95,000 Reasons To Rethink Your Vulnerability Scanner

The Number That Matters

95,000.

That's not the price of your vulnerability scanner (thank goodness). It's the number of vulnerability tests included in OpenVAS, updated daily, at no licensing cost.

To put that in perspective:

• The average CVE database adds 50-60 new vulnerabilities per day
• A typical enterprise network has 200-500 potential vulnerability points
• Most organizations are vulnerable to at least 100+ known exploits at any given time

What 95,000 Tests Actually Means

When vendors throw around numbers like "95,000 vulnerability tests," it's easy to dismiss it as marketing fluff. But let's break down what this actually means for your security posture.

The Coverage Matrix

1. Operating System Vulnerabilities (30,000+ tests)

Real-World Impact: A mid-sized Canadian retailer using ThinSky discovered 47 Windows Server instances still vulnerable to EternalBlue (the exploit behind WannaCry). They had "patched everything" but missed these servers in a DMZ. Cost to fix: $0 (Windows patches are free). Cost if exploited: Millions in ransomware damage.

2. Network Service Vulnerabilities (25,000+ tests)

Every service running on your network is a potential entry point. OpenVAS tests SSH, FTP, SMB, RDP, DNS, SMTP and hundreds more.

3. Web Application Vulnerabilities (15,000+ tests)

Modern organizations run on web apps, and they're often the weakest link. OpenVAS provides complete OWASP Top 10 coverage plus CMS-specific tests for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and SharePoint.

4. Cloud and Container Vulnerabilities (8,000+ tests)

Real-World Impact: A fintech company had 12 S3 buckets publicly accessible, containing transaction logs with customer data. They didn't know because AWS's console doesn't make this obvious. OpenVAS found them all in one scan.

Compliance Coverage: The Checkbox Paradise

If you've ever been through a compliance audit, you know it's basically professional checkbox-filling. Vulnerability scanning is one of those checkboxes that shows up in literally every security framework.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)

If you process, store, or transmit credit card data, PCI DSS compliance is mandatory. Non-compliance can result in fines up to $500,000 per incident.

PCI DSS Requirement 11.2: "Run internal and external network vulnerability scans at least quarterly and after any significant change."

Real Cost Comparison:

• Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV): $2,000-$5,000/year for external scans only
• Internal scanning solution (Qualys/Tenable): $15,000-$50,000/year
• ThinSky Managed OpenVAS: $4,000-$8,000/year for both internal and external scanning

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

Healthcare organizations in Canada often need HIPAA compliance when dealing with US patients or partners.

Penalty Avoidance: HIPAA violations range from $137 to $68,928 per violation, with an annual maximum of $2,067,813. A single breach affecting 500+ individuals requires public notification and often leads to audits.

How Managed Scanning Actually Works

Let's pull back the curtain on what "managed" actually means when it comes to vulnerability scanning.

Phase 1: Setup and Onboarding (Week 1)

• Discovery call to understand your infrastructure
• Deploy OpenVAS scanning infrastructure
• Configure authenticated scanning credentials
• Initial baseline scan with manual false positive tuning

Phase 2: Continuous Operations

Scheduled Scanning:

• Daily: Critical production systems and internet-facing assets
• Weekly: Internal infrastructure and development environments
• Monthly: Full comprehensive deep scans

Phase 3: Analysis and Reporting

What ThinSky Gives You:

The ROI of Proactive Scanning

Case Study: The Near-Miss Retailer

Client: E-commerce retailer, $5M annual revenue

Scenario: OpenVAS discovered their payment processing server was vulnerable to Spring4Shell

Breach Cost Estimate:

• PCI forensic investigation: $50,000
• Card reissuance fees: $67,500
• PCI fines: $50,000
• Legal fees: $75,000
• Revenue loss: $1,000,000
• Total: $1,342,500

What Actually Happened:

• OpenVAS detected vulnerability 3 days after public disclosure
• Development team patched the server same day
• Cost: $400 in developer time
• ROI: 22,308%

Conclusion

95,000 vulnerability tests. Daily updates. Comprehensive compliance coverage. All at 80% less cost than commercial alternatives.

The question isn't "Can we afford vulnerability scanning?" It's "Can we afford not to?"