A Study on the Impact of Network Vulnerability Scanners on Network Security

Every computer network is bound to be a victim of network intruders which is why many security measures are put in place to protect computer networks from attackers and quickly recover from a network intrusion or attack. One of the most common security measures is the use of network scanners. Network scanners, scan the organizations network in an effort to locate any loop holes in the network's configuration or operation that can be exploited by attackers. The purpose of this study is to make a comparative analysis of the operation of network scanners, premising from discovering the network and scanning it for vulnerabilities. To analyze these techniques, on one hand we focused on the network discovery techniques which are passive discovery and active discovery. An evaluation of the two techniques was done to identify the benefits and areas of improvement. Secondly, we evaluated the two scanning techniques namely active and passive scanning to find possible ways to enhance their operations. A conclusion was drawn at the end which recommended a hybrid technique drawn from the strength of the two techniques.