Attack Surface Management identifies exposed assets and weaknesses so defenders can reduce unknown entry points, prioritize fixes, and limit attacker access.
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Attack Surface Management continuously identifies and monitors all digital assets an organization exposes to potential attackers, including internet-facing systems, cloud resources, APIs, employee devices, and third-party connections. This process reveals where vulnerabilities or misconfigurations might exist, which attackers could exploit to gain unauthorized access or move laterally within networks.
Maintaining an accurate, up-to-date inventory of assets enables targeted vulnerability scanning and prioritizes remediation efforts. It also uncovers shadow IT and forgotten resources that often lack security controls. Automated discovery and monitoring tools help sustain visibility over evolving attack surfaces, reducing the risk of exploitation through unknown or unmanaged entry points. This practice is essential for minimizing exposure and supporting effective defensive operations.
In this Dark Reading News Desk segment, BitSight's Gregory Keshian discusses external attack surface management and security performance management.
Changes in the way we work have had significant implications for cybersecurity, not least in network monitoring. Workers no longer sit safely side-by-side on a corporate network, dev teams constantly spin up and tear down systems, exposing services to the internet. Keeping track of these users, changes and services is difficult – internet-facing attack surfaces rarely stay the same for long