CYBERSECURITY — 04

Risk & Vulnerability Management

A scan is a snapshot. A vulnerability management program is what happens every day after it — identification, prioritization by consequence, and remediation tracked to closure.

OPERATIONAL CONTEXT

The scan report isn't the program — what happens after it is

A one-time assessment produces a list. Without a process behind it, that list ages: new vulnerabilities are disclosed, systems change, and the original findings either get fixed piecemeal, get forgotten, or sit in a spreadsheet nobody owns. That's true in any environment, and it's a more expensive failure in one where a vulnerability can sit for years on a control system that only comes offline during a scheduled outage.

GSS builds vulnerability management as a standing program rather than a deliverable: a defined cadence for identifying new vulnerabilities across IT and OT, a consistent method for prioritizing them by consequence rather than by severity score alone, and a remediation-tracking process that closes the loop instead of leaving a finding open indefinitely.

Prioritization is where most vulnerability programs go wrong when applied to OT — a critical-severity vulnerability on an isolated engineering workstation and a moderate-severity one on a system tied to a protected function are not equally urgent, whatever the score says. The program is built to reflect that.

METHODOLOGY
01Asset & Exposure InventoryIT and OT assets catalogued with their network and physical exposure, kept current as systems change.
02IdentificationVulnerabilities identified through scanning, advisories, and targeted assessment appropriate to each system's tolerance.
03Consequence-Based PrioritizationFindings ranked by what a successful exploit would actually affect, not by severity score alone.
04Remediation PlanningFixes, compensating controls, or accepted-risk decisions assigned owners and timelines.
05Tracking to ClosureStatus tracked until verified closed, not until reported once and set aside.
06Program ReviewCadence and prioritization criteria reassessed as the threat landscape and system inventory evolve.
CORE CAPABILITIES
IT/OT asset and exposure inventoryVulnerability identification and scanningConsequence-based prioritizationRemediation tracking to closureCompensating-control designProgram governance and reporting
RELEVANT ENVIRONMENTS
Operating nuclear facilitiesSmall modular reactorsNew nuclear buildOther high-consequence critical infrastructure

Turn a vulnerability list into a program that closes findings

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