Vulnerability scanning that actually tells you what to fix next

If you’re wondering what vulnerability scanning actually is and whether it’s worth it for a small or medium-sized business, this page will walk you through it in plain English.

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Vulnerability Scanning Guide

A comprehensive guide to protecting your business systems

What is a Vulnerability Scan?

Every piece of technology you use – laptops, servers, firewalls, cloud systems, websites – runs software. Over time, people discover problems in that software:

Missing updates
Weak or old settings
Features that can be misused

Those problems are called vulnerabilities.

A vulnerability scan is an automated check that:

Looks at your systems (the ones we agree are in scope)
Compares what it finds against a huge, constantly updated list of known problems
Produces a list of issues, ranked from "urgent, fix this first" down to "low risk, keep an eye on it"

Think of it as shining a bright torch around your digital premises, looking specifically for unlocked doors, weak locks and broken windows.

What a vulnerability scan is NOT

It's helpful to be clear on what it doesn't do:

It doesn't hack you It simulates what an attacker could see and do, without causing damage
It doesn't fix things by itself It tells you what needs fixing; you (or your IT partner) still make the changes
It isn't a full penetration test A pen test is a deeper, human-led attempt to break in. A vulnerability scan is broader and more frequent

Why business owners use it

Non-technical owners and directors usually want three things from a vulnerability scan:

Visibility

"Where are we exposed right now?"

Priorities

"What should we fix first with the time and budget we have?"

Evidence

"Can we show insurers, auditors or customers that we're taking security seriously?"

What Needs Vulnerability Scanning?

Three Critical Areas for Regular Scanning:

Internal networks (inside your business)
External systems (what the internet can see)
Websites and web applications (your online front door)

Internal Networks

Laptops, PCs, servers and devices inside your company

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This is everything "on the inside" of your business. These systems often hold your most important data – customer information, finance data, internal files – and they're used every day by your team.

What's included:

Staff laptops and PCs
On-premise servers
File servers and shared drives
Wi-Fi networks and switches
Printers and other devices on your network

A vulnerability scan here looks for things like:

Missing security updates and patches
Weak or unsafe settings
Old software that should have been retired
Devices that are visible on the network but have been forgotten about

Why it matters: If an attacker gets inside your network (for example through a phishing email), these are the weaknesses they'll try to use to move around and do more damage. That's why internal scanning is usually the first priority.

External Systems

From the internet into your company – "what the outside world can see"

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These are the systems that sit on the edge of your business and talk to the internet. Think of these as the front doors and windows of your digital building.

What's included:

Firewalls and routers
VPN gateways and remote access tools
Email gateways
Any servers with public IP addresses
Cloud services exposed directly to the internet

A vulnerability scan here checks for:

Known flaws in internet-facing devices
Services that are exposed but shouldn't be
Default or weak security settings
Old services that were never properly removed

Why it matters: For most businesses, regular external scanning is what reduces the chance of a simple, avoidable breach from the outside.

Web & Application Servers

Your websites, portals and online apps

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These are the systems your customers and staff use through a browser. If something goes wrong here, it's often very visible.

What's included:

Public websites
Customer portals and account areas
Online ordering or booking systems
Admin portals and dashboards
APIs and other web-based services

Web and application vulnerability scanning looks for:

Common web weaknesses (like injection attacks and broken access controls)
Unsafe login or password features
Misconfigurations on the web server
Out-of-date plugins, modules or frameworks

Why it matters: Because these systems are both public and data-heavy, they're a favourite target – so scanning them regularly is essential.

Your Sensible Vulnerability Management Plan

In a typical small or medium-sized business, a sensible vulnerability management plan will:

Scan Internal Networks

Protect your "crown jewels" – the critical data and systems inside your business

Scan External Perimeter

Close off easy ways in from the internet before attackers find them

Scan Web Applications

Keep your customer-facing systems safe and your reputation intact

Done regularly, vulnerability scanning becomes part of your normal business hygiene – just like locking the office at night, doing stock checks, or reconciling your accounts. It doesn't make you bulletproof, but it drastically reduces the number of easy opportunities for attackers.

What You Get With Our Vulnerability Scanning

What you actually get when we run vulnerability scans for you

Vulnerability scanning isn't just "running a tool" and throwing a long report at you. Here's what it looks like in practice when we do it for your business:

A clear, agreed scope

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We start by agreeing what's in and what's out, in normal language:

Internal network – laptops, PCs, servers, Wi-Fi, printers and other devices
External systems – firewalls, routers, VPNs and anything reachable from the internet
Websites and web applications – customer portals, admin areas, booking/order systems, APIs

You'll always know exactly what we're scanning and why.

Continuous scanning with simple monthly updates

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We don't just run a scan once in a while and hope for the best.

Your systems are scanned continuously throughout the month, so if new vulnerabilities appear or something important changes, we'll see it.

To keep things manageable for you:

We roll everything into a clear monthly update (or another cadence we agree together)

You see what's new, what's improved, and what now needs attention

You avoid a constant stream of noisy alerts – just calm, regular summaries you can act on

You get the benefit of always-on scanning without the overwhelm.

Plain-English, prioritised reports

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After we've processed the findings, you don't just get a technical dump. You get:

A short summary for business owners – what we found, how serious it is, and what it means in real terms

A priority list of actions – "fix these first", "plan these", "keep an eye on these"

The technical detail your IT team or IT provider needs to actually make the changes. If you'd prefer us to handle the implementation, we can do so for an additional cost

The focus is on clarity and priorities, not jargon.

A review call to talk it through

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We walk you through the results on a call so you can:

Ask questions in plain English
Understand which issues really matter for your business
Agree what will be tackled now, later, or not at all

You come away with a clear, realistic plan, not just another PDF to file away.

Ongoing improvement, not a one-off snapshot

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Over time you'll be able to see:

How your vulnerability levels change month by month
Which fixes have had the biggest impact
Where you might need extra focus or budget

That way, vulnerability scanning becomes part of your normal business hygiene, not a once-a-year panic exercise.

Real vulnerability management is about partnership, not just technology. We handle the complex scanning and analysis, while keeping you informed and in control with clear, actionable updates.

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Will this stop us from getting hacked?

No security service can honestly promise that.

What vulnerability scanning does is remove a lot of the easy ways in – the missing updates, weak settings and exposed systems that attackers regularly look for.

Think of it as locking doors, adding better locks and checking the windows are shut. You still need alarms, good habits and some ongoing monitoring, but scanning is a big step towards being harder to attack than the next business down the road.

How often should we run vulnerability scans?

The real question is: how often do you need fresh information to make good decisions without drowning in noise?

For most small and medium-sized businesses:

Quarterly is the minimum we recommend

- Good if your environment is fairly stable

- You’re not making constant changes to systems or software

Monthly is ideal if:

- You’re changing things often (new users, new servers, new apps)

- You have compliance requirements

- You handle sensitive data (payments, health, legal, etc.)

Behind the scenes, we can run scans more frequently (even daily) to catch changes quickly, then roll that into a simple monthly or quarterly report so you’re not overwhelmed.

We’ll talk this through with you. The goal is a realistic schedule you’ll stick to, not something that sounds impressive on paper and then quietly gets forgotten.

Will scanning disrupt our business or slow systems down?

Done properly, vulnerability scans are safe and low impact.

We may schedule certain scans outside business hours (evenings or weekends) for peace of mind, especially on older systems or anything particularly sensitive. If there’s ever a system we’re worried about, we’ll agree a gentler approach or a different way to test it.

Do you actually try to break into our systems?

For vulnerability scanning, no – we’re not trying to “hack” you like a full penetration test.

The scanner:

- Looks at your systems from the inside and/or outside (depending on scope)

- Compares what it finds against known weaknesses

- Simulates certain checks, but does not exploit them fully

If you want us to go further and actively try to break in (a proper pen test), that’s a separate service – and we’ll be very clear which is which.

Who actually fixes the issues you find?

You have three options:

- Your internal IT team – we give them clear, prioritised actions in plain English

- Your existing IT provider/MSP – we’re happy to work alongside them

- Us, for agreed remediation projects – if you want extra help fixing certain items

The scan doesn’t magically fix things by itself. Our job is to make it crystal clear what to do, then support whoever is responsible for making changes.

What kind of report do we get?

You’ll get two levels of detail:

- A short business-friendly summary – what we found, what it means in risk terms, and what to do first

- A more detailed technical section – for whoever will be making changes (internal IT, MSP, developers, etc.)

We also offer a walk-through call, so you can ask questions and make sure the priorities make sense for your business.

Will this help with Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001 or PCI DSS?

Yes. All of these frameworks include vulnerability management in some form.

Regular scanning and evidence of how you’ve dealt with findings can help you:

- Prepare for Cyber Essentials / Cyber Essentials Plus

- Demonstrate ongoing risk management for ISO 27001

- Support technical controls for PCI DSS if you handle card data

We can’t “certify” you ourselves, but we can make that part of the journey much easier.

Is our data safe during a scan?

Yes. The scanner is interested in how your systems are configured, not the actual content of your files or emails.

We:

- Agree the scope in advance

- Use secure access methods

- Keep any data we do collect (e.g. configuration details, logs) protected and only for the purpose of assessing your risk

We’re checking the doors and locks, not reading what’s in the filing cabinets.

Are we too small for this to be worthwhile?

If you have data worth protecting (customer details, financials, IP, staff records), you’re not “too small” for attackers – you’re often more attractive because they assume your security is lighter.

You might be too small for a massive, enterprise-grade security project, but you’re not too small for:

- A simple, focused scope

- Sensible, affordable scanning

- A clear list of “do these few things and you’ll be much safer”

We’ll be honest: if what you’re asking for is overkill at your size, we’ll tell you and suggest a lighter approach.

Do we need to install anything on our systems?

Sometimes, yes – but not always.

It depends on what we’re scanning and how deep you want us to go.

For internal network scanning:

- We may use a small scanning appliance or virtual machine inside your network

- In some cases, we may also ask to install lightweight agents on your computers and servers

- These agents help us see issues more accurately (especially on laptops that leave the office, or cloud-hosted machines)

For external scanning:

- Often we don’t need to install anything at all

- We point our scanners at your public IP addresses and external systems from the outside, with your permission

For web application scanning:

- Usually we just need the URLs and, if required, test login details

- No software needs to be installed on your end

The key point:

If we do need an appliance or agents, we’ll explain what they do, where they go, and how they’re secured in plain English before anything gets deployed. No surprises, and no silent installs.