BLOG: The Role of CVE Prioritisation in Compliance and Risk Management

With the increasing number of cyber attacks, organisations must continuously evaluate their cybersecurity strategies to prevent and mitigate vulnerabilities that can lead to security breaches. One of the main challenges that organisations face is the identification and prioritisation of vulnerabilities to address. This is where CVE prioritisation plays a crucial role.

CVEs, or Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, are publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in software and hardware products that can be exploited by attackers. Thousands of new CVEs are identified and published each year, making it difficult for organisations to determine which vulnerabilities to prioritise for patching or other mitigation efforts.

To address this challenge, we have developed the Orpheus Vulnerability Severity Score (OVSS). This proprietary score combines cyber threat intelligence, machine learning, and other features to assign a score to each CVE, allowing organisations to filter vulnerabilities on their network by those that are the most serious.
With OVSS, organisations can prioritise vulnerabilities based on their potential impact on the organisation’s operations and assets. This approach to risk-based CVE management allows organisations to focus their resources and budget on the most critical vulnerabilities.

Moreover, Orpheus leverages proprietary machine learning to predict which vulnerabilities that are not yet being exploited by hackers will be exploited in the future. This enables organisations to patch these vulnerabilities before they are exploited by attackers, stopping the risk before it happens. By predicting future exploits, organisations can take proactive measures to prevent breaches before they occur, making their cybersecurity strategies more resilient.

By implementing risk-led vulnerability management, organisations can demonstrate their maturity in cybersecurity and ensure the effective use of their resources and budget. This approach allows organisations to remain agile and proactive in the face of evolving cyber threats.

In summary, CVE prioritisation plays a crucial role in compliance and risk management. Without a risk-based approach to CVE management, it is challenging for organisations to determine which vulnerabilities to patch first. Orpheus’ OVSS provides organisations with a powerful tool to prioritise their vulnerability management efforts, allowing them to focus on the most critical vulnerabilities and prevent potential breaches before they occur. As cyber threats continue to evolve and increase in frequency and sophistication, organisations must continuously evaluate and improve their cybersecurity strategies.

In conclusion, CVE prioritisation is a critical component of compliance and risk management. With the ever-growing number of vulnerabilities, organisations need to have a systematic approach to identify and prioritise the most critical vulnerabilities for patching and other mitigation efforts. By leveraging tools such as Orpheus’ OVSS, organisations can optimise their cybersecurity strategy and ensure the effective use of their resources and budget. With a proactive and risk-based approach, organisations can prevent potential breaches and protect their operations and assets from cyber threats, staying one step ahead of the attackers.