Articles /
Attack Surface Management
Essentials for Every Organization
The lines between physical and digital spaces have blurred, creating a vast landscape where businesses operate. This offers unprecedented opportunities while exposing organizations to a rapidly expanding set of vulnerabilities, collectively known as the attack surface. As every device, application, and cloud instance potentially opens the door to malicious actors, managing this attack surface has become important in maintaining a strong security posture.
Attack Surface Management (ASM) is the answer to this challenge. By continuously monitoring, analyzing, and mitigating risks across all entry points, ASM enables organizations to stay ahead of potential threats. American Technology Services (ATS) understands that proactivity is key to cybersecurity. Our ASM-driven solutions deliver visibility and protection for your digital assets.
Understanding Attack Surface Management
What is Attack Surface Management?
Attack Surface Management (ASM) refers to the continuous process of discovering, analyzing, prioritizing, remediating, and monitoring all the potential entry points—or attack vectors—within an organization’s digital environment. Unlike traditional security measures that often focus on defending against known threats, ASM operates from the perspective of a potential attacker. It seeks to identify all possible vulnerabilities, whether they are known or unknown, across internal and external assets.
The Core Components of Attack Surface Management
ASM can be broken down into five essential components, each serving a crucial role in safeguarding an organization’s digital presence:
- Discovery
This is the foundational step where all assets—hardware, software, cloud services—connected to the organization’s network are identified. This includes known assets, like company-owned devices and applications, and unknown assets, such as shadow IT or orphaned systems that may have been overlooked. - Analysis
Once identified, these assets are meticulously analyzed for vulnerabilities. This involves assessing the security posture of each asset, understanding its connections within the network, and identifying any misconfigurations, outdated software, or other weaknesses that could be exploited. - Prioritization
Not all vulnerabilities pose the same level of risk. ASM involves evaluating the potential impact of each vulnerability and prioritizing them based on factors such as ease of exploitation, the sensitivity of the affected data, and the potential damage to the organization. - Remediation
After vulnerabilities are prioritized, they must be addressed promptly. This could involve applying security patches, reconfiguring settings, decommissioning outdated systems, or implementing new security controls to mitigate the identified risks. - Monitoring
The attack surface is dynamic, constantly changing as new assets are added or existing ones are modified. Continuous monitoring ensures new vulnerabilities are identified and addressed as they emerge, keeping the organization’s defenses robust and up to date.
Why Attack Surface Management Matters More Than Ever
The traditional perimeter-based security model, which relied on a well-defined network boundary, is no longer sufficient in an era where cloud computing, remote work, and IoT devices have become the norm. ASM addresses this challenge by providing a holistic view of an organization’s attack surface, both internal and external, and ensuring that every potential entry point is secured.
Challenges of an Expanding Attack Surface
Information technology and digital communications have undergone a seismic shift in recent years. Organizations are no longer confined to a single, centralized network. Instead, they operate across a vast array of environments, from public clouds and private data centers to remote workstations and IoT devices. This shift has resulted in a rapidly expanding attack surface, making it increasingly difficult for organizations to track all their digital assets, exposures, and vulnerabilities.
Cloud adoption has been a significant driver of this expansion. While cloud services offer flexibility and scalability, they also introduce new security challenges. Misconfigured cloud storage, unpatched vulnerabilities, and shadow IT are just a few examples of how an organization’s digital footprint can grow out of control, especially if it is self-managing its cloud resources. Additionally, the rise of remote work has introduced countless personal devices into corporate networks, each representing a potential point of entry for attackers.
ATS’ Approach to ASM
ATS recognizes that the first step in securing an organization’s digital environment is gaining complete visibility into all connected assets, both known and unknown. Our Attack Surface Management approach in our MSSP solutions is designed to discover and map these assets, providing a clear picture of where vulnerabilities might exist. By continuously monitoring this landscape, ATS ensures that organizations can swiftly identify and address emerging threats before they can be exploited.
Core Functions of Attack Surface Management and How They Work
Discovery: Identifying Every Corner of Your Digital Footprint
The discovery phase of ASM is akin to spotlighting every asset within an organization’s network, from the most obvious to the most obscure. This process involves scanning and identifying all internet-facing assets, including hardware, software, cloud services, and third-party systems interacting with the organization’s network. The goal is to leave no stone unturned, ensuring every potential entry point is accounted for.
This is vital in environments where shadow IT—unauthorized hardware or software—may be used. Without proper oversight, these assets can easily fall under the radar, becoming prime targets for attackers. ATS’ discovery tools are designed to uncover these hidden assets, bringing them into the fold of the organization’s security strategy.
Mapping: Understanding Connections and Context
Once assets are discovered, the next step is to map them within the organization’s digital ecosystem. This process involves categorizing assets by type, ownership, and connection to other parts of the network. By understanding these relationships, organizations can better assess the potential impact of a vulnerability within one asset on the rest of the network.
Mapping also helps assign responsibility for each asset to the appropriate business unit or subsidiary. This ensures that security efforts are coordinated across the organization, with clear ownership of each component. ATS’ ASM capabilities integrate with our existing Security Operations Center (SOC) functions and solutions, enhancing our ability to respond to incidents swiftly and effectively.
Prioritization: Focusing on What Matters Most
Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. Some may pose a minor risk, while others could lead to catastrophic breaches. The prioritization phase of ASM involves evaluating the severity of each identified vulnerability based on its potential impact, ease of exploitation, and the sensitivity of the affected data.
This risk-based approach allows organizations to allocate resources efficiently, focusing on the most critical threats. ATS provides Vulnerability and Penetration Testing (VAPT) solutions that apply advanced risk assessment techniques, including threat intelligence and real-world attack simulations, to clearly understand which vulnerabilities require immediate attention.
Remediation: Closing the Gaps
After vulnerabilities have been prioritized, the next step is remediation—taking action to mitigate or eliminate the identified risks. This could involve patching software, reconfiguring security settings, or retiring obsolete systems. The goal is to reduce the attack surface by addressing the vulnerabilities that present the most significant risk.
ATS’ ASM-focused solutions provide remediation workflows, ensuring critical vulnerabilities are addressed quickly and consistently. ATS helps organizations streamline their remediation efforts, reducing the window of opportunity for attackers.
Monitoring: Staying Vigilant with ASM
The attack surface is not static; it evolves as new assets are added, existing ones are modified, and the threat landscape changes. Continuous monitoring is essential to maintaining an up-to-date view of the organization’s digital environment. This allows the ATS security teams to detect new vulnerabilities as they emerge and respond to them in real time.
ATS provides 24/7 monitoring, alerting organizations to any changes in their attack surface that could pose a risk. This approach keeps organizations one step ahead of potential threats, securing their digital assets, intellectual property, and client data.
Emerging Trends in ASM
The future of Attack Surface Management is being shaped by several emerging trends, including the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This is a double-edged sword: adversaries are capitalizing on technological advances to find more sophisticated ways to attack, while cybersecurity providers, like ATS, are harnessing new technologies to provide modern, near-real time-responsive threat detection and response. Incorporation of these technologies allows for more sophisticated analysis of vulnerabilities and more accurate prediction of potential attack vectors, enabling MSSPs to stay ahead of increasingly complex threats.
Another significant trend is the growing importance of External Attack Surface Management (EASM). As organizations expand their digital presence through cloud services, third-party partnerships, and remote workforces, the need to monitor and secure external assets has never been greater. EASM focuses on identifying and mitigating risks associated with internet-facing assets, ensuring that organizations are protected from threats that originate outside their traditional network boundaries.
ATS understands that the future of ASM demands collaboration among security teams, business units, and external partners. That’s why we’re dedicated to delivering cybersecurity solutions that protect your organization and enable your teams to work more efficiently.