Answer Description
The goal here is to find security threats, or vulnerabilities, on the network. A vulnerability scan will help find some security threats.
Wikipedia
In computer security, a vulnerability is a weakness which can be exploited by a threat actor, such as an attacker, to cross privilege boundaries (ie perform unauthorized actions) within a computer system To exploit a vulnerability, an attacker must have at least one applicable tool or technique that can connect to a system weakness In this frame, vulnerabilities are also known as the attack surface Vulnerability management is a cyclical practice that varies in theory but contains common processes which include: discover all assets, prioritize assets, assess or perform a complete vulnerability scan, report on results, remediate vulnerabilities, verify remediation - repeat
Network vulnerability scan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia