CAASM (Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management)
CAASM, or Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management, is a security guardian for organizations that provides a comprehensive view of their digital attack surface. It achieves this through internal and external scans, allowing security teams to identify and manage vulnerabilities proactively.
Here's how CAASM flexes its muscles internally:
Discovery and Inventory: CAASM acts like a digital bloodhound, sniffing all connected devices and systems within the network. It includes servers, desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and Internet-of-things (IoT) gadgets. It builds a detailed inventory, creating a central source of truth for IT and security teams.
Vulnerability Assessment: CAASM continues after the assets are identified. It delves deeper, analyzing each asset for known vulnerabilities. It can include missing security patches, outdated software, and misconfigurations. Security teams can prioritize which threats to address by pinpointing these weaknesses.
Continuous Monitoring: CAASM isn't a one-time scan. It maintains a watchful eye, continuously monitoring the network for new devices, changes in existing ones, and the emergence of new vulnerabilities. It ensures your organization stays ahead of potential threats.
Externally, CAASM extends its reach beyond the company firewall:
Cloud Security: Many organizations leverage cloud-based services. CAASM can extend its gaze to these external assets, identifying vulnerabilities in cloud servers and applications. It helps ensure a holistic view of the attack surface beyond the traditional network perimeter.
Public-Facing Applications: CAASM doesn't neglect publicly accessible applications. It scans these applications to uncover weaknesses attackers could exploit on the internet. By identifying these external vulnerabilities, organizations can prevent breaches before they happen.
Exposed Data: Has your organization's sensitive data been inadvertently exposed online? CAASM can help identify such leaks, minimizing the potential damage from a data breach.
How does CAASM achieve all this?
Here's the secret sauce:
Data Integration: CAASM integrates various security tools and network devices, pulling data on assets and vulnerabilities. This consolidated view gives a more complete picture of the attack surface.
Automation: CAASM automates many tasks, freeing up security teams' time. This includes vulnerability scanning, data analysis, and even reporting.
Threat Intelligence: Some CAASM solutions incorporate intelligence feeds, updating them on the latest hacking tactics and known vulnerabilities.
By combining these capabilities, CAASM empowers organizations to proactively manage their attack surface, both internally and externally, ultimately strengthening their overall cybersecurity posture.
ThreatNG & CAASM: A Collaborative Defense
ThreatNG, as an External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solution, and a CAASM (Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management) platform can work together to create a robust security posture. Here's how:
Focus and Integration:
ThreatNG: Focuses solely on external threats, like vulnerabilities in public-facing applications, cloud misconfigurations, and exposed data leaks. It scans the internet to identify these external risks.
CAASM: Focuses on both internal and external attack surfaces. Internally, it identifies vulnerabilities in devices and systems. Externally, it might cover exposed cloud servers, but ThreatNG offers a deeper dive into these external areas.
Integration and Workflow:
Continuous Monitoring: Both solutions constantly monitor their respective areas. ThreatNG scans the internet for external risks, while CAASM monitors internal vulnerabilities and external assets like cloud servers.
Threat Detection: When either system detects a threat, it generates an alert. ThreatNG might find a vulnerability in a publicly accessible application, while CAASM might identify a misconfigured cloud server.
Information Sharing: The systems share threat data. ThreatNG can send details about the external vulnerability to CAASM, while CAASM can provide context, such as internal dependencies on the vulnerable cloud server.
Prioritization and Remediation: Security teams leverage the combined data to prioritize threats. For instance, if a critical application has a vulnerability discovered by ThreatNG, and CAASM reveals internal systems rely heavily on that application, it becomes a high-priority issue.
Action and Reporting: Security teams can then take action to remediate the threats. It could involve patching the vulnerable application (ThreatNG's finding) or fixing the misconfiguration in the cloud server (CAASM's finding). Both systems can track remediation progress and generate reports for management.
Complementary Solutions:
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): SIEM aggregates data from various security tools, including CAASM and ThreatNG. It provides a central view of all security events, helping analysts correlate information and identify potential breaches.
Vulnerability Management (VM): VM tools focus on patching vulnerabilities within the organization's network. CAASM identifies these vulnerabilities, and VM tools help deploy and track the patches.
Example: Exposed Customer Data
ThreatNG identifies an exposed database containing customer email addresses on a public server.
ThreatNG shares this information with CAASM, which identifies the server belongs to a third-party vendor used for customer relationship management (CRM).
Security teams investigated and discovered the vendor misconfigured the server, exposing the data.
They contact the vendor and work with them to secure the server.
This combined approach ensures comprehensive security coverage, with ThreatNG focusing on external threats and CAASM providing a broader internal and external view.