The optimal approach to creating an effective vulnerability management strategy is to make it a vulnerability management life cycle. Just like the attack life cycle, the vulnerability management life cycle schedules all vulnerability mitigation processes in an orderly way. This enables targets and victims of cybersecurity incidents to mitigate the damage that they have incurred or might incur. The right counteractions are scheduled to be performed at the right time to find and address vulnerabilities before attackers can abuse them.

The vulnerability management strategy is composed of six distinct phases. This section will discuss each of them and what they are meant to protect against. It will also discuss the challenges that are expected to be met at each of those stages.