Creating Visibility In Your Digital Environment with Attack Surface Management (ASM)

In today’s IT environments, creating visibility in your digital environment with Attack Surface Management (ASM) is crucial for maintaining robust cybersecurity. ASM provides essential insights and tools to identify and protect your organization. This blog addresses several key questions that ASM helps answer, bolstering your resilience against cyber threats.

What is Everything in My Environment?

To secure your digital environment, you must first know what you need to protect. ASM tools help organizations discover and inventory physical and digital assets, and their relationships, through various integrations.ASM discovers many types of assets including workstations, servers, firewalls, switches, software, accounts, groups, cloud resources, and more. This discovery happens through various integrations including Active Directory, to EDR software, Vulnerability scanners, MDM solutions, IAM solutions, and many more. This comprehensive approach to attack surface visibility enables you to comprehensively understand your attack surface, allowing you to prioritize security hardening measures effectively.

Am I Protected?

Understanding what you have is just the beginning; knowing if they are adequately protected is the crucial next step. Beyond discovery and inventory, ASM offers continuous monitoring of your attack surface, assessing your security posture over time. This includes checking for the presence and status of security controls such as firewalls, antivirus software, endpoint detection and response (EDR) sensors, and more. ASM also provides actionable insights into vulnerabilities and asset relationships, helping you address security gaps promptly and effectively.

Do I Have Any Out-of-Date Operating Systems in My Environment?

Outdated operating systems (OS) are a common vulnerability in many organizations, often lacking the latest security patches and updates. ASM tools are adept at identifying assets running obsolete or unsupported OS versions. By highlighting these outdated systems, ASM helps you prioritize upgrades and patches, reducing the risk of exploitation by attackers who often target known vulnerabilities in outdated software.

Are Any of My Endpoints Missing EDR?

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions are vital for detecting and responding to threats on individual devices. However, ensuring that all endpoints are covered can be challenging, especially in large or decentralized environments. ASM assists in identifying endpoints that are not protected by EDR systems, highlighting these gaps in coverage. This allows your security team to deploy EDR sensors where they are missing, ensuring comprehensive protection across all endpoints.

Does Anything Have EDR but Isn’t Protected by It?

Simply having EDR installed is not enough to tell whether an endpoint is ACTUALLY protected; it must be properly configured and functioning. ASM not only checks for the presence of EDR solutions but also assesses the health of each individual EDR sensor. It identifies issues such as misconfigurations, outdated software, or inactive monitoring, which could leave endpoints vulnerable despite the appearance of protection.

Why Do I Need It?

As attack surfaces becomes more convoluted with unclear boundaries, Attack Surface Management (ASM) is vital for modern cybersecurity. By offering detailed visibility into your environment, assessing protection levels, and identifying vulnerabilities, ASM equips organizations with the necessary tools to help safeguard their digital assets. Addressing the critical questions outlined in this blog is crucial for building a secure and resilient IT infrastructure. As cyber threats evolve, staying informed and proactive with ASM is key to maintaining robust cybersecurity.

In today’s IT environments, organizations must understand their attack surface to maintain robust cybersecurity. Attack Surface Management (ASM) provides essential insights and tools to identify and protect your organization. This blog addresses six key questions that ASM helps answer, bolstering your resilience against cyber threats.

What is Everything in My Environment?

To secure your digital environment, you must first know what you need to protect. ASM tools help organizations discover and inventory physical and digital assets, and their relationships, through various integrations.ASM discovers many types of assets including workstations, servers, firewalls, switches, software, accounts, groups, cloud resources, and more. This discovery happens through various integrations including Active Directory, to EDR software, Vulnerability scanners, MDM solutions, IAM solutions, and many more. This comprehensive approach to attack surface visibility enables you to comprehensively understand your attack surface, allowing you to prioritize security hardening measures effectively.

Am I Protected?

Understanding what you have is just the beginning; knowing if they are adequately protected is the crucial next step. Beyond discovery and inventory, ASM offers continuous monitoring of your attack surface, assessing your security posture over time. This includes checking for the presence and status of security controls such as firewalls, antivirus software, endpoint detection and response (EDR) sensors, and more. ASM also provides actionable insights into vulnerabilities and asset relationships, helping you address security gaps promptly and effectively.

Do I Have Any Out-of-Date Operating Systems in My Environment?

Outdated operating systems (OS) are a common vulnerability in many organizations, often lacking the latest security patches and updates. ASM tools are adept at identifying assets running obsolete or unsupported OS versions. By highlighting these outdated systems, ASM helps you prioritize upgrades and patches, reducing the risk of exploitation by attackers who often target known vulnerabilities in outdated software.

Are Any of My Endpoints Missing EDR?

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions are vital for detecting and responding to threats on individual devices. However, ensuring that all endpoints are covered can be challenging, especially in large or decentralized environments. ASM assists in identifying endpoints that are not protected by EDR systems, highlighting these gaps in coverage. This allows your security team to deploy EDR sensors where they are missing, ensuring comprehensive protection across all endpoints.

Does Anything Have EDR but Isn’t Protected by It?

Simply having EDR installed is not enough to tell whether an endpoint is ACTUALLY protected; it must be properly configured and functioning. ASM not only checks for the presence of EDR solutions but also assesses the health of each individual EDR sensor. It identifies issues such as misconfigurations, outdated software, or inactive monitoring, which could leave endpoints vulnerable despite the appearance of protection.

Why Do I Need It?

As attack surfaces becomes more convoluted with unclear boundaries, Attack Surface Management (ASM) is vital for modern cybersecurity. By offering detailed visibility into your environment, assessing protection levels, and identifying vulnerabilities, ASM equips organizations with the necessary tools to help safeguard their digital assets. Addressing the critical questions outlined in this blog is crucial for building a secure and resilient IT infrastructure. As cyber threats evolve, staying informed and proactive with ASM is key to maintaining robust cybersecurity.

Learn more about our Attack Surface Management (ASM) Service – https://www.sedarasecurity.com/services/attack-surface-management/

NIST’s Definition of – attack surface.