8 Popular Free Vulnerability Scanners for Compliance Testing

Quick Summary: Free vulnerability scanners not only offer basic security audits, but they also offer compliance testing. It allows you to get necessary insights into your current security posture and fix issues to align with various regulatory requirements and standards.

Vulnerability scanning is an essential process that not only ensures your company’s data is secure but also probes your compliance status to meet critical regulatory requirements. The role of free vulnerability scanning tools is vital in this process because they offer a cost-effective way to help your company align with compliances like PCI DSS, GDPR, SOC2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more.

However, using different tools for various compliance is not wise. Instead of looking for free vulnerability scanners for GDPR compliance, HIPAA compliance, or any other compliance, you can choose a single tool that covers all of them.

In this blog, we are going to discuss the top free vulnerability scanners that offer compliance testing to help you align your company with the necessary standards and regulations. These free scanners offer thorough vulnerability scanning, provide detailed reports, and help you fix issues to adhere to necessary regulatory compliances.

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The Role of Free Vulnerability Scanners in Compliance

Data security probably is the most debatable topic of the era and people often raise their voices globally for stringent data protection laws. Consequently, governments have implemented many laws and regulations to safeguard individual data collected and processed by companies.

These laws and regulations must be adhered to by companies regardless of their size. Especially for high-risk companies like healthcare, finance, banking, and pharmaceuticals, complying with these laws and regulations is an absolute condition.

A free vulnerability scanner is software that not only probes applications for common security weaknesses but also provides reports on compliance status. For example, such a tool can show where your company isn’t meeting a specific compliance due to a particular vulnerability.

After such an insight, your company can take action to fix the issue and ensure alignment with compliance. Hence, free scanners flag issues that might be impacting your compliance requirements. Besides, compliance reports generated by these tools can be presented as evidence to your auditor.

Top Free Vulnerability Scanners for Compliance Testing

You can automate and simplify compliance auditing by using the following vulnerability assessment tools that are available free of cost.

1. ZeroThreat

ZeroThreat is one of the top vulnerability scanners with cutting-edge features to detect, triage, and fix vulnerabilities. This free scanner performs comprehensive security assessments for web applications & APIs and generates compliance-based reports. It provides audit-ready reports that enable you to furnish tangible evidence for your compliance with regulatory requirements.

It combines DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing) and automated pen testing to perform in-depth testing for 40,000+ vulnerabilities and reduce the risk of non-compliance. By proactively identifying and addressing vulnerabilities, you can align with various industry standards and regulations.

2. OpenVAS

OpenVAS, which stands for Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner, is one of the free vulnerability scanners for regulatory compliance. It offers extensive security coverage with its database of 44,000+ vulnerabilities to help you strengthen cybersecurity. This open-source tool offers security testing for web apps and networks.

It performs compliance auditing against different standards and regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and more. Once a report is generated, it can be shared with others in formats like HTML, PDF, XML, etc. However, compliance testing can be a bit tricky for beginners.

3. ZAP

Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) is a well-known open-source vulnerability scanning tool that automates security testing within your development cycle. It identifies and reports OWASP top ten vulnerabilities and works as a proxy. It is also a powerful free vulnerability scanner for GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC2, and other types of compliance auditing. It performs automated security testing and generates reports in XML, JSON, and HTML, enabling you to produce compliance proof for auditors easily.

4. Burp Suite

Burp Suite is widely used in cybersecurity, enabling developers and security teams to perform comprehensive security testing. Written in JavaScript, the tool can test any web application, network, or API for known and complex vulnerabilities. Burp Suite Community Edition is the no-cost version for conducting security scans and generating reports with basic compliance testing. The free offers limited features and compliance auditing.

5. Nikto

Nikto is an open-source web app vulnerability scanner created in the Perl language. This free scanner can identify more than 6700 vulnerabilities and generates detailed reports that include compliance status. It allows developers and security teams to uncover various vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, including open ports, weak HTTP headers, insecure file permissions, and more, to improve security and ensure regulatory compliance.

6. Nmap

Nmap (Network Mapper) is an open-source tool that scrutinizes networks and detects common vulnerabilities. It helps in network discovery, auditing, inventory, managing service upgrades, and monitoring hosts. Ethical hackers map networks, scan open ports, discover operating systems, and identify hosts. Nmap helps you discover vulnerabilities and generate detailed technical reports that provide compliance status.

7. Arachni

The next free and open-source vulnerability scanner on the list is Arachni, which is known for its web app vulnerability scanning capabilities. It can scan various types of web applications and detect a wide range of vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, path traversal, remote file inclusion, and more. Web servers it supports are IIS, Apache, Nginx, Gunicorn, Tomcat, and Jetty. Besides, it supports Python, Ruby, ASPX, ASP, PHP, and Java programming languages. It combines vulnerability scanning and compliance testing to help you ensure data protection and regulatory compliance.

8. W3af

It is a free vulnerability scanner and exploitation tool that offers in-depth scanning for web apps. With both GUI and CLI interfaces, it caters to different users and requirements. W3af is extensible with plugins to make customizations in vulnerability scanning and detection capabilities. The free scanner offers both basic vulnerability scanning and compliance testing. It generates rich test reports that provide status information about your attack surface and compliance requirements.

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Important Compliances that Your Company Must Adhere to

The following is a list of some important regulatory compliances and standards that companies must abide by to avoid fines and legal actions.

HIPAA

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is a strict data protection regulation that applies to companies in the healthcare sector. This act provides the standards to protect patients’ sensitive data, also known as PHI (Protected Health Information).

The HIPAA regulation requires any company that deals with PHI to implement strong security measures for their systems, processes, and networks to comply with this law. The covered entities not only include organizations providing treatment, operations, and payment in healthcare but also business associates that access PHI or provide support for healthcare services.

GDPR

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is another important data protection law that necessitates companies to take stringent measures to safeguard individual data. This data regulation was established by the EU (European Union) to ensure the data privacy and security of individuals residing in the region.

It covers all companies within the EU and even those outside this region if they collect and process data of EU citizens. Hence, GDPR compliance is mandatory for all companies that deal with the data of EU citizens. If a company fails to comply with this regulation, it faces severe fines.

Under this law, companies are required to obtain prior consent from individuals before collecting and processing their data. Additionally, there must be a legitimate interest or lawful basis to collect, use, and process data.

PCI DSS

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) defines a set of rules and requirements that every company that stores, processes, or transmits credit card information must follow to ensure a secure data processing environment.

It basically provides protection against theft or misuse of credit card information. The standard was developed by an independent body created by American Express, Visa, MasterCard, JCB, and Discover. Non-compliance can result in a damaged reputation and lawsuits.

SOC2

The SOC (System and Organization Controls) defines rules about how service organizations must use and process their customers’ data. It is one of the most important cybersecurity compliance frameworks that companies must follow.

This standard is meant to ensure the security, integrity, and privacy of customers’ data. SOC2 compliance demonstrates that your company has sufficient controls to protect customers’ data. It is important for SaaS companies, healthcare entities, cloud service providers, and financial services companies.

ISO 27001

ISO 27001 is another important cybersecurity compliance framework that provides a standard for information security. This standard offers some requirements that must be followed to define, implement, operate, and improve an Information Security Management System (ISMS).

ISMS is a framework of different policies, procedures, and controls that companies must implement to achieve data security and reduce risks. It is relevant to companies that handle a large volume of data, such as healthcare providers, e-commerce firms, banks, insurance companies, etc.

Vulnerability scanning in the context of ISO 27001 aims to identify any security weaknesses that may affect compliance. You can fix the issues and ensure maintain compliance.

NIST – Special Publication 800-53

NIST 800-53 is a well-recognized cybersecurity standard and framework that defines a wide range of privacy and security controls. These controls defined in the standard are related to management, operational, and technical that help maintain the availability, integrity, and security of data. Different types of companies adopt this framework to bolster their cybersecurity posture.

What Benefits Do You Get by Adhering to Compliance Standards?

How does a business ensure the quality of its products or services? Typically, they have established standards for quality and ensure every product or service produced matches those standards. Similarly, there are established standards and regulations that ensure data protection.

By adhering to standards and compliances, you can demonstrate and prove that your company has taken adequate measures to protect customers’ data. This is an essential requirement for companies in the healthcare, finance, banking, government, and pharmaceutical sectors.

Let’s check out the key benefits of adhering to compliance.

• Credibility: Your customers do business with you because they are confident that their data and privacy will be protected. If things go wrong, their trust will be shattered, and you will lose loyal customers. Continuous vulnerability scanning and meeting compliances help you ensure that trust.
• Demonstrate Commitment: Investors, business partners, customers, and all other stakeholders need evidence to prove your commitment to data protection. When you comply with the required standards and regulations, it demonstrates your commitment to security.
• Reputation: Any data breach incident will take a toll on your company’s reputation. Your efforts towards compliance will assure stakeholders and build a good reputation.

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ZeroThreat Makes Compliance Testing a Breeze

You must have understood how important it is to adhere to standards and regulatory compliances. Non-compliance can lead to severe damage in terms of reputation, money, and legal actions. The role of free vulnerability scanners in compliance cannot be undermined. These tools offer necessary insights to help you maintain a strong posture and protect individual data to align with different compliances.

With ZeroThreat - vulnerability scanning tool, compliance testing becomes very easy. As a powerful DAST tool, it identifies 40,000+ web app & API vulnerabilities as well as offers compliance status. ZeroThreat’s detailed vulnerability and compliance reports help your team take prompt actions to remediate issues and make your company adhere to various standards and compliances.

Even a non-technical individual can generate compliance reports and provide them to your auditory authority as evidence. Try it live now and see how it works.