Definition: Determine the exposure, weaknesses, and/or susceptibility to attack of assets and systems. A vulnerability assessment is a systematic process to measure the susceptibility of a sector, segment, region, or individual site to attack. Through a vulnerability assessment, areas of weakness and potential actions that would exploit those weaknesses are identified, and the effectiveness of additional security measures is assessed. (DHS, Universal Task List Version 2.1, 2005, p. 42)