps in detecting vulnerabilities in a system before attackers can get access to the system and use them to attack. These tools have gained prominence and are more commonly used these days, due to the high costs of the vulnerability scanning software. The applications that are supported by the software can be used by IT specialists and for home users.

Vulnerability Scanning Appliance Features:

The basic and the main features of vulnerability scanning appliances are detailed below:

Read & Analyze – The software requires a software license to access. The user has to download a proprietary tool, which is free but requires subscription to use it. The scanner can analyse and process a large amount of data in a short span of time.

Deep Look – This is one of the most advanced feature of the software. It provides access to top level information, which is not always available with the vulnerability scanner. It can scan for all the applications installed on the system, as well as the registry, browser plugins, web applications and DNS settings. It also scans and analyses the operating systems and can give details about the insecure default settings in them. The scanner is able to scan for all these things in a matter of seconds.

Danger Modeling – When the scanner searches through the system, it attempts to identify all the vulnerabilities in it. It can ask questions, if the vulnerability exists in a system and can give a better understanding of vulnerabilities in the system.

Auto Validate – It is a useful feature that makes the scanning process more efficient. Once it is done scanning, the vulnerability scanning software will automatically identify the system and report the results. This is a very useful feature that eliminates the chances of manual inspection of the results and error-prone tasks.

Distributed Vulnerability Scanning:

However, there are also some vulnerabilities scanners that can scan systems distributed over multiple geographical locations and can run on a single laptop. The major benefit of a distributed vulnerability scanning is that it can scan multiple systems and run on a single device. These are easier to setup, because they do not require the server to be on or local, or to have a live Internet connection. It can scan a system located anywhere in the world. The drawback of this kind of vulnerability scanning is that it is not possible to apply and execute an attack on a machine without knowing its IP address. This feature is much more handy when used in a cluster environment, where multiple machines can run on a single system and the server is only of great assistance.