Vulnerability Scanning Best Practices: A Guide for Security Teams

Vulnerability scanning is a foundational security measure that helps identify risks, but its effectiveness depends on proper implementation, oversight, and integration into broader security operations. Best practices include dynamic asset discovery, risk-based scheduling, varied scan types, proper configuration, contextual prioritization, integrated remediation workflows, continuous rescanning, and tailored reporting. Mature organizations go beyond basic scanning by embedding it into operational processes and aligning it with frameworks, human validation, and advanced tools like penetration testing and zero trust models.

Introduction: The Real Role of Vulnerability Scanning in Security Posture

Vulnerability scanning, while vital to cybersecurity, is only the first step towards threat resistance. If anything, scanning is a visibility process – revealing vulnerabilities before bad actors can exploit them.

It’s a reliable form of cyber insurance – regular scans help you to avoid data breaches and keep your company compliant with data protection regulations. However, it’s up to you to act on its advice.

What’s more, scanning effectiveness can plateau if left to run to the default scope. For example, without direct engagement or human oversight, some scanning tools may produce false positives and negatives, ignore specific contexts, and even restrict scope to specific snapshots of time.

We always advise our clients to balance vulnerability scanning with human checks and measures to avoid missing vital issues across their networks. However, there are a few best practices you can also follow to ensure your scanners give you the best possible support.

Best practices for vulnerability scanning

We recommend starting with detailed, dynamic asset discovery, building risk-based scanning schedules, mixing scan types appropriate to your organization, and carefully configuring your scans.

You should also look beyond default threat scoring, integrate remediation steps into workflows, regularly rescan systems, and build clear, actionable reports everyone can understand.

Let’s explore these practices in more detail.

1. Start With Complete, Dynamic Asset Discovery

You should scan and account for all assets in your infrastructure regularly to avoid scanners missing blind spots.

Incomplete asset inventories can lead to scanners missing critical areas with hidden vulnerabilities. In fact, failing to build full asset libraries is a major cause of scanning inefficiencies and errors.

Always catalog every device in your infrastructure – including containers, SaaS services, cloud assets, and unvetted shadow IT. The most efficient way to do this is to use tools and network scanners such as Lansweeper and LogicMonitor that can automate the process.

To maintain a dynamic asset discovery process, you should regularly scan for and update your inventories, particularly whenever changes are made. Consider asset tagging, too, so you can track specific assets carefully from central platforms.

To avoid getting surprised by shadow IT, run automated audits and scans, and ensure personnel understand the dangers of introducing unapproved hardware into your network.

Awareness is key – especially as shadow IT is reportedly used as an act of defiance in some cases:

“13% [of respondents] said that the employees continued using the tools of their choice in defiance of IT and the company.”

Nextplane

2. Build Risk-Based Scanning Schedules

Always schedule vulnerability scans based on assets’ individual risk profiles, and be ready to scan ad-hoc when patches are released, new threats emerge, or when you significantly change your network.

After building your asset inventory, look carefully at the risks certain assets may face. Against an ever-changing threat landscape, you can’t afford to “set and forget” vulnerability scanning and fall back on default schedules.

For example, you may have high-risk systems that hold extremely sensitive data which are more exposed than others. You’d prioritize these systems for the most frequent scans, but be realistic – is daily scanning really necessary when weekly checks suffice?

You should also align ad-hoc scanning with infrastructure changes and when new threats are warned against. We also recommend rescanning every time assets are patched.

3. Use the Right Mix of Scan Types

You should run a blend of vulnerability scanning types to cover as much ground as possible and reduce false negatives uncovered by certain scanners.

Think carefully about the types of scans you need, and schedule them effectively in line with your risk profiles. For instance, you may only need to consider internal or external scanning (though running both will cover more ground).

Here’s a quick breakdown of different vulnerability scanning types:

• External scanning discovers weaknesses in assets that point towards the public via the internet, i.e., websites and portals.
• Internal scanning reveals inner networking vulnerabilities, like misconfigurations and outdated software.
• Credentialed scanning offers a comprehensive analysis of your systems with full administrative access.
• Non-credentialed scanning doesn’t require password access to systems – it scans them from the viewpoint of external attackers.
• Active scanning directly interacts with your systems, finding real-time weaknesses.
• Passive scanning analyzes data such as network logs and assesses it in line with threat databases. This type of scanning is less disruptive than the active.

You should also consider specific scanning types based on the assets you run. For example, you may need to run container image scans to ensure your code is safe, and Application Programming Interface (API) scans to protect your development projects from end to end.

4. Tuning and Validation: The Art of Scan Configuration

You should always adjust your scanning tools to avoid wasting time and resources investigating false positives and running indefinitely on dead-end investigations.

Vulnerability scanners can produce unnecessary noise and divert attention when they focus on false positives.

Therefore, configure your scanning engines to help them understand what to focus on. You might support this by:

• Providing scanners with as much detail as possible about the assets to scan
• Reconfiguring authentication and access settings
• Setting clear timeouts to avoid scanners from running indefinitely
• Toggling plugins and settings to adjust the scope of your scans

You should also avoid relying on scanner analysis wholesale. Set human checkpoints and measures during broader scans so that they can be fine-tuned to avoid slowing processes down.

5. Prioritization: Move Beyond CVSS Scores Alone

CVSS scores don’t take into account business contexts that might invalidate scanner analyses – always have a human-led failsafe process in place to analyze scanner results.

The CVSS, or Common Vulnerability Scoring System, is a standardized ranking system for scanning vulnerabilities prioritized by severity. While useful, scanners that rely entirely on this framework can risk ignoring critical, contextual information.

We always recommend clients analyze scanning reports with business contexts in mind – don’t just take a CVSS base score of 9.0 to mean there is definitely a critical issue.

Take care to analyze results based on individual assets’ risk profiles and potential scenarios in the event of a breach. Do these parameters add or remove from the CVSS severity? Does threat intelligence suggest there are other areas you should prioritize instead?

Regardless of how you review CVSS scores, always ensure you have buy-in from leadership before altering your processes.

6. Integrated Remediation Workflows

Creating automated workflow triggers for vulnerability remediation requests ensures that relevant agents take action fast.

Review scanner reports and consider which departments have ownership of areas deemed at risk. Who can you delegate remediation to – is it your IT team, your app developers, or a third party?

You should always integrate scanning reports into your workflow automation software. So, when a report suggests IT needs to apply a patch, your software will raise tickets for immediate action with relevant personnel.

Introduce scanning results into change management systems and processes—again, so that workflows are raised with the right people as a priority.

Finally, always have a “plan B”, i.e., compensating controls. If, for whatever reason, a remediation workflow can’t be raised with a specific department, is there a secondary you can forward it to?

7. Continuous Re-Scanning & Validation

Always rescan and validate tool results, and get feedback from staff on how to fine-tune the process for more efficient, effective remediation should issues arise again.

While we always recommend automated vulnerability scanning, we ensure all our clients understand the value of the human element in cybersecurity processes. Following remediation, for example, you must have personnel ready to validate the fact that recommendations have been carried out as expected.

We also recommend rescanning after remediation to ensure action taken has removed threats.

As part of an efficient remediation process, you should also take steps to carefully measure service level agreements and tighten up response times.

Do agents find information provided by vulnerability scanning tools insightful and easy to follow?

Should you pivot to different tools or types? Do you need to adjust your penetration testing or vulnerability scanning schedules?

Ultimately, a fine-tuned remediation process can help reduce the chances of similar vulnerabilities arising again. What’s more, personnel can learn from their experiences and ensure problem areas are more robust.

8. Reporting That Actually Drives Action

Relying on default reports and analysis isn’t always insightful—when delivering news on weaknesses to different people, you need to tailor what’s included.

Scanning tools’ default reports can be helpful—however, the key performance indicators and metrics that matter to you might not be accounted for. It’s therefore crucial to tailor reports that give your teams actionable points to work from in line with your business’s targets.

Ideally, mature organizations should report scan results using clear language that people at all levels of a business can understand (e.g., developers, auditors, directors, and external stakeholders).

Crucially, always tailor your reports so they adhere to compliance requirements – following frameworks such as ISO 27001 can help you stick to the most important points.

Focus on the KPIs and metrics that matter most to your business in all your reporting – what is your mean time to resolution (MTTR)? How long was the specific threat exposure window open for? Are there any trends that suggest recurring risks?

We recommend using insightful, visualization-driven dashboards—such as VikingCloud’s Asgard Platform®—to deliver clear, actionable reports to a variety of audiences.

Vulnerability Scanning as a Maturity Journey

Let’s be clear—when it comes to cybersecurity, vulnerability scanning is the absolute minimum you should be doing.

However, truly mature organizations that care about security take steps to tailor and embed scanning into their broader operations.

An effective vulnerability scanning process is one that’s reviewed periodically to ensure it still aligns with targets and compliance.

And yet, vulnerability scanning is only the tip of the cybersecurity iceberg – you should always consider extra steps and measures, too, such as penetration testing, framework auditing, and real-time data analysis.

VikingCloud helps businesses stay secure with straightforward, actionable insights and tools. Get in touch today for more information or book a free consultation at your convenience.