Cyber Strategy
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Cyber ResilienceIn today’s digital world, information security and cybersecurity have become a major concern for organizations of all kinds. From small businesses to large corporations, everyone is in one way or another exposed to threats. In order to protect your company from cyberattacks, you need to implement effective security measures.
Securing an organization’s digital assets against cyberattacks requires a multipronged approach. Understanding the different types of attacks and mapping out where those attacks could come from are just some of the many factors that must be considered before designing a security strategy. In this article, we will discuss what attack surface management is and how it helps you secure your organization from cyberattacks.
In today’s digital world, information security and cybersecurity have become a major concern for organizations of all kinds. From small businesses to large corporations, everyone is in one way or another exposed to threats. In order to protect your company from cyberattacks, you need to implement effective security measures.
Securing an organization’s digital assets against cyberattacks requires a multipronged approach. Understanding the different types of attacks and mapping out where those attacks could come from are just some of the many factors that must be considered before designing a security strategy. In this article, we will discuss what attack surface management is and how it helps you secure your organization from cyberattacks.
What is Attack Surface Management?
Attack surface management (ASM) is a strategy that helps organizations proactively identify and secure the points of entry that hackers can use to get unauthorized access to their systems. This threat management strategy is not merely about keeping intruders out, but also identifying and eliminating potential vulnerabilities before an intruder can exploit them. Attack surface management is a crucial step in implementing a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. It’s the process of uncovering and laying out all the possible points of entry into an organization’s network, and then determining the resources needed to defend those points.
What is Attack Surface Management?
Attack surface management (ASM) is a strategy that helps organizations proactively identify and secure the points of entry that hackers can use to get unauthorized access to their systems. This threat management strategy is not merely about keeping intruders out, but also identifying and eliminating potential vulnerabilities before an intruder can exploit them. Attack surface management is a crucial step in implementing a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. It’s the process of uncovering and laying out all the possible points of entry into an organization’s network, and then determining the resources needed to defend those points.
How Does Attack Surface Management Work?
Human beings are highly adaptive creatures. We are flexible, adaptive, and opportunistic. We learn from our mistakes and try to improve our behavior. And this is precisely what attackers do. When they break into a network, they look for the weakest points in the system’s defenses to gain access and begin to steal data. Attackers can use many methods to get access to a network. These methods include getting employees to click on malicious links, opening email attachments, or replying to fake email messages. Others may consist of gaining physical access to a network or using a compromised computer. Attackers can exploit each of these entry points to gain access to a system.
To counter these adaptive measure of threat actors, attack surface management introduces strategies and techniques to identify, lay out and secure these potential vulnerabilities of the organization’s system, and the systems themselves.
Attack surface management occurs in 3 main phases:
- Assessment and evaluation of security posture:
Security personnel conduct a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of their IT systems by testing the system against simulation of common attacks. - Identification of Vulnerabilities:
While carrying out the assessment, the security professionals must identify irregularities and take note of all areas of the system that appear that is vulnerable to common, as well as advanced attacks. - Protection of IT system against known vulnerabilities:
It is not uncommon to find many loopholes in an IT system. After identifying these loopholes, the security team must devise various multi-level plans to protect them. First, by minifying the attack surface as much as possible, then by having an effective response and recovery plan, in the case of an eventual breach.
How Does Attack Surface Management Work?
Human beings are highly adaptive creatures. We are flexible, adaptive, and opportunistic. We learn from our mistakes and try to improve our behavior. And this is precisely what attackers do. When they break into a network, they look for the weakest points in the system’s defenses to gain access and begin to steal data. Attackers can use many methods to get access to a network. These methods include getting employees to click on malicious links, opening email attachments, or replying to fake email messages. Others may consist of gaining physical access to a network or using a compromised computer. Attackers can exploit each of these entry points to gain access to a system.
To counter these adaptive measure of threat actors, attack surface management introduces strategies and techniques to identify, lay out and secure these potential vulnerabilities of the organization’s system, and the systems themselves.
Attack surface management occurs in 3 main phases:
- Assessment and evaluation of security posture: Security personnel conduct a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of their IT systems by testing the system against simulation of common attacks.
- Identification of Vulnerabilities: While carrying out the assessment, the security professionals must identify irregularities and take note of all areas of the system that appear that is vulnerable to common, as well as advanced attacks.
- Protection of IT system against known vulnerabilities: It is not uncommon to find many loopholes in an IT system. After identifying these loopholes, the security team must devise various multi-level plans to protect them. First, by minifying the attack surface as much as possible, then by having an effective response and recovery plan, in the case of an eventual breach.
Key Benefits of Attack Surface Management
- It helps to improve and make cybersecurity program strong and resilient:
Attack surface management can help organizations find vulnerable loopholes in their systems, then devise various countermeasures to stop threat actors from exploiting such vulnerabilities. Engaging in attack surface management is an avenue for cybersecurity teams in an organization to devise new strategies, techniques, and controls to improve their cybersecurity program and make their system more resilient against diverse forms of cyberattacks. - It helps to uncover vulnerabilities before attackers in time:
By evaluating and testing their system against numerous simulated forms of cyber threats, attack surface management helps organizations identify security vulnerabilities before intruders can exploit them.
- It helps the organization avoid unnecessary cost:
It also helps organizations reduce their security budgets by mapping out weaknesses and reducing the number of defenses required. Attack surface management helps organizations reduce their security budgets by mapping out weaknesses and reducing the number of unnecessary guards. - It increases visibility into the organization’s IT system:
Attack surface management prompts security teams to continuously monitor their IT system. Thereby leading to an increased visibility and understanding of their IT infrastructure. Consequently, this helps them quickly detect possible attacks, and respond faster to protect assets.
Key Benefits of Attack Surface Management
- It helps to improve and make cybersecurity program strong and resilient:
Attack surface management can help organizations find vulnerable loopholes in their systems, then devise various countermeasures to stop threat actors from exploiting such vulnerabilities. Engaging in attack surface management is an avenue for cybersecurity teams in an organization to devise new strategies, techniques, and controls to improve their cybersecurity program and make their system more resilient against diverse forms of cyberattacks. - It helps to uncover vulnerabilities before attackers in time:
By evaluating and testing their system against numerous simulated forms of cyber threats, attack surface management helps organizations identify security vulnerabilities before intruders can exploit them. - It helps the organization avoid unnecessary cost:
It also helps organizations reduce their security budgets by mapping out weaknesses and reducing the number of defenses required. Attack surface management helps organizations reduce their security budgets by mapping out weaknesses and reducing the number of unnecessary guards. - It increases visibility into the organization’s IT system:
Attack surface management prompts security teams to continuously monitor their IT system. Thereby leading to an increased visibility and understanding of their IT infrastructure. Consequently, this helps them quickly detect possible attacks, and respond faster to protect assets.
How to Implement and Execute an Attack Surface Management Program?
As with most things in cybersecurity, attack surface management is a process. You can efficiently implement attack surface management in your organization using the following process:
- Outline goals that align with your organizational policy
- Provision enough resources to optimally execute an attack surface’s management program.
- Periodically evaluate and assess the execution of the program. This will help you measure efficiency and allow you to quickly tweak things if they’re not working up to your projection.
- Integrate attack management techniques into your normal cybersecurity practices. From employee education and improved cybersecurity tools, you should position your organization’s cybersecurity practices such that, attack surface management will be a normal routine in your cybersecurity practices.
How to Implement and Execute an Attack Surface Management Program?
As with most things in cybersecurity, attack surface management is a process. You can efficiently implement attack surface management in your organization using the following process:
- Outline goals that align with your organizational policy
- Provision enough resources to optimally execute an attack surface’s management program.
- Periodically evaluate and assess the execution of the program. This will help you measure efficiency and allow you to quickly tweak things if they’re not working up to your projection.
- Integrate attack management techniques into your normal cybersecurity practices. From employee education and improved cybersecurity tools, you should position your organization’s cybersecurity practices such that, attack surface management will be a normal routine in your cybersecurity practices.
Tips for Success - Conclusion
Tips for Success - Conclusion
The modern threat ecosystem is increasingly smart, adaptive, and lethal. To keep your systems safe from cyber criminals, you must continuously reinvent your threat mitigation and defense with efficient practices and techniques. With attack surface management, you have an improved cybersecurity posture. The overall idea and goal of attack surface management is to identify vulnerabilities, then close or harden the entry points. Adopting attack surface management is a leap towards achieving a stable and resilient cybersecurity culture in your organization.
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