Executive Summary Report

Designed with executives in mind, the Executive Summary Report provides a monthly curated assessment of your organization’s vulnerability management program. If you are a Global Administrator, you will be able to access the Executive Summary Report via the in-product InsightVM link. If you don’t have the correct credentials or role, you will not be able to access the report. An Executive Summary Report for the previous month will be available on the seventh of every month.

Access to historical Executive Summary reports

To access previous Executive Summary Reports or other existing cloud-based reports, go to the Cloud Reporting page.

The Executive Summary Report allows you to easily see your remediation efforts in one place so that you can compare data from current and previous reporting periods. The report includes easy-to-read visuals, graphs, and explanations.

For now, the report period is one month. Each report displays high-level graphs to provide visibility and insight from the previous 6 months, so you can assess monthly trends over the course of the year in the current month's report.

Data Analysis

The Executive Summary Report is divided into several sections:

  • Environment Overview
  • Program Improvements
  • Location Tag
  • Owners Tag
  • Criticality Tag

Environment Overview

The “Environment Overview” provides a high-level view of data from new and existing assets, new vulnerabilities, and new remediation projects.

Here is a deeper look at the sections in the “Environment Overview”:

  • Assets
  • Vulnerabilities
  • Remediation

Assets

The “Assets” section gives you an overview of your assets data over the course of one month.

Here’s what’s covered in the “Assets” section:

  • Total Assessed Assets - Shows the number of assets that were scanned for vulnerabilities.
  • Risk Score - Measures the difficulty needed to fix a vulnerability or asset. The Executive Summary Report defines risk score as the total overall score for known assets and their vulnerabilities. Ideally, risk scores should decline as time passes and can help you prioritize vulnerabilities and assets. For more information, see our Risk strategies documentation.
  • The Assessed Assets vs Risk Over Time chart - Shows trends of your total risk score over the past 12 months, while compared to the total number of assessed assets over the same time period. Showing the assessed assets provides context to noticeable changes in risk from month to month. For example, an increase in risk may be caused by more asset assessments, not an increase in risk per asset.
  • New Assets - Represents the number of assets that are new in your environment during the reporting period.
  • Assessment Ratio - Shows the percentage of assessed total assets compared to unassessed assets within the reporting period. To create the percentage, it compares the number of assets that were scanned for vulnerabilities to the number of assets that were not scanned for vulnerabilities.
  • New Software - Represents the number of new software applications in your environment.
  • New Services - Represents the number of new services in your environment.
  • The “Discovered Assets” chart - Shows the percentage of assets discovered within the report period, but yet to be assessed.
  • The “Assessment Counts of Assets” visualization - Shows the distribution of assets across the number of assessments performed. The size of the bubble indicates the number of assets assessed, while the number inside the bubble represents the number of assessments performed.

In addition, you’ll also see the average number of assessments for the reporting period.

Vulnerabilities

The “Vulnerabilities” section provides an overall view of your vulnerabilities data over the course of the report period. You can use this data to understand the scale and effectiveness of your security assessment operations.

Here’s what’s covered in the “Vulnerabilities” section:

  • Total Vulnerabilities is the number of vulnerabilities that were scanned during the report period.
  • Critical Vulnerabilities shows the percentage of critical vulnerabilities in proportion to your total number of vulnerabilities.
  • The Vulnerabilities and Risk Over Time graph shows trends of your total risk score over the past 12 months, while compared to the total number of targeted and known vulnerabilities over the same time period. Showing targeted and known vulnerabilities provides context to noticeable changes in risk from month to month. For example, a spike in Risk Score indicates a spike in Vulnerabilities, Targeted Vulnerabilities, or both.
  • New Vulnerabilities is the number of vulnerabilities that are new in your environment.
  • New Targeted Vulnerabilities is the number of targeted vulnerabilities that are new in your environment. A targeted vulnerability is a vulnerability actively being targeted by attackers, based on Rapid7’s threat intelligence research.
  • New Risk is the total number of new risks in your environment.
  • New Vulnerabilities by Criticality shows the percentage of new vulnerabilities organized by risk level. The three states are critical, severe, and moderate.
  • Vulnerability Criticality shows the percentage of total vulnerabilities organized by risk level. The three states are critical, severe, and moderate.
  • Available Exploits is the number of exploits that are known to be associated with the discovered vulnerabilities in your environment.
  • Available Malware Kits is the number of malware kits associated with discovered vulnerabilities in your environment. A malware kit, or exploit kit, is a tool that makes it easier for attackers to write and deploy malicious code to attack targets through associated vulnerabilities.

Remediation

The remediation overview can help you assess your organization’s efficiency in reducing risk during the report period. Prioritize your remediation efforts to address exploitable and targeted vulnerabilities, which pose the highest risk.

Here’s what’s covered in the Remediation Overview:

  • Remediated Vulnerabilities is the number of vulnerabilities that were remediated, or resolved, during the report period.
  • New Risk vs Remediated Risk shows the ratio of new risk to remediated risk for this report period.
  • The “Total Risk and Remediated Risk” graph shows trend data for new and remediated risk over time. This indicates how efficient your InsightVM program is at addressing new vulnerabilities as they are found.
  • Remediated Vulnerabilities shows the number of vulnerabilities that were remediated, or resolved, during the report period. It also shows the increase or decrease in remediated vulnerabilities from the previous reporting period.
  • Remediated Targeted Vulnerabilities is the number of targeted vulnerabilities that were remediated during the report period. It also shows the increase or decrease in remediated vulnerabilities from the previous reporting period.
  • Remediated Risk is the total number of remediated risks in your environment. It also shows the increase or decrease in remediated vulnerabilities from the previous reporting period.
  • Remediated Vulnerabilities by Criticality shows the percentage of remediated vulnerabilities organized by risk level. The three states are critical, severe, and moderate.
  • Average Remediation by Criticality shows the average number of days it takes to remediate a criticality, which is organized by risk level. The three states are critical, severe, and moderate.
  • Remediated Exploits is the number of remediated exploits in your environment.
  • Remediated Malware Kits is the number of remediated malware kits in your environment. A malware kit is a tool that makes it easier for attackers to write and deploy malicious code to attack targets through associated vulnerabilities.

Program Improvements

The Program Improvements overview provides data about InsightVM’s Remediation Projects feature, tagged assets, and assets installed with Insight Agent.

Here’s what’s covered in the Program Improvements overview:

  • New Remediation Projects is the number of remediation projects that were opened during the reporting period.
  • Closed Remediation Projects is the number of remediation projects that were closed during the reporting period.

NOTE

The rate at which Remediation Projects open and close can indicate how efficient remediation efforts are.

  • Tagged Assets is the number of assets that were tagged during the reporting period. The number of tagged assets from the previous reporting period, as well as the percent increase or decrease, is also shown. For more information on tags, see Applying RealContext with tags.
  • Assets with Agents is the number of assets installed with Insight Agent. The number of assets installed with Insight Agent from the previous reporting period and the percent increase or decrease is also shown. For more information, see our Insight Agent help documentation.

Location Tags

The Location Tags overview provides metrics about assets tagged by location.

Here’s what’s covered in the Location Tags overview:

  • Location Tags is the total number of assets designated with a location tag during the reporting period.
  • The next metric shows the percentage of assets in your environment that are tagged by location.
  • Top Five Locations shows the total number, percentage, and places that have the most assets tagged with location tags.
  • New Risk by Location shows the top five places that have the newest assets with the highest risk score. These assets must all be tagged with a location tag.
  • Remediated Risk by Location shows the top five places that have remediated the most risk. These assets must all be tagged with a location tag.

Owner Tags

The Owner Tags overview provides metrics about assets tagged by asset owner.

Here’s what’s covered in the Owner Tags overview:

  • Owner Tags is the total number of assets designated with an owner tag during the reporting period.
  • The next metric shows the percentage of assets in your environment that is tagged by owner.
  • Top Five Owners shows the total number, percentage, and places that have the most assets tagged with owner tags.
  • New Risk by Owner shows the top five owners who have new assets with the highest risk score. These assets must all be tagged with an owner tag.

Criticality Tags

The Criticality Tags overview provides metrics about assets tagged by criticality. Assets can be tagged with a critical, severe, or moderate tag.

Here’s what’s covered in the Criticality Tags overview:

  • Criticality Tags is the total number of assets designated with a criticality tag during the reporting period.
  • The next metric shows the percentage of assets in your environment that is tagged by criticality.
  • Top Five Criticalities shows the total number, percentage, and risk level of vulnerabilities in this report period. These assets must all be tagged with a criticality tag.
  • New Risk by Criticality shows cumulative new risk for each asset, grouped by criticality. These assets must all be tagged with a criticality tag.
  • Remediated Risk by Criticality shows the number of resolved vulnerabilities that were tagged with a criticality tag.