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Vulnerability Assessments |
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A vulnerability assessment is the process of identifying, quantifying, and prioritising (or ranking) the vulnerabilities in a system. Examples of systems for which vulnerability assessments are performed for include, but are not limited to, nuclear power plants, information technology systems, energy supply systems, water supply systems, transportation systems, and communication systems. Vulnerability assessments can be conducted for small businesses to large regional infrastructures.
Vulnerability assessment has many things in common with risk assessment. Assessments are typically performed according to the following steps:
- Cataloging assets and capabilities (resources) in a system.
- Assigning quantifiable value (or at least rank order) and importance to those resources
- Identifying the vulnerabilities or potential threats to each resource
- Mitigating or eliminating the most serious vulnerabilities for the most valuable resources
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