An administrator is concerned that a company’s web server has not been patched. Which of the
following would be the BEST assessment for the administrator to perform?

A.
Vulnerability scan

B.
Risk assessment

C.
Virus scan

D.
Network sniffer

Explanation:
A vulnerability scan is the process of scanning the network and/or I.T. infrastructure for threats and
vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities include computer systems that do not have the latest security
patches installed.
The threats and vulnerabilities are then evaluated in a risk assessment and the necessary actions
taken to resolve and vulnerabilities.
A vulnerability scan is the automated process of proactively identifying security vulnerabilities of
computing systems in a network in order to determine if and where a system can be exploited
and/or threatened. While public servers are important for communication and data transfer over
the Internet, they open the door to potential security breaches by threat agents, such as malicious
hackers.
Vulnerability scanning employs software that seeks out security flaws based on a database of
known flaws, testing systems for the occurrence of these flaws and generating a report of the
findings that an individual or an enterprise can use to tighten the network’s security.
Vulnerability scanning typically refers to the scanning of systems that are connected to the Internet
but can also refer to system audits on internal networks that are not connected to the Internet in
order to assess the threat of rogue software or malicious employees in an enterprise.