A company’s attack surface is any area of their network that is susceptible to malicious threats. The smaller an attack surface is, the easier it is to protect your company’s sensitive data.Â
Yet the typical attack surface is growing for every company in the world. Organizations must now implement a strategic protection plan and modern technology, or risk not only losing sensitive data to cyber threats, but falling foul of data privacy laws as well.
In this blog we will dive into exactly what attack surface management is and what technologies are critical to its success in 2023.
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What is attack surface management?
Attack surface management is the process of identifying, analyzing, and managing the various vulnerabilities and potential entry points that an attacker could use to gain access to a network or system.
By using a combination of people, processes, best practices and technology, the goal of attack surface management is to reduce the overall attack surface of a network or system, making it more difficult for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities and gain unauthorized access.
Attack surface management has changed dramatically in recent years. As organizations have evolved in how they do business and how they operate, the traditional approach of securing a company’s traditional walls and perimeter no longer works.
New threats, a reliance on connected systems, cloud applications and distributed work environments have all contributed to an ever-expanding and complicated attack surface that has increased cyber risk.Â
Successful attack surface management today involves the implementation of technology in three primary areas of innovation:Â
- cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM);
- digital risk protection services (DRPS);
- and external attack surface management (EASM).