How to Automate Vulnerability Ownership: From Two Weeks to Four Hours
by Brinqa, Security Experts//8 min read/
Summary: Learn how a global technology leader reduced vulnerability reporting time by 98% and automated ownership mapping for 97% of vulnerabilities using exposure management automation. This case study reveals the specific challenges of manual vulnerability ownership processes and the measurable business outcomes from automation.
When a critical vulnerability appears in your environment, the first question should be: how do we fix it? Instead, for most security teams, the first question is: who owns this asset?
For the cybersecurity team at a Fortune 500 technology company, answering that question consumed two weeks every month. Two weeks of exporting data from scanning tools, cross-referencing ownership records, and manually mapping vulnerabilities to the people who could actually fix them. Two weeks where the team did everything except the work they were hired to do.
"Before Brinqa, we didn't have a data consolidation platform," explained the company's Sr. Cybersecurity Engineer. "We were manually exporting reports from our vulnerability scanning tools and mapping business ownership by hand. Reporting alone took about two weeks every month."
Why Manual Vulnerability Ownership Mapping Fails at Scale
This wasn't a small environment. The team managed vulnerabilities across a global infrastructure, multiple business units, and a rotating cast of assets that changed faster than ownership records could keep up. The scanning tools worked fine. The vulnerability data was there. What broke down was everything that happened after the scan finished.
Who owns this server? Which team is responsible for that application? Is this asset even still in production? These questions don't show up in scan results. And when you're dealing with thousands of vulnerabilities across a sprawling environment, answering them by hand becomes the job.
The delays rippled outward: leadership meetings happened without current data. Remediation teams received conflicting tickets, SLA tracking became guesswork. The team knew what needed fixing, but the process of getting that information to the right people ate up the time they needed to actually fix anything.
Common Challenges with Manual Vulnerability Ownership Processes
Manual vulnerability ownership creates several operational bottlenecks:
- Time-intensive reporting cycles: Two-week reporting timelines prevent timely risk response
- Ownership attribution gaps: Unknown or outdated asset owners delay remediation
- Data fragmentation: Multiple tools create conflicting vulnerability records
- Resource misallocation: Security teams spend time on data management instead of threat response
- Limited scalability: Manual processes can't keep pace with growing infrastructure
How Automated Vulnerability Ownership Mapping Works
The team chose Brinqa for a straightforward reason: they needed to automate the work that was consuming their weeks. Specifically, they needed to map vulnerabilities to owners without manually cross-referencing spreadsheets every month.
Brinqa's connector library made it possible to pull data directly from their vulnerability scanners, Service Desk, and penetration testing platforms into a single system. But the real shift came from what the platform could do with that data once it arrived.
"The main reason we chose Brinqa was its connectors and flexibility," the Sr. Cybersecurity Engineer said. "It's easily the most customizable tool we've used. We can build custom logic, automate workflows, and adapt the platform to our business."
Key Components of Automated Vulnerability Management
The team implemented several automated workflows:
- Automated data integration: Direct connectors eliminated manual data exports
- Intelligent ownership mapping: System identified owners based on asset attributes and historical patterns
- Workflow automation: Ticket routing and exception management became automated processes
- Centralized dashboards: Real-time visibility replaced monthly reporting cycles
The team built automated mapping between Service Desk records and vulnerability data. When a new vulnerability appeared, the system could identify the owner based on asset attributes, historical ownership patterns, and business unit relationships already in the data. No manual lookup required. No waiting for someone to dig through old tickets.
Reporting became a dashboard pull instead of a two-week project. Exception management moved from email chains to automated workflows. And most importantly, the team could actually see who owned what across the entire environment, not just the portion they'd had time to manually map that month.
“Brinqa helps us work smarter, it gives us visibility across the enterprise and lets us focus on higher-value work instead of manual reporting.”
– Sr. Cybersecurity Engineer
Measurable Results from Vulnerability Ownership Automation
The results were measurable: reporting time dropped from two weeks to four hours — a 98% reduction. The platform automatically mapped ownership for 97% of vulnerabilities. Over 1,500 users across the organization gained access to centralized dashboards.
But the numbers only capture part of what changed. The team stopped spending their time on data archaeology and started doing the work they were supposed to be doing. They expanded into threat hunting, external attack surface management, and active remediation oversight—areas they'd wanted to cover but hadn't had the bandwidth for when reporting consumed half the month.
"Brinqa helps us work smarter," the Sr. Cybersecurity Engineer noted. "It gives us visibility across the enterprise and lets us focus on higher-value work instead of manual reporting."
Business Impact: What 97% Automation Means for Security Teams
The transformation delivered several business outcomes:
- 98% faster reporting: Monthly vulnerability reports reduced from 2 weeks to 4 hours
- 97% automated ownership: Nearly all vulnerabilities automatically assigned to correct owners
- 1,500+ users enabled: Enterprise-wide visibility through centralized dashboards
- Expanded security scope: Team capacity freed for threat hunting and attack surface management
- Improved SLA compliance: Automated workflows enabled consistent remediation tracking
Implementing Vulnerability Ownership Automation in Your Environment
If your team spends days manually mapping vulnerabilities to owners, this story probably sounds familiar. The scanning tools aren't the bottleneck. The bottleneck is making sense of what the tools produce and getting that information to the people who can act on it.
Automation matters when it removes the work that shouldn't exist in the first place. Mapping vulnerabilities to owners based on data the system already has shouldn't require manual effort every month. Generating reports leadership can trust shouldn't take two weeks. And security teams shouldn't be spending half their time on spreadsheets when they could be reducing risk.
This team found a way to fix those problems. The platform gave them automated ownership mapping, consolidated reporting, and visibility across the enterprise. The time they saved went back into the security work that actually matters.
That's the shift. Not better dashboards or faster scans. Time back to do the job.
If your team is spending more time tracking down ownership than fixing vulnerabilities, Brinqa can help. See how the platform automates ownership mapping, consolidates reporting, and gives your team time back for the work that matters.
