Attack Surface Management Solutions
What is Attack Surface Management?
As threats to corporate data networks evolve, top-performing businesses respond by investing in attack surface management (ASM). This process identifies the “attack surfaces” or security risks that make internal and external business network assets vulnerable to hackers. According to industry studies, the market for ASM software has a projected CAGR of 31.3%, which means it will be worth over $5.745 billion by 2030.
In addition to assessing their onsite networks for risk exposure, businesses must expand their field of view to their offsite, remote, and cloud assets to mitigate their cyberattack risk. Attack surface management provides the means to identify, manage, and optimize security solutions across a complex network ecosystem, including adapting to security management systems such as SIEM for thorough coverage.
To deploy and optimize ASM systems in your business, consider these benefits of modern attack surface management software in a modern network setting.
How Does Attack Surface Management Work?
Attack surface management allows businesses to maintain visibility over a diverse data network, including identifying, logging, and assessing exposure risks for IT assets. For modern companies, these assets include:
On-site Network Infrastructure
Includes private and cloud networks that allow administrators to connect company systems, provision employee devices, and manage on-site company networks.
Connected Devices
Includes employee phones and laptops, external servers, and devices connected via the IoT, including business security systems, vehicle monitoring systems, digital payment systems, employee badges, and more.
Company Websites
Includes public eCommerce stores, internal employee management sites, and any other site hosted by the company’s network.
Software Applications
Includes APIs, web/mobile apps, and any applications accessible on the company’s off-site network.
Cloud Environments
Includes private, public, and hybrid cloud infrastructure used in business operations on and off-site.
These dispersed applications represent a business’s “attack surface” or the network areas vulnerable to hacking attempts. This list is not exhaustive, as companies can encounter new insider threats, attacks through third-party supply chain software, new phishing scams, and more. While manual security methods struggle to keep up with new network entry points, ASM systems adapt to this unpredictability by integrating network, mobile applications, third-party systems, and IoT devices into one security framework.
What are the Benefits of ASM?
Attack surface management empowers businesses to respond to hackers and protect previously invisible assets from unwanted access. As companies adopt new infrastructure and their number of assets and endpoints grows, ASM provides these important benefits:
Visibility
Attack surface management allows network supervisors to view more of the network at once and scale security solutions to match network growth. This is especially important for companies expecting rapid network growth or those with uncertain network workloads since real-time visibility allows for quick network adaption when new security needs arise.
Minimization
By minimizing entry points, businesses equipped with ASM systems can reduce their risk despite scaling up their network infrastructure. Versatile ASM systems log internet-facing entry points, including their risk level, to comprehensively record the business’s vulnerabilities.
Versatility
Cloud architecture is constantly changing. Even a new company credit card can expand the attack surface and reveal new vulnerabilities to which manual security measures are slow to adapt. ASM adapts in real-time to new network entry points to secure assets from threats before they create new security gaps. Most data threats occur due to unknown asset vulnerabilities, making versatile network coverage more important as businesses scale their operations.
Unlike the corporate networks of the past, modern cloud environments no longer have network perimeters that prevent off-site access. Both private and public devices require constant access to company data assets, making it essential to deploy and update ASM workflows as the business grows.
Integration With Other Tools
Exhaustive network security solutions should integrate with existing frameworks to monitor all possible entry points and efficiently deploy threat response solutions. Security information and event management systems (SIEM) represent one such threat detection point that ASM systems should cover.
Other considerations include extended detection and response systems (XDR), security operations centers (SOC), security orchestration automation and response (SOAR), and other software solutions. When integrated, these systems can collect information on threats, secure network endpoints, and automate security responses to save manual security teams time that can be devoted to more complex, emergent threats.
Contact an Experienced Cybersecurity Firm to Optimize ASM Processes Across Your Business’s Network Infrastructure
As the attack surface grows due to adopting new cloud infrastructure or increasing its device capacity, businesses inevitably lose security coverage over their network without deploying more advanced solutions. Attack surface management systems integrate with existing platforms to adapt the network to cybersecurity gaps, reducing entry points, identifying and fixing application vulnerabilities, implementing authentication controls, and monitoring the network for emerging threats.
A security team experienced with deploying ASM solutions in businesses of all sizes can customize the security solution to your network. Contact our team at Advantage.Tech today to learn how our comprehensive network security solutions protect valuable company data from evolving network security threats.
