According to Gartner’s report on ‘Innovation Insight for Attack Surface Management (ASM)’, which covers the growing need faced by security teams to manage an expanding attack surface. Gartner addresses  the ‘Top Trends in Cybersecurity 2022’ where it reports that security and risk management leaders ‘anticipate the continuous expansion of the enterprise attack surface, and increase investment in processes and tools…’ Gartner advises that going forward, organizations;

• Rethink their security technology stack to address sophisticated new threats.
• Push cybersecurity decision making out to the business units to improve their security posture.
• Evolve and reframe the security practice to better manage cyber risk.

Given the evolving nature of technology adoption, attack surfaces for business enterprises are expanding. Technology risks associated with the use of IoT, open-source code, cloud applications, any internet-facing systems, complex digital supply chains, social media and more have led to the exposure of organizations’ surfaces. The growth of containerization, SaaS applications and the hybrid workforce have all led to an expansion, and the development of new attack surfaces to identify and protect. Enterprises are bound to look beyond traditional approaches to security monitoring, detection and response to manage a wider set of security exposures.

What Is ASM?

Attack Surface Management (ASM) is the continuous discovery, inventory, classification, prioritization, and monitoring of an organization’s attack surface from an external attacker’s perspective. This emerging cybersecurity technology helps organizations to identify internet and attacker-exposed IT assets as well as to monitor them for unexpected changes and vulnerabilities (i.e., blind spots, misconfigurations, process failures) that increase the risk of attacks.

From the external attacker’s perspective, it’s easy for security teams to prioritize those assets for remediation based on their level of attack ability.

The increasing ransomware and supply chain attacks along with recommendations by analysts like Gartner have made ASM one of the top cybersecurity priorities for CISOs and security teams in recent times.

Attack Surface Management (ASM) is also referred to as External Attack Surface Management (EASM). Another emerging technology is Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM). It helps security teams solve persistent asset visibility and vulnerability issues.

What Is an Attack Surface?

The attack surface is referred to as all organizations’ internet-accessible hardware, software, SaaS, and cloud assets that an adversary could discover, attack, and use to breach a company.

Why should you consider having ASM in Your Company’s cybersecurity program?

Given the volatile landscape and the evolution of both threat types and threat vectors. The organization needs threat intelligence insights to stay ahead of attackers and fortify your critical assets more than ever. The following are some of the great benefits why ASM should be part of your cybersecurity program;

1. Find Unknowns & Prioritize Top Targets. With an ever-changing attack surface, it’s impractical to keep track of all targets. External ASM allows the organization’s security team to focus on assets that can be weaponized by attackers, reducing operational noise
2. Harden and Reduce Your Attack Surface. Knowing what’s exposed to threats also enables the security team to secure the top assets. Hence, successfully hardening and reducing the attack surface in line with the company’s security best practices.
3. Strengthen Your Cybersecurity Posture. With ASM continuously monitoring the attack surface for new changes in technology and vulnerabilities. The security team and company will get better at predicting and preventing cyber threats.

 Conclusion

The tangible benefits of ASM to organizations help security leaders with important insights, prioritization and reduction in team workload. CAASM and ASA tools help to align security, IT and GRC teams. This is so by providing a unified view of assets, cyber-risk and business applications. This creates better organizational alignment and focuses on delivering key cyber objectives. Another critical benefit is the concept of actionable intelligence. This is where automation is critical. Security leaders need CAASM & ASA tools to solve problems, not just highlight them, visibility cannot be enough.

To be continued…