External Attack Surface Management (EASM)
If you’re finding it difficult to manage the ever-growing complexities of your security perimeter, Rootshell’s External Attack Surface Management (EASM) is your solution. In the dynamic and constantly evolving environment of today’s world, all organizations are in a state of perpetual change and adaptation, whether they realize it or not.
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What is External Attack Surface Management?
External Attack Surface Management (EASM) is an essential component of modern cybersecurity strategies. It involves identifying, analyzing, and securing an organization’s digital assets that are exposed to the internet, and therefore, to potential external threats (US statistics for external threats). This concept extends beyond traditional network security, addressing the complexities of today’s interconnected digital ecosystems.
The key objective of EASM is to provide a comprehensive view of an organization’s external digital footprint. This surface includes all the internet-facing assets such as websites, web applications, cloud services, and any online platforms that can be accessed externally. By monitoring these assets, security teams can detect potential vulnerabilities and threat vectors that malicious actors might exploit.
Rootshell Security’s External Attack Surface Management Solution
Rootshell Security’s External Attack Surface Management (EASM) service offers a groundbreaking approach to cybersecurity. This service enhances your situational awareness and bolsters your asset inventory, delving deeper into understanding vulnerabilities and risks. Our EASM service is a blend of managed services, expert consultancy, and a comprehensive platform, complementing our already established Managed Vulnerability Scanning (MVS) and Penetration Testing services to help identify, assess and remediate risks across your attack surface
What sets us apart, is how EASM feeds into our Continuous Penetration Testing via RedForce, offering bespoke security assessments tailored to your needs. This seamless integration within PTaaS ensures not only the identification of potential threats but also their thorough and continuous examination and mitigation.
Examples of EASM Capabilities:
Continuous Discovery of Digital Assets:
A company using EASM tools can continuously scan the internet to identify newly deployed web applications or forgotten marketing websites, categorizing them as part of their digital footprint. This process is crucial for asset discovery and ensures that all parts of the digital attack surface are accounted for and secured.
An institution leverages EASM to regularly assess its platforms for potential vulnerabilities. By doing so, they can proactively address issues before they are exploited, significantly enhancing their security posture and protecting sensitive data.
Mitigating Risks from Unknown Assets:
In a scenario where a global corporation acquires a smaller company, EASM can help identify and integrate the acquired company’s external-facing assets into the parent company’s risk management framework. This ensures no unknown assets remain unprotected and susceptible to cyber attacks.
Monitoring for Unauthorized Access:
By utilizing EASM, an organization can monitor their portal systems for signs of unauthorized access, safeguarding information against data breaches and maintaining compliance with regulatory standards.
In each of these examples, EASM plays a pivotal role in enhancing an organization’s ability to manage its external digital footprint effectively. Through continuous monitoring and threat intelligence, organizations can stay ahead of attackers, reducing the likelihood of successful cyber attacks and mitigating the associated risks. As digital assets and threat landscapes evolve, EASM becomes an indispensable tool for organizations seeking to fortify their defenses in the digital age.
Challenges in External Attack Surface Mapping
Mapping the external attack surface poses significant challenges for organizations in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape. Understanding these challenges is crucial for effective attack surface management.
Distributed IT Ecosystems
The modern IT ecosystem is often a complex and distributed network of digital assets, spanning cloud services, web applications, and various internet-facing assets. For instance, a multinational corporation may have its data scattered across multiple cloud platforms, making it difficult for security teams to maintain a comprehensive view of their digital footprint. This dispersion of data and services complicates the process of asset discovery, leaving potential vulnerabilities unaddressed.
Siloed Teams
In many organizations, the security team may operate independently from other IT and development teams. This siloed approach can lead to gaps in attack surface management. For example, a development team might deploy a new application without fully communicating its details to the security team. Such gaps can create blind spots in the security stance of the organization, making it vulnerable to external threats and data breaches.
Constantly Changing External Attack Surface
The external attack surface of an organization is not static; it evolves continuously as new technologies are adopted and old ones are phased out. Keeping up with this dynamic environment is a challenge. A business, for instance, may introduce new external-facing assets as part of its expansion, unwittingly increasing its exposure to attack vectors used by malicious actors. The rapid pace of change can overwhelm security teams, especially if they lack tools for continuous monitoring and threat intelligence.
Addressing the Challenges
To effectively manage these challenges, organizations need to adopt an External Attack Surface Management (EASM) strategy that incorporates continuous discovery, risk management, and vulnerability management. Utilizing advanced EASM solutions can help in identifying unknown assets, assessing potential vulnerabilities, and providing continuous monitoring to safeguard against external threats. By doing so, businesses can maintain a robust security posture in the face of evolving cyber risks.
How Does an EASM Solution Help?
Identify Unknown Risks and Exposures
Asset discovery is key in uncovering unknown assets and potential vulnerabilities, meaning remediation can happen quicker.
Streamline Operations
A robust management solution integrates with existing systems for better risk management.
Get More Out of Your Existing Security Stack
Enhancing your security configuration with threat intelligence, prioritizing vulnerabilities and continuous monitoring.
Optimize IT and Security Costs
Effective vulnerability management can significantly reduce costs related to cyber threats.
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Risks of Limited Attack Surface Visibility:
Limited visibility into the digital attack surface increases the risk of data breaches by malicious actors. Without full visibility, unknown assets remain unprotected.
Essential Components of an EASM Solution:
Effectively employing attack surface management helps enhance an organization’s security setup and reduces the likelihood of successful cyberattacks. By having the ability to create and nourish a central point of collation, Attack Surface Management becomes a very powerful framework.
So let’s take a look at how we can manage the identified attack surfaces:
- Inventory and Discovery
- Mapping Attack Surfaces
- Vulnerability Assessments
- Risk Assessments
- Risk Reduction Strategies
- Continuous Monitoring
- Social Engineering Assessments and Security Awareness Training
- Third-Party Risk Management
- Regular Security Testing
Managing Your Attack Surface with Rootshell Security:
End-to-End Service
Our comprehensive service offers ongoing monitoring, reinforced by ongoing vulnerability scans and penetration testing, enabling you to leverage our expert team, advanced technology, and exhaustive methodology. This harmonious approach empowers you to unearth and remediate potential threats and vulnerabilities before malicious actors seize the opportunity.
Cutting-Edge Technology
Rootshell Security is empowered by our platform, which integrates state-of-the-art tools and technology to perform EASM assessments and present findings. Our Platform presents clear and concise asset inventory data including software components, exposed ports and vulnerability data. By continuously updating our tool sets to stay ahead of emerging threats and vulnerabilities, we provide clients with accurate and up-to-date insights into their attack surface.
Expert Validation & Remediation Guidance
This service provides a comprehensive understanding of discovered assets and any associated risks.
Our security experts are on hand to work with your organisation to discuss results, confirm the accuracy of identified assets and reported vulnerabilities, reduce the number of false positives, and reflect a suitable risk rating proportionate to the affected/identified assets and your organisation’s risk appetite. You can be confident that the reported results are scrutinised by the Rootshell team so that any remedial action can help your organisation reduce risk and improve its overall security posture.
What’s Included in Rootshell’s EASM?
Rootshell’s External Attack Surface Management (EASM) service vigilantly uncovers risks across both managed and unknown parts of an organization’s external attack surface. It works across the whole estate to find risks posed by misconfiguration and software-based vulnerabilities. The Rootshell External Attack Surface Management compliments our broader service offerings including continuous penetration testing and managed vulnerability scanning, empowering organizations to manage their whole attack surface.
