The complexity of the modern attack surface — an ever-changing, expanding and interconnected assortment of systems and users — is the key driver behind the emergence of exposure management programs. Security teams are challenged to keep up with the constant influx of data from the array of point solutions they’re using to manage vulnerabilities, web applications, identity systems and cloud assets. And, they’re challenged with effectively analyzing all that data to make informed, proactive decision-making about which exposures represent the greatest risk to the organization. The benefit of implementing an exposure management program? To enable security professionals to better allocate time and resources so they can focus on taking the actions that legitimately reduce their risk. Adopting an exposure management program involves people and process changes. It requires security teams to place as much importance on proactive efforts as they currently do on reactive incident response efforts. It requires security professionals to consider how siloed organizational structures — and the myriad security tools used in support of those silos — are hindering their ability to see what an attacker sees. And it requires a way for security professionals to analyze the data coming from disparate tools to empower them to draw meaningful insights they can apply to their risk reduction goals. The bottom line? When a threat actor evaluates a company’s attack surface, they’re not thinking in terms of organizational silos. They’re probing for the right combination of vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and identity privileges that will give them the greatest level of access the fastest.
3 REAL-WORLD CHALLENGES FACING CYBERSECURITY ORGANIZATIONS
