Security policy discovery, in the context of cybersecurity, refers to identifying and understanding an organization's security policies, which are documented guidelines and procedures for protecting its sensitive information and systems. These policies outline the rules and regulations for managing access control, data security, incident response, and other security-related aspects.

Discovering security policies is crucial for various reasons:

• Understanding Security Posture: Security policies provide valuable insights into an organization's security practices and controls, helping assess their overall security posture and identify potential weaknesses.

• Ensuring Compliance: Organizations must comply with various regulatory requirements and industry standards, and security policies outline how they meet these obligations.

• Incident Response: In case of a security incident, security policies guide incident response procedures, ensuring a coordinated and effective response.

• Risk Management: Security policies help organizations identify and assess potential risks, enabling them to implement appropriate security controls and mitigation strategies.

• User Awareness: Security policies educate employees and users about their security responsibilities, promoting a security-conscious culture.

Importance of discovering security policies via security.txt:

The security.txt file can play a significant role in policy discovery by directly linking to an organization's security policy document. This allows security researchers, auditors, and other stakeholders to access and review the organization's security policies, promoting transparency and facilitating a better understanding of their security practices.

By including a link to their security policy in security.txt, organizations demonstrate a commitment to security and responsible disclosure, encouraging trust and collaboration with the security community. This can lead to more efficient vulnerability reporting, faster remediation, and a more assertive overall security posture.

ThreatNG, an all-in-one external attack surface management, digital risk protection, and security ratings solution, offers robust capabilities for security policy discovery, mainly through its external discovery, assessment, and reporting features.

External Discovery and Assessment: ThreatNG's external discovery capabilities enable it to identify and collect security.txt files without requiring authentication or internal system access. The platform then performs an external assessment, automatically extracting and analyzing the information within these files to identify links to security policies. This allows ThreatNG users to gain insights into the organization's security practices and controls, helping assess their overall security posture and identify potential weaknesses.

Reporting, Continuous Monitoring, and Investigation Modules: ThreatNG incorporates the discovered security policy links into various reports, providing valuable context for security teams and decision-makers. The platform also continuously monitors security.txt files for changes, ensuring that any updates to security policies are promptly identified and reflected in the risk assessment. ThreatNG's investigation modules can use this information to delve deeper into specific security aspects, such as the organization's overall security posture and vulnerability management processes.

Intelligence Repositories and Complementary Solutions: ThreatNG enriches its intelligence repositories with information extracted from security.txt files, enhancing its ability to assess and track security policy disclosures across different organizations. This information can also be shared with complementary solutions, such as vulnerability scanners and SIEM systems, to improve their effectiveness and facilitate security policy analysis.

Examples of ThreatNG Helping:

• A security researcher uses ThreatNG to quickly access an organization's security policy by extracting the link from its security.txt file, gaining insights into security practices and responsible disclosure procedures.

• A company uses ThreatNG to monitor changes in its vendors' security.txt files, staying informed about any updates to their security policies and ensuring alignment with their security standards.

• A security team uses ThreatNG to assess an organization's security program's maturity by analyzing its security policy's availability and comprehensiveness and identifying potential areas for improvement.

By automating the discovery and analysis of security policy information, ThreatNG empowers organizations and security researchers to understand and assess security practices effectively, promoting transparency, collaboration, and a more assertive overall security posture.