Vulnerability Assessment Services in Raleigh, NC
The Research Triangle's rapid growth has made Raleigh a high-value target for cyber adversaries scanning for unpatched systems, misconfigured services, and exposed credentials. Petronella Technology Group, Inc. delivers continuous vulnerability assessment that maps your entire attack surface, prioritizes findings by exploitability and business impact, and guides remediation so your organization stays ahead of the threats targeting Triangle businesses every day.
Trusted Since 2002 • BBB Accredited Since 2003 • 2,500+ Clients • Zero Breaches
What Vulnerability Assessment Solves for Triangle Businesses
Raleigh's concentration of tech firms, healthcare providers, and government contractors creates an environment where unpatched vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited within hours of public disclosure.
Attack Surface Visibility
Most Raleigh organizations underestimate their exposure. Shadow IT, cloud sprawl, remote-worker endpoints, and IoT devices create blind spots that annual audits miss entirely. Continuous assessment maps every asset and every exposure in real time.
Exploit Window Reduction
Threat actors weaponize disclosed CVEs within 24 to 48 hours. Organizations that scan quarterly leave a 90-day gap where critical vulnerabilities sit undetected. Continuous scanning closes that window to hours, dramatically reducing the opportunity for exploitation.
Compliance Requirement
CMMC, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and the NC Identity Theft Protection Act all require organizations to identify and remediate vulnerabilities. Regular vulnerability assessment provides the documented evidence auditors demand and demonstrates the "reasonable security" standard NC law requires.
Prioritized Remediation
Not every vulnerability is equally dangerous. Our risk-ranked reporting correlates CVSS scores with asset criticality, exploit availability, and your specific environment context so your IT team fixes what matters most first instead of drowning in thousands of low-priority findings.
Why Raleigh's Business Landscape Demands Continuous Vulnerability Scanning
The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area has grown into one of the nation's premier technology corridors. Red Hat's global headquarters, IBM's expanded Triangle presence, Cisco, Epic Games, and hundreds of startups along the Glenwood South and Centennial Campus innovation districts create a dense ecosystem of interconnected networks and shared digital supply chains. When a vulnerability is discovered in a widely deployed technology platform, the concentration of Triangle companies using that technology means mass exploitation attempts follow within hours. Automated scanning bots operated by criminal organizations blanket Raleigh's IP address ranges looking for unpatched systems as soon as proof-of-concept exploit code appears on public repositories.
The consequences of leaving vulnerabilities undetected extend far beyond the technical realm. Defense contractors in the Triangle must maintain vulnerability management programs that satisfy NIST 800-171 control 3.11.2 and the corresponding CMMC Level 2 practices. Healthcare providers face HIPAA Security Rule requirements to conduct periodic technical evaluations. Financial institutions answer to GLBA and examiner-driven expectations. The NC Identity Theft Protection Act's "reasonable security" standard has been interpreted by regulators to include regular vulnerability identification and remediation. For Raleigh organizations that operate across multiple regulatory frameworks, vulnerability assessment is not optional; it is a foundational control that underpins every other compliance obligation.
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. has delivered vulnerability assessment services to Triangle businesses since 2002. Our approach combines automated continuous scanning with human expert analysis and AI-powered vulnerability intelligence that prioritizes findings based on real-world exploitability rather than theoretical CVSS scores alone. Our AI-driven analysis platform correlates scan results with live threat-intelligence feeds, asset business criticality, network exposure, and exploit-code availability to produce actionable risk rankings that focus remediation effort where it will reduce the most risk per hour invested. Craig Petronella's 30+ years of cybersecurity expertise and our team's deep familiarity with the Triangle's regulatory landscape ensure that every assessment we deliver satisfies both technical rigor and compliance documentation requirements.
Vulnerability Assessment Capabilities
Comprehensive scanning, analysis, and remediation guidance tailored to Raleigh's regulatory and threat environment
External Attack Surface Scanning
Your external attack surface is what threat actors see when they target your organization from the internet. We enumerate every public-facing asset: web servers, mail gateways, VPN concentrators, DNS infrastructure, cloud-hosted services, SaaS integrations, and API endpoints. Automated scanners test each asset against a continuously updated database of over 200,000 known vulnerabilities, including CVEs disclosed within the past 24 hours.
For Raleigh businesses operating hybrid environments with on-premises infrastructure at Triangle data centers and cloud workloads on AWS, Azure, or GCP, we map the entire external perimeter including cloud-native services that traditional network scanners miss. Shadow IT discovery identifies unauthorized SaaS applications, forgotten development environments, and legacy systems that have drifted outside your security team's visibility.
Internal Network Vulnerability Scanning
Once an attacker establishes initial access, internal vulnerabilities become the stepping stones for lateral movement, privilege escalation, and data exfiltration. Our authenticated internal scans evaluate every device on your network: servers, workstations, network equipment, printers, IoT devices, and operational technology. We test for missing patches, insecure configurations, weak credentials, expired certificates, and privilege misconfigurations in Active Directory.
Internal scanning is particularly critical for Raleigh organizations with flat network architectures that have not yet implemented zero-trust segmentation. A single compromised endpoint in an unsegmented network can reach every other system on the same broadcast domain. Our scan results include specific segmentation recommendations that limit blast radius and prevent the lateral movement patterns attackers rely on.
Web Application and API Security Testing
Raleigh's thriving startup ecosystem and enterprise software companies rely heavily on web applications and APIs. Our application-layer scanning tests for OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities including injection attacks, broken authentication, sensitive data exposure, XML external entity processing, broken access control, security misconfigurations, cross-site scripting, insecure deserialization, and known component vulnerabilities.
For organizations building API-first architectures, we test REST, GraphQL, and gRPC endpoints for authentication bypass, excessive data exposure, rate-limiting gaps, and business-logic flaws that network-layer scanners cannot detect. Our reports map findings to specific code locations and provide remediation guidance that developers can implement directly.
Cloud Security Posture Assessment
Cloud misconfigurations cause more breaches than traditional software vulnerabilities. We assess your AWS, Azure, and GCP environments against CIS Benchmarks, identifying publicly exposed storage buckets, overly permissive IAM roles, unencrypted data stores, logging gaps, and network security group misconfigurations. For Raleigh organizations leveraging RTP's proximity to major cloud provider presence points, we optimize security configurations for performance without sacrificing protection.
Our cloud assessment includes infrastructure-as-code review for Terraform, CloudFormation, and Bicep templates, catching misconfigurations before they deploy to production. Container security scanning evaluates Docker images and Kubernetes configurations for known vulnerabilities and insecure defaults.
AI-Powered Vulnerability Intelligence and Prioritization
Raw vulnerability scan output typically produces thousands of findings that overwhelm IT teams. Our AI-driven intelligence platform transforms scan data into actionable risk intelligence by correlating each finding with real-world factors: Is exploit code publicly available? Is the vulnerable asset internet-facing? Does it process sensitive data? Has the vulnerability been observed in active attack campaigns targeting Triangle organizations?
Machine learning models trained on historical remediation data predict which vulnerabilities are most likely to be exploited in your specific environment and industry vertical. This contextual prioritization means your team addresses the five vulnerabilities that represent eighty percent of your actual risk before spending time on hundreds of findings that pose minimal real-world threat. Our AI services platform delivers these insights through dashboards that update in real time as new threat intelligence arrives.
Continuous Scanning and Managed Remediation
Point-in-time assessments capture a snapshot that begins aging the moment the scan completes. Our continuous scanning program maintains persistent visibility across your attack surface with automated scans running daily for critical external assets and weekly for internal infrastructure. New assets are automatically discovered and enrolled in scanning schedules.
For organizations that lack internal resources for remediation, our managed vulnerability remediation service handles patching, configuration changes, and compensating controls on your behalf. We coordinate maintenance windows with your operations team, test patches in staging environments before production deployment, and verify successful remediation through post-patch scanning. Monthly executive reports track remediation velocity, mean-time-to-remediate, and risk-score trends over time.
From Discovery to Hardened Environment
A systematic approach to vulnerability management refined over two decades
Asset Discovery and Scope Definition
We inventory every asset in your environment: on-premises servers, cloud workloads, endpoints, network devices, IoT, and SaaS applications. Asset owners are identified and business criticality ratings are assigned. This comprehensive inventory becomes the foundation for risk-prioritized scanning.
Scan Execution and AI Analysis
Authenticated and unauthenticated scans run against all in-scope assets. Our AI engine correlates results with threat intelligence, exploit databases, and asset context to produce risk-ranked findings. False positives are filtered through automated validation, and findings are deduplicated across overlapping scan coverage.
Remediation Planning and Execution
Our security engineers deliver a prioritized remediation roadmap with specific technical guidance for each finding. For managed clients, we execute patching and configuration changes during coordinated maintenance windows. For self-managed environments, we provide step-by-step instructions and validation criteria.
Verification and Continuous Monitoring
Post-remediation scans confirm that vulnerabilities have been successfully resolved. Continuous scanning enrollment ensures new vulnerabilities are detected as they emerge. Monthly trend reports track your organization's security posture improvement over time, providing the compliance documentation regulators and auditors require.
The Triangle's Trusted Vulnerability Assessment Partner
30+ Years of Security Expertise
Craig Petronella has spent more than three decades identifying and remediating vulnerabilities across every technology platform and industry vertical in the Research Triangle. As a CMMC Certified Registered Practitioner and Licensed Digital Forensic Examiner, he brings both offensive and defensive perspectives to every assessment.
Triangle Business Understanding
We understand the Raleigh tech ecosystem: Red Hat environments, healthcare networks serving WakeMed and Duke, defense-contractor enclaves near Fort Liberty, and the financial infrastructure supporting First Citizens and regional credit unions. This local knowledge ensures assessments are contextualized to your actual threat landscape.
AI-Enhanced Accuracy
Our AI-powered analysis eliminates the noise that plagues traditional vulnerability reports. Machine learning correlates findings with exploit intelligence and asset context to deliver risk rankings based on real-world exploitability, not just theoretical severity scores.
Compliance-Ready Reporting
Every assessment produces documentation formatted for CMMC, HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOC 2, and NC regulatory requirements. Our reports map findings to specific control requirements so auditors can trace vulnerability management activities directly to compliance evidence.
Vulnerability Assessment Questions for Raleigh Businesses
How often should we run vulnerability assessments?
We recommend continuous scanning for external assets and at minimum monthly internal scans. PCI DSS requires quarterly external scans by an Approved Scanning Vendor. CMMC and HIPAA expect regular vulnerability identification as part of ongoing security operations. Annual point-in-time assessments are insufficient given the pace at which new CVEs are disclosed; over 29,000 new vulnerabilities were published in 2025 alone.
What is the difference between vulnerability assessment and penetration testing?
Vulnerability assessment identifies and catalogs known weaknesses across your environment using automated scanning and configuration analysis. Penetration testing goes further by actively attempting to exploit those vulnerabilities to demonstrate real-world impact. Both are essential: assessment provides breadth of coverage across all assets, while penetration testing provides depth by proving what an attacker could actually accomplish. We recommend combining both for comprehensive security validation.
Will scanning disrupt our business operations?
Modern vulnerability scanners are designed for production environments and cause minimal impact. We configure scan intensity, timing, and scope to avoid disrupting critical business operations. For sensitive systems such as medical devices or industrial controls, we use passive scanning techniques that monitor network traffic without actively probing endpoints. Scans can be scheduled during off-hours, and our team monitors scan activity in real time to pause immediately if any performance impact is detected.
How does AI improve vulnerability assessment results?
Traditional scanners assign severity based on CVSS scores, which measure theoretical impact but ignore real-world context. Our AI engine adds exploit intelligence (is working exploit code available?), asset context (is this system internet-facing and processing sensitive data?), threat-actor targeting (are campaigns actively exploiting this CVE?), and environmental factors specific to your infrastructure. The result is a risk-ranked list that reflects your actual exposure rather than generic severity. Learn more at our AI services page.
Do you provide remediation support or only reports?
We provide both. Every assessment includes a detailed remediation roadmap with specific technical instructions for each finding. For organizations that prefer hands-on support, our managed remediation service handles patching, configuration changes, and compensating control implementation on your behalf. We coordinate maintenance windows, test patches before deployment, and verify remediation through post-patch scanning.
What compliance frameworks require vulnerability assessment?
Virtually every major framework requires vulnerability identification and remediation. CMMC Level 2 mandates it under practice RA.L2-3.11.2. HIPAA Security Rule requires evaluation under 164.308(a)(8). PCI DSS requires quarterly external scans by an ASV and regular internal scans. SOC 2 includes vulnerability management under the Common Criteria. NIST CSF maps it to the Identify and Protect functions. The NC Identity Theft Protection Act's "reasonable security" standard implicitly requires it as a baseline measure.
How do you handle false positives?
False positives erode trust in scan results and waste remediation resources. Our process includes automated validation that confirms findings through secondary testing methods before they reach your report. Human analysts review high-severity and ambiguous findings manually. Machine learning models trained on historical scan data identify common false-positive patterns and flag them for review rather than reporting them as confirmed vulnerabilities. Over time, our platform learns your environment and progressively reduces false-positive rates.
What does a vulnerability assessment report include?
Our reports include an executive summary with overall risk score and trend analysis, a risk-ranked finding list with CVSS scores and exploitability context, detailed technical descriptions of each vulnerability including affected assets, a prioritized remediation roadmap with specific fix instructions, compliance mapping showing how findings relate to your regulatory requirements, and appendices containing raw scan data for your technical team. Reports are delivered in both PDF and interactive dashboard formats.
Every Unpatched Vulnerability Is an Open Door for Attackers
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. has protected Triangle businesses since 2002 with vulnerability assessment services that deliver actionable results, not just data. Schedule your assessment today and close the gaps before threat actors find them.
Trusted Since 2002 • BBB Accredited Since 2003 • 2,500+ Clients • Raleigh, NC