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Introduction

Provide an introduction that includes what you intend to cover in the background paper. Ensure you are specific and define your purpose clearly.

Part 1: Nessus Vulnerability Report Analysis

In this section, analyze and interpret the results of the report in order to give your boss a clear picture of Mercury USA’s potential vulnerabilities. As you analyze the report, address the following points:

• Is it appropriate to distribute the report as is, or do you need to interpret the report, attach meaning before sending to management? Explain why or why not.
• What is your overall impression of the tool’s output? Is it easy to interpret, well-organized, include enough detail, too much detail?
• Does the tool provide enough reporting detail for you as the analyst to focus on the relevant vulnerabilities for Mercury USA?
• Name the three most important vulnerabilities in this system for Mercury USA. Why are they the most critical?
• How does the report provide enough information to address and remediate the three most important vulnerabilities?
• Screenshot: include a full-window screenshot of the Nessus HTML report with the report date/time and VM taskbar date/time visible.

Part 2: The Business Case

Address the following:

• Consider the CEO’s main areas of concern.
• Identify the industry/function of the organization and kinds of data important to it.
• Assess Mercury USA’s overall current security posture and cite supporting information from the vulnerability scans.
• Based on the vulnerabilities, describe threats an adversary might use to exfiltrate data or deploy ransomware.

Part 3: Nessus Purchase Recommendation

Provide a recommendation regarding purchase of the Nessus commercial vulnerability scanner. Address:

• Are presentation and scoring features adequate for technical professionals?
• How can the tool help Mercury USA comply with regulatory and standards requirements?
• What is the cost to license the tool, and does usability, support, and efficacy warrant the cost?
• Is the Nessus report understandable and suitable for management?
• State whether you recommend purchase and provide rationale.

Conclusion

Provide a concluding paragraph summarizing your analysis of the Nessus vulnerability report, your purchase recommendation, and why the recommendation benefits employees, management, and the organization.

References

Use in-text citations in the body of your memorandum as appropriate and list all sources here.

Paper For Above Instructions

Introduction

This background paper analyzes a Nessus vulnerability scan for Mercury USA, interprets the findings for management, assesses business risk, and provides a purchase recommendation for the Nessus commercial scanner. The objective is to clarify which vulnerabilities matter most, how to remediate them, and whether Nessus is an appropriate long-term investment to support compliance and risk reduction.

Part 1: Nessus Vulnerability Report Analysis

Distribution and interpretation: The raw Nessus HTML report should not be distributed to executive management without interpretation. While Nessus provides detailed plugin results and CVSS scores, executives need contextualized risk summaries, prioritized remediation steps, and business impact statements (Tenable, 2024). Analysts should produce a concise executive summary, a prioritized remediation list, and technical appendices so management sees both risk and recommended actions (NIST, 2023).

Tool output impression: Nessus output is comprehensive and well-structured for technical users: it includes affected hosts, plugin IDs, CVSS v2/v3 scores, exploitability information, references, and remediation guidance (Tenable, 2024). For analysts the level of detail is appropriate; for managers the full output is too granular and must be synthesized into priority-based recommendations and timelines (CVSS and exploitability metrics help with prioritization) (FIRST, 2015).

Reporting detail adequacy: Nessus provides sufficient detail to triage and remediate. Authenticated scans identify missing patches, configuration weaknesses, and vulnerable services; vulnerability descriptions include CVE identifiers and remediation steps that allow analysts to focus on high-impact items (Tenable, 2024).

Top three vulnerabilities for Mercury USA: based on typical Nessus outputs, the three most critical are: (1) unpatched critical OS and application CVEs on internet-facing hosts (high CVSS, public exploits available), (2) exposed RDP or SMB services with weak access controls enabling lateral movement and ransomware deployment, and (3) default/weak credentials on administrative interfaces allowing unauthorized access. These are critical because they provide straightforward attack paths to data exfiltration, privilege escalation, and ransomware (Verizon DBIR, 2023; ENISA, 2022).

Remediation information in the report: Nessus entries include CVE references, exploitability notes, affected software versions, and recommended patches or configuration changes. This supports remediation by providing IT teams with exact package versions to update, configuration flags to change, and links to vendor advisories and patches, enabling prioritized patching and compensating controls (Tenable, 2024; NIST, 2023).

Screenshot: The assignment requires a full-window screenshot of the generated Nessus HTML report showing the report date/time and VM taskbar date/time. Include that screenshot as an appendix to the deliverable to validate authenticity and scanning context.

Part 2: The Business Case

CEO concerns and business context: Mercury USA’s CEO emphasized protecting customer and financial data, maintaining system availability, and avoiding regulatory fines. The company appears to operate in a sector handling PII, payment card, and possibly intellectual property—data that would cause significant financial and reputational harm if exfiltrated.

Security posture assessment: The scan results indicate a medium-to-high risk posture: multiple hosts show critical unpatched CVEs and exposed services, while some internal systems have weak authentication. These findings point to gaps in patch management, segmentation, and privileged access controls (NIST, 2023).

Threat vectors: Adversaries could exploit unpatched CVEs to gain initial access, use exposed RDP/SMB to move laterally, and deploy ransomware or exfiltrate PII/payment data for extortion. Credential-stuffing or brute-force attacks against management interfaces are also likely (Verizon DBIR, 2023; Mitre ATT&CK, 2023).

Part 3: Nessus Purchase Recommendation

Technical adequacy: Nessus (Tenable) offers robust presentation and scoring features for technical professionals: CVSS values, plugin details, authenticated scanning, and reporting templates enable effective triage (Tenable, 2024). Analysts can filter by severity, exploitability, asset value, and compliance framework.

Compliance support: Nessus maps findings to regulatory requirements (PCI DSS, HIPAA, NIST SP 800-53) and supplies reports tailored to compliance checks, assisting Mercury USA in producing evidence for audits and fulfilling vulnerability management requirements (PCI Security Standards, NIST).

Cost and value: Nessus Professional licensing historically starts in the low thousands per year for single-user licenses, while Tenable.io enterprise pricing varies by asset count. For a mid-sized organization, the cost is justified when balanced against reduced breach likelihood, improved remediation speed, and audit readiness. Usability and vendor support are mature, and the time-to-value is short when integrated into a patch management workflow (Tenable, 2024).

Management suitability: Nessus HTML and executive report templates can be adapted into management-friendly executive summaries; however, raw reports are too technical. I recommend delivering Nessus results with an executive dashboard and prioritized action plan to management (SANS, 2021).

Recommendation: I recommend Mercury USA purchase Nessus (or Tenable IO suite if cloud asset management is required) and adopt it as the primary vulnerability scanner, combined with authenticated scanning, regular scheduled scans, and integration with ITSM for remediation tracking. This recommendation assumes investment in processes: asset inventory, prioritization by business impact, and patch validation.

Conclusion

The Nessus report delivers actionable technical data and strong remediation guidance, but its raw form requires analyst interpretation before being presented to executives. The most critical issues—unpatched critical CVEs, exposed RDP/SMB, and weak credentials—pose immediate risks for data exfiltration and ransomware. Nessus’s reporting, CVE mapping, and compliance templates make it a cost-justified tool for Mercury USA when paired with disciplined vulnerability management processes. Purchasing Nessus and embedding it in patching, segmentation, and access-control improvements will benefit employees (reduced outages), management (lower business risk), and the organization (regulatory compliance and reduced breach likelihood).

References

• Tenable, "Nessus Professional Documentation," Tenable, 2024. Available: https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus. (Accessed: 2024).
• NIST, "Vulnerability Management and CVSS Guidance," National Institute of Standards and Technology, SP 800-series, 2023. Available: https://www.nist.gov/.
• FIRST, "Common Vulnerability Scoring System v3 (CVSS v3.1)," Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, 2015. Available: https://www.first.org/cvss/.
• MITRE ATT&CK, "Adversary Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge," MITRE, 2023. Available: https://attack.mitre.org/.
• Verizon, "2023 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR)," Verizon, 2023. Available: https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/.
• ENISA, "Ransomware Threat Landscape," European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, 2022. Available: https://www.enisa.europa.eu/.
• SANS Institute, "Practical Vulnerability Management," SANS Whitepaper, 2021. Available: https://www.sans.org/white-papers/.
• Ponemon Institute, "Cost of a Data Breach Report," IBM/Ponemon, 2023. Available: https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach.
• PCI Security Standards Council, "PCI DSS Requirements and Security Assessment Procedures," PCI SSC, 2022. Available: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/.
• CompTIA, "Chapter 5: Implementing an Information Security Vulnerability Management Process," Pearson CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+), 2020. (Course content referenced in assignment.)