From the course: Implementing a Vulnerability Management Lifecycle

Make a great business case

From the course: Implementing a Vulnerability Management Lifecycle

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Make a great business case

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- [Instructor] Making a great business case for your vulnerability management program is a critical success factor. Without an ongoing budget, effective tools, and smart people to do the work your program will struggle to make a difference. In a moment we'll cover the basic benefits and costs of a viable program. But I need to tell you that because every organization does business cases differently, you'll have to adapt what I tell you in this lesson to your specific situation. So after you finish this course ask your boss to point you in the right direction. You also should consider watching Writing a Business Case by Mike Figliuolo right here in the LinkedIn Learning library. Now, in a previous video we reviewed many benefits of a vulnerability management program using ordinary business language. Your job now is to zero-in on the benefits that mean the most to the decision-makers who will be considering your business case. For example, your CEO may really like the idea of reducing the risks of regulatory penalties, while your COO would like increased reliability for your systems. Now, for the costs. At a minimum, you'll need a vulnerability data feed, such as the ones provided by the US National Vulnerability Database. You'll also need a network scanning tool, like Qualys, which is a commercial product. And you'll need to pay a license to use it. Or you could use a scanner like OpenVAS, which is available under the GNU general public license. You'll also need some computers to host and run the scanner as well as store the data that you generate. And of course, you'll need qualified people. In the next video we'll dive more deeply into the staffing model. Building a successful business case is a lot of work, and there's no guarantee of success, but I want to close with some encouragement. Plenty of people have done it, and so can you.

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