How Does Automated External Attack Surface Management Help IT Teams?

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The attack surface of any entity, business, or individual has drastically increased since the start of the pandemic.

With remote work possibilities and added complex systems such as multi-cloud environments, keeping up with flaws can be challenging.

From unsecured endpoint devices of remote workers to weak passwords that employees use to sign in to systems, hackers have plenty to work with. This doesn’t even include the data that can be found on the internet and used for social engineering attacks.

To ensure that they’re on top of things at all times, IT teams utilize External Attack Surface Management to detect and patch up flaws early.

What Does External Attack Surface Management Include?

External Attack Surface Management focuses on the frequently neglected part of the attack surface. This includes corporate intelligence, leaked data, and information about the users accessible online.

It combines machine learning and artificial intelligence to scan, estimate, and help IT teams to fix the flaws in the system. The EASM is applied in three phases:

• Discovery
• Analysis
• Mitigation

Discovery

The primary step in managing the attack surface is scanning for the likely attack vectors that could lead to a successful cyberattack or unauthorized access to devices.

While scanning for vulnerabilities, the focus is on both external and internal attack surfaces. That results in a complete picture and a comprehensive overview of any vectors.

Discovery of the internally present weaknesses includes looking for any weak passwords and the signs of unauthorized access to systems.

The tool is also continually updated to seek new weaknesses hackers could exploit that are depicted in the MITRE ATT&CK Framework.

Analysis

After the discovery of possible flaws that can lead to breaches of the system or have already resulted in a successful attack, the documentation has to be analyzed.

The attack surface is compared to its previous state and risks are rated from less to more severe.

With the management tools that are automated, it means that you get the report that estimates and separates the high risks that have to be remedied right away.

Mitigation

Mitigation includes creating patches to deal with the vulnerabilities that are waiting to be exploited or removing the threats that are already in the system.

For example, in the discovery phase, the tools could find that the employee passwords and emails have been leaked. They haven’t yet been used to gain unauthorized access to the network.

The solution is to force a password change and invest in basic cybersecurity training for your teams.

Another scenario could be that Trojan malware has been successfully injected into the network of the organization. The management tool noticed suspicious activity and attempted at adding additional malware to the system.

IT teams have to use the tools that are designed to quarantine the shells and remove any leftover parts of the virus from the network.

Why Is External Attack Surface Management Essential?

Proper management of the attack surface is important because it can:

• Aid overworked and overwhelmed IT teams
• Lead to early discovery of vulnerabilities
• Work for the unique needs of any company

Essentially, they ensure that the management is set to work for discovering the flaws within the unique surface and do so early.

Automation Doing the Legwork for IT Teams

Managing cybersecurity is dealing with an endless to-do list. It can leave teams wondering whether they’ve patched up the flaws that are most likely to result in incidents.

The report on the automated Attack Surface Management tools highlights only the most pressing weaknesses that have to be taken care of on a daily basis.

The focus on the high-risk issues instead of being bombarded with multiple alerts can aid the teams to shift their focus on the problems that have to be patched up right away.

After long hours, they’re less likely to make mistakes and disregard a notification as a false positive.

Another way the tool can be helpful for teams is that it can suggest solutions they can utilize to patch up the issues. While teams don’t have to closely follow these guidelines, they can aid them react with the proper measure and applying protocols on time.

Mitigating the Flaws Early

Discovering weaknesses in the systems must be done as early as possible before threat actors have the chance to exploit them and break the system.

The longer the system is exposed, the more costly the breach and the aftermath of the attack for any organization.

Automated management seeks flaws in real-time.

Calibrating the Management According to Specific Needs

The tool for managing the attack surface can be adjusted and calibrated to seek the issues that make sense for the specific system.

As companies use varied sets of tools and software to operate, they create a unique attack surface. This means that there can’t be a single management tool that is one size fits all and is ideal for any company out there.

Also, the important part of the management is checking if the patches that have been applied are working properly or whether they have opened up the organization to novel risks.

A tool that can be adapted to check specific solutions that have been applied confirms that the security you have improved is adequate.

Conclusion

Systems and networks nowadays have more possible vulnerabilities than ever before.

Cybercriminals can use common techniques to attack networks, but sometimes victims are chosen because of the information that can be found online.

Companies that have readily exploitable information are more likely to be the victims of an attack.

Therefore, security tools that IT teams utilize to manage systems should be able to keep up with the rapidly increasing attack surface, whether it’s internal or external.