Attack Surface Management Software: Why it’s Critical for Cybersecurity

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posted on 2 weeks ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Our Assetnote Attack Surface Management tool gives organizations the power to monitor their external attack surface and dark web exposure.

In this blog we discuss why Attack Surface Management software is critical for businesses who want to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals and lower the risk of vulnerabilities being exploited.

Attack Surface Management and its role in cyber threat protection

Cyberattacks are relentless so understanding it’s more important than ever that organizations understand their exposure to these attacks. This is where Attacks Surface Management (ASM) software plays a critical role. ASM software provides continuous visibility into an organization’s digital footprint across both its known and unknown assets. This helps security teams identify, monitor, and reduce vulnerabilities and open doors for cybercriminals before they are exploited.

Our Assetnote Attack Surface Management tool gives organizations the power to monitor their external attack surface and dark web exposure. Threat actors are exploiting new exploits faster than ever. The tool automatically scans millions of assets from a single seed domain, simulating the tactics of a criminal to ensure you’re alerted first when credible threats are discovered, including:

Continuous monitoring and discovery of external assets.
Detection of cloud services, third-party tools, and shadow IT.
Identification of ephemeral and risky assets.
Ongoing change monitoring and cloud integration for easy asset management.

Rather than waiting for threats to breach the perimeter, ASM software helps organizations stay one step ahead by minimizing the attack surface.

ASM and its need in modern businesses

Organizations are growing their library of digital assets – from cloud infrastructure and SaaS applications to third-party platforms and remote endpoints, the modern attack surface is not confined to a traditional network perimeter. Every new domain, APO, web app, or vendor integration increases the digital footprint and adds more risk.

While the increased use of the digital assets isn’t the overarching issue, what makes it dangerous is the assets that appear off the radar of IT and security teams or are misconfigured. Shadow IT, exposed cloud buckets, and poorly secured web services are products and tools that can quietly increase exposure and become open doors for cybercriminals.

With this in mind, it’s clear that Attack Surface Management software is critical for modern businesses. It enables organizations to gain a holistic view of their entire digital footprint and their digital assets, allowing them to map it continuously and prioritize the riskiest exposures before attackers do. Gaps in visibility often lead to breaches and ASM helps to close them before they escalate.

ASM and its need in modern businesses

Automation and AI-powered insights

While a large part of ASM is discovering assets, it’s also important security teams understand the information ASM tools provide to ensure they can at speed. This is where automation and AI-driven analysis is important. With the number of assets organizations need to monitor, manual investigation can’t keep up.

The Assetnote Attack Surface Management tool uses continuous, automated scanning combined with analytics that identifies high-risk exposures as they appear. But the tool also highlights insights to prioritize the risks that matter the most. Not every vulnerability is born equal, so the additional layer of intelligence helps to reduce the noise and gives security teams the chance to hone in on vulnerabilities that attackers are most likely to exploit.

Ultimately, automation in ASM tools tells you what needs action and why. This speeds up decision making and reduces alert fatigue, helping organizations focus their potentially limited resources to where they are really needed.

How does ASM improve an organization’s security posture?

The power of ASM is its ability for organizations to go from defensive to proactive. Instead of waiting for vulnerabilities to be exploited, ASM allows businesses to take control of their exposures before attackers have the chance to act.

This proactive stance leads to improvements in an organization’s overall security posture:

Fewer blind spots by using ASM to discover and monitor shadow IT, forgotten assets, and misconfigured services.

Faster response which means businesses can address exposures as they appear – not weeks later.

More strategic focus to help prioritize incident response based on the level of vulnerability.
Not only this, reducing the likelihood of a breach also helps organizations meet compliance requirements. Standards like ISO 27001, NIST CSF, or SOC 2 require organizations to demonstrate control over their information systems, including asset inventories, vulnerability management, and risk assessment. ASM provides the visibility and evidence needed to meet those requirements.

Implementing ASM into a cybersecurity strategy

Selecting the appropriate ASM tool requires businesses to evaluate both the tool’s features and its compatibility with their operational processes. Organizations should consider the following when choosing an ASM solution:

Scalability
Businesses should factor in the potential growth of their organization when looking for an ASM tool, and select the one that can scale with them as their digital footprint expands.

Integration
An organization’s chosen ASM tool should seamlessly integrate with existing security tools like vulnerability scanners, ticketing systems, and incident response platforms. There is no use selecting a tool for the organizations then having to create workarounds for different platforms to talk to each other.

Cost
While cost is an important factor when choosing an ASM tool, organizations should also consider the cost of not having an ASM tool. These considerations should include the cost of a cyberattack, ransomware demands, legal requirements that may be needed, and even compensation for any customers that may be affected by an attack. Only after adding all of these costs up can a business weigh up whether an ASM tool is right for them.