What is EASM: External Attack Surface Management
Your organization's external-facing digital assets—like servers, IP addresses, subdomains, software, and security certificates—are prime targets for cybercriminals seeking unauthorized access. This includes SaaS, remote access tools, and shadow IT, which refers to unsanctioned software and technology outside your control. All of these assets present threat actors with easy targets of opportunity, leading to increasing frequency and impact of attacks.
External Attack Surface Management (EASM) helps reduce attacks on vulnerable digital assets by discovering, monitoring, and assessing an organization's external-facing assets.
So, EASM helps organizations understand their digital footprint exposed to the internet. Moreover, a well-executed External Attack Surface Management strategy helps identify vulnerabilities and other exposures, enabling organizations to patch weaknesses before attackers take advantage.
Critical Components of External Attack Surface Management
There are many processes involved in External Attack Surface Management. The first task involves automatic scanning and detecting known and unknown digital assets. This discovery phase helps the security team know the exact assets exposed to threats. Other vital components of EASM security include:
1. Vulnerability Identification
After discovering known and unknown digital assets, EASM solutions scans these assets to identify vulnerabilities. To establish if an asset is vulnerable, EASM tools use things like outdated software versions, misconfigurations, and known vulnerabilities reported to organizations like NIST and CISA. Moreover, the EASM tools use the presence of unpatched systems to establish the risk of a potentially damaging exploit.
2. Contextual Analysis
Upon identifying vulnerable assets, EASM tools evaluate the severity of each threat. The evaluation helps security teams to know which vulnerabilities to prioritize. For instance, vulnerabilities that could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data get a higher priority during remediation. Another popular method of risk scoring is to determine whether or not the vulnerability appears in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog.
On the other hand, external asset exposures that have limited impact on critical systems or sensitive data are ranked as low priority. Typically, security teams resolve these low priority threats after dealing with the higher priority ones.
3. Remediation Action
EASM solutions offer detailed evidence and remediation guidance upon detecting and prioritizing threats. Organizations use the guidance to patch loopholes, reducing the chances of successful cyberattacks through an organization's external attack surface.
4. Validation
After remediation, EASM security initiates further vulnerability assessments to ensure the effectiveness of the applied fixes. These assessments help security teams to patch unsealed loopholes and identify new threats continuously.
5. Continuous Monitoring
EASM solutions monitor an organization's attack surface to continuously reduce the risk of a cyberattack. The proactive monitoring helps identify emerging threats, unauthorized modifications, and new, vulnerable assets. The monitoring also helps track the effectiveness of implemented security measures over time.
Importance of EASM for Business Security
There are many reasons why information security managers should invest in external attack surface management tools. For one, EASM security helps organizations identify vulnerabilities and other exposures at an early stage. The early detection minimizes the window of opportunity for cyber adversaries. Other benefits an organization could get from EASM tools include:
1. Better Compliance
Entities like GDPR and PCI DSS require businesses to secure sensitive data. Non-compliance with the authorities' regulations can lead to hefty fines and costly legal actions. EASM tools monitor and validate the security of an organization's external attack surface, assisting businesses in safeguarding sensitive data like health records and financial information.
2. Improved Reputation
A successful cyber breach can have profound impacts on an organization's reputation. It leads to negative publicity and causes customer dissatisfaction. However, a reliable External Attack Surface Management security program fortifies your security, eliminating chances of reputation-damaging cyber attacks.
3. Enhanced Incidence Response
EASM tools help streamline organizations' incident response. In the event of a breach, these tools help security teams understand the weak links that caused a cyberattack. Afterwards, the EASM security tools provide actionable remediation information to help organizations address vulnerabilities.
4. Reduced Disruption to Business Operations
A successful security breach can compromise various business processes. For instance, the breach can compromise customer services and financial transactions. External Attack Surface Management tools identify external threats at the beginning of the Cyber Kill Chain, before attackers can even gain unauthorized access and establish a foothold.
5. More Customer Trust
Investing in a reliable EASM tool sets the ground for improved customer trust. The tools help protect reputation, one of the most important things customers consider before interacting with a brand. Moreover, EASM tools enhance customer trust by reducing cybercrimes that could erode trust.
Best Practices in External Attack Surface Management
To get the full benefits of an EASM plan, Enterprises need to make the best choices possible, from selecting the right EASM solution to implementing it correctly. So, to get the most out of EASM security, organizations should use the following blueprint.
- Choose the right EASM solution. The value you get from External Attack Surface Management tools depends on their features and how well it integrates with your workflow. A good EASM solution should be able to identify both known and unknown assets and offer continuous vulnerability assessments. Moreover, it should integrate with existing security systems and offer actionable insights for efficient remediation.
- Train your teams. Upon adopting EASM security, organizations should train the IT, network, and security teams to utilize EASM tools, interpret their findings, and respond to incidents. The training should focus on key aspects like mastering the interpreting vulnerability assessments and the recommended mitigating actions.
- Integrate the EASM tools. Proper integration is critical to maximizing benefits from External Attack Surface Management tools. Organizations should configure EASM security tools properly and integrate them into existing security infrastructure, such as SIEMs (like Splunk) and ITSMs (like ServiceNow).
Case Studies: Successful EASM Implementations
External Attack Surface Management tools aren't reserved for select companies. Instead, this cybersecurity solution is ideal for all companies with internet-facing digital assets. These include organizations operating across significant sectors like finance, education, healthcare, energy, and manufacturing.
Of all the sectors mentioned, successful External Attack Surface Management implementations are more common among technology companies. These enterprises include those developing and producing various tech-based products and services.
Technology companies use EASM security to continuously monitor for network threats and secure digital assets stored in the cloud. Moreover, tech companies use EASM tools to discover subdomain takeovers, expired security certificates, and new vulnerabilities.
Besides robust defense against potential cyber security breaches, tech companies implementing EASM have achieved notable benefits. These include clear visibility of all connected assets, more streamlined and effective vulnerability patching, and a reduction in security incidents.
ZeroFox: A Comprehensive EASM Security Solution
While many EASM security tools exist, ZeroFox stands out as one of the best. The comprehensive tool offers a holistic solution to fortify cybersecurity. In particular, ZeroFox helps identify all vulnerable digital assets by dynamically mapping the attack surface and integrating EPSS risk scoring from FIRST.
Moreover, ZeroFox provides crowdsourced, best-practice remediation action, helping security teams patch weak points before an attack occurs. Request a demo of our EASM tool to see how it fits into your cybersecurity program.