In cybersecurity, Attack Surface Management (ASM) is a proactive approach to discovering, analyzing, prioritizing, and remediating potential security vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit. Here's a breakdown:

Core Concepts:

• Attack Surface:

• This refers to the number of potential entry points where an unauthorized user (attacker) could attempt to access a system or network. It includes digital assets such as websites, applications, cloud environments, and network devices.

• ASM's Purpose:

• ASM aims to provide organizations with a comprehensive view of their attack surface, enabling them to identify and address weaknesses before they can be exploited.

• It's about understanding your vulnerabilities from an attacker's perspective.

• Key Processes:

• Asset Discovery involves identifying and cataloging all assets that comprise the organization's IT infrastructure, including those that may be unknown or "shadow IT."

• Vulnerability Assessment involves analyzing these assets for potential weaknesses, such as software flaws, misconfigurations, and exposed services.

• Risk Prioritization: Determining the severity of identified vulnerabilities and prioritizing remediation efforts based on their potential impact.

• Remediation: Addressing vulnerabilities, such as patching software, updating configurations, or implementing stronger security controls.

• Continuous Monitoring: Maintaining ongoing visibility into the attack surface to detect new vulnerabilities and changes in risk.

Why ASM is Important:

• The increasing complexity of modern IT environments, including cloud computing, remote work, and the Internet of Things (IoT), has significantly expanded organizations' attack surfaces.

• ASM helps organizations avoid evolving threats by proactively identifying and mitigating risks.

• It provides a more holistic view of security than traditional vulnerability management, which often focuses on internal systems.

In essence, ASM is about identifying and maintaining visibility into all the places where your organization could be attacked and then taking steps to close those gaps.

ThreatNG can significantly help with Attack Surface Management (ASM) by providing a comprehensive suite of capabilities that cover discovery, assessment, reporting, continuous monitoring, and investigation. Here's how ThreatNG aligns with ASM needs:

External Discovery

ThreatNG excels at external discovery by identifying and analyzing all internet-facing assets of an organization without requiring any internal access or agents. This unauthenticated approach allows for an actual attacker's perspective, revealing vulnerabilities that internal scans might miss.

External Assessment

ThreatNG provides in-depth external assessment through various security ratings that evaluate susceptibility to different attack vectors. Here are some examples:

• Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: This rating analyzes the external components of web applications to identify potential weaknesses that attackers could exploit to take control. For example, it might detect outdated software versions, unpatched vulnerabilities, or insecure configurations in web servers or frameworks.

• Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: This rating assesses the risk of attackers taking over unused or improperly configured subdomains. By analyzing DNS records, SSL certificates, and other factors, ThreatNG can identify vulnerable subdomains that could be used for phishing, malware distribution, or other malicious activities.

• Data Leak Susceptibility: This rating evaluates the likelihood of sensitive data being exposed through various channels, such as cloud misconfigurations, dark web leaks, or social media posts. ThreatNG analyzes cloud and SaaS exposures, dark web presence, and other factors to determine the risk of data leaks.

Reporting

ThreatNG offers various reporting options to cater to different audiences and needs. These reports provide insights into the organization's security posture, risk levels, and remediation priorities.

Continuous Monitoring

ThreatNG continuously monitors all organizations' external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings, providing real-time visibility into changes and emerging threats. This allows security teams to address new vulnerabilities and risks as they arise proactively.

Investigation Modules

ThreatNG provides powerful investigation modules that enable deep dives into specific areas of concern. Here are two examples:

• Domain Intelligence: This module provides comprehensive insights into an organization's domain, including DNS records, subdomains, email configurations, and TLS certificates. It can uncover vulnerabilities such as subdomain takeovers, misconfigured email security settings, or expired certificates.

• Sensitive Code Exposure: This module scans public code repositories for sensitive information such as API keys, access tokens, and database credentials. It helps identify and mitigate risks associated with accidental code leaks that could compromise critical systems or data.

Intelligence Repositories

ThreatNG maintains extensive intelligence repositories that provide valuable context and insights for risk assessment and threat analysis. These repositories include information on dark web activities, compromised credentials, ransomware events, known vulnerabilities, and ESG violations.

Working with Complementary Solutions

ThreatNG can integrate with other security solutions to provide a more holistic and layered security approach. For example, ThreatNG can complement:

• Vulnerability Scanners: ThreatNG provides external context and threat intelligence to help scanners prioritize vulnerabilities and focus remediation efforts on the most critical risks.

• Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems: ThreatNG can feed its findings into SIEM systems to provide a broader view of security events and enable more effective threat detection and response.

• Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG can enrich threat intelligence data from TIPs with its external attack surface and digital risk insights, enabling more accurate threat modeling and risk assessment.

Examples of ThreatNG Helping

• Identifying a Vulnerable Subdomain: ThreatNG's Subdomain Intelligence module could uncover a subdomain vulnerable to takeover due to a misconfigured DNS record. This allows the organization to remediate the issue before attackers can exploit it.

• Detecting a Leaked API Key: ThreatNG's Sensitive Code Exposure module could find an API key accidentally exposed in a public code repository. This enables the organization to revoke the key and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.

• Monitoring for Brand Impersonation: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring capabilities could detect a phishing website impersonating the organization's brand. This allows the organization to remove the website and protect its customers from fraud.

Examples of ThreatNG Working with Complementary Solutions

• Integrating with a Vulnerability Scanner: ThreatNG could identify a high-risk vulnerability in a web application that was also flagged by a vulnerability scanner. By combining the external context from ThreatNG with the technical details from the scanner, the organization can prioritize patching this vulnerability to mitigate the risk of exploitation.

• Correlating with SIEM Events: ThreatNG could detect suspicious activity on a subdomain, such as a sudden increase in traffic or unusual login attempts. This information can be correlated with SIEM events to identify potential attacks and trigger appropriate responses.

• Enriching Threat Intelligence: ThreatNG could identify a new ransomware group targeting organizations in a specific industry. This information could be used to enrich threat intelligence data and improve the accuracy of risk assessments for those organizations.

By combining its powerful capabilities with complementary solutions, ThreatNG provides a comprehensive and proactive approach to Attack Surface Management, enabling organizations to identify, assess, and mitigate external threats effectively.