# Practical guides to fixing what matters > The Precursor Intelligence blog is a set of free, practical guides for IT and security teams. They explain how to rank flaws by real risk instead of raw severity, how exploit likelihood scoring works, how to find what you have exposed online and how to explain cyber risk to a board. Canonical page: https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog 6 in-depth guides · 37 minutes of reading in all · Free, no sign-up to read. Every guide is also available as Markdown: add `.md` to its address. ## Latest guide ### [Beyond EPSS: Why "Likelihood of Exploit" is the Future of Prioritization](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/beyond-epss-likelihood-of-exploit) Prioritisation · 27 January 2026 · 8 min read Why exploit likelihood, not severity, should set your patching order, and how to combine it with known-exploited lists and threat intelligence. ## Every guide, by topic ### Prioritisation - [Beyond EPSS: Why "Likelihood of Exploit" is the Future of Prioritization](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/beyond-epss-likelihood-of-exploit) (27 January 2026, 8 min read): Why exploit likelihood, not severity, should set your patching order, and how to combine it with known-exploited lists and threat intelligence. - [The Math of Remediation: Advanced Guide to EPSS](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/math-of-remediation-epss-guide) (6 January 2026, 5 min read): The numbers behind exploit prediction, what a high score really means, and a short script to check scores yourself. - [Stop Chasing "Ghost Bugs": The Definitive Guide to EPSS vs. CVSS](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/epss-vs-cvss-guide) (30 December 2025, 7 min read): A side-by-side guide to severity and exploit likelihood, with patching thresholds and a four-phase adoption plan. ### Risk and reporting - [Board-Ready Metrics: Converting "Cyber Risk" into "Financial Exposure"](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/board-ready-metrics-cyber-risk) (20 January 2026, 6 min read): How to turn heatmaps into annual loss figures that a board and a finance director can weigh against the cost of fixing them. ### Attack surface - [EASM vs. Vulnerability Scanning: Why You Need Both to Survive](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/easm-vs-vulnerability-scanning) (13 January 2026, 5 min read): What outside-in discovery finds that a scanner with a fixed target list never will, and why you need both. ### Programme basics - [The Finite Guide to Threat & Vulnerability Management](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/finite-guide-to-threat-vulnerability-management) (23 December 2025, 6 min read): The whole lifecycle, from finding your assets to proving that risk is going down, in one practical guide. ## New to risk-based patching? Read these in order 1. The big picture: [The Finite Guide to Threat & Vulnerability Management](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/finite-guide-to-threat-vulnerability-management). What a modern programme looks like, from discovery to the KPIs that prove progress. 2. The key idea: [Stop Chasing "Ghost Bugs": The Definitive Guide to EPSS vs. CVSS](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/epss-vs-cvss-guide). Why how bad a flaw could be and how likely it is to be used are different questions. 3. Put it to work: [The Math of Remediation: Advanced Guide to EPSS](https://www.precursorintelligence.com/blog/math-of-remediation-epss-guide). Thresholds that hold up in an audit, and a script to check scores yourself. ## From reading to doing Precursor Intelligence gives every published flaw a risk score from 0 to 100, built from evidence it is being exploited, how severe it is, how widely exposed it is and threat activity. You see only the flaws in software you use, riskiest first. - Evidence of attacks counts most: a flaw being exploited outranks one that only sounds worse on paper. - Anything confirmed exploited is marked Emergency patch, whatever its score. - Over 400,000 CVEs are rescored as the evidence changes, so the order shifts when the threat does. ## The Precursor Brief A free threat intelligence email, written weekly by the team behind Precursor Intelligence. Sign up on the blog page or at https://www.precursorintelligence.com/newsletter. ## Questions about the blog ### Who writes the Precursor Intelligence blog? The guides are written by the Precursor Security team, the company behind Precursor Intelligence. Each guide shows its byline and the team it comes from. ### Do I need an account to read the guides? No. Every guide is free to read without signing up. Each one is also available as plain Markdown: add .md to the end of its address, which suits AI assistants and offline reading. ### How do the guides relate to Precursor Intelligence? They explain the thinking behind it. Precursor Intelligence gives every published flaw a risk score from 0 to 100, led by evidence it is being exploited, and shows you the flaws in the software you use, riskiest first. ### How can I hear about new threats by email? Sign up to The Precursor Brief on this page. It is a free threat intelligence email, written weekly. ## Links - Start free (no card, nothing to install): https://www.precursorintelligence.com/register - Book a demo: https://www.precursorintelligence.com/contact