Regular cybersecurity hygiene is essential for keeping cybercriminals at bay — and far away from sensitive data.
It includes implementing cyber awareness training for employees, mapping the key assets that have to be protected, drafting a plan in case of incidents, and managing threats that could pose risk to the organization.
Management of security is part of the hygiene that’s becoming more challenging than ever before.
Why is that the case?
Most organizations nowadays have multiple security points that keep the most valuable assets of their company secure. It’s estimated that small businesses have up to 20 security tools, medium up to 60, and major corporations over 130.
Also, emerging threats and new hacking techniques leave companies exposed in ways their security posture and IT teams don’t yet anticipate.
Another reason is that the attack surface is increasing every year but can also change in minutes — making it difficult to keep up with it, let alone regularly maintain.
How can companies continually strengthen their security in spite of these challenges?
Threat Exposure Management is the latest development in cybersecurity designed to combat that issue.
What Is Threat Exposure Management?
Threat Exposure Management refers to a program whose goal is to reduce a chance of a cyberattack.
Companies that adopt this model have more thorough, up-to-date, and comprehensive security. They can delegate tasks to artificial intelligence and focus on highly critical threats.
The management works in several steps that validate the existing tools, prioritize what has to be improved, and determine whether there is any leaked intelligence on the internet that could put the company at risk.
Validating Security Points
As mentioned, one of the major issues that companies have is that they have too many tools that protect their company.
But how can they know whether they would protect the company in an actual data breach?
This is where security validation comes in.
To test the security and the people who manage it, simulated attacks are launched to weed out any possible vulnerabilities.
The system is attacked in a safe environment before hackers get a chance to exploit flaws and use them as a pathway into the organization and its sensitive data.
IT teams then use the data of the simulated attack to patch up the security.
Prioritizing Management Based on Context
Which risks should be remediated first will depend on which business we’re talking about. Namely, the high-rated risk might cause a breach for one organization but not be an immediate threat to another.
IT teams that manage security have limited time and resources to allocate to patching up vulnerabilities.
They get numerous daily alerts on their dashboard as well. On average, they receive as many as 500 alerts and don’t have enough hours in the day to deal with every notification.
Considering that they also know that most alerts don’t indicate a high-risk issue, it’s possible for them to discard potentially major threats as false alarms.
Using a top to bottom approach — fixing the most severe vulnerabilities that have the potential to escalate into major incidents such as data breaches is the most they can do with their eternally increasing workload.
Threat Exposure Management is the program that separates low-risk from high-risk threats — letting them know where to start when they’re strengthening the security of a company.
Continuous Security Management
The program is effective in notifying teams of high-risk problems because it runs in the background all the time.
The attack surface is covered in its entirety because of AI.
Nowadays, the surface is continually increasing and includes internet-facing assets as well.
Artificial intelligence has a role in simulating attacks as well as scanning the internet for any leaked passwords.
Early Mitigation of Incidents
Companies that lack cybersecurity solutions that suit their infrastructure or proper management techniques risk exposure to threats they’re not aware of.
For instance, cybercriminals could be in the system for weeks or even years before they’re discovered.
During that time, they can monitor the work of the company or collect sensitive data to sell it on hacking forums.
For the early discovery of such activities, Threat Exposure Management utilizes artificial intelligence.
AI aids them to mitigate the threats on the spot or notify IT teams of high risks that have to be remediated manually.
Zero Day Threats? No Problem
New hacking techniques cause major migraines for cybersecurity teams. They exploit the vulnerabilities in new creative ways that most organizations can’t anticipate.
Zero days (denoting the time teams have to fix the problem) refer to exploits for which teams don’t have the tools that can mitigate and remove the threat from the system.
To prevent hackers from using novel techniques to get unauthorized access that allows them to leak or alter data and lock teams out of the network, Threat Exposure continually scans for signs of suspicious activity that could endanger the information.
What’s more, the Threat Exposure Management program is linked to the MITRE ATT&CK Framework. A vast and continually updated library of the latest hacking methods ensures that the cybersecurity tool is up-to-date with the latest malicious developments.
Besides a detailed description of the known techniques, it also offers possible solutions that IT teams can use to patch vulnerabilities and mitigate threats.
Regular Security Management Keeps Data Safe
The bottom line is that if businesses want to protect their sensitive data, they have to guard the infrastructures that hold important information. Also, they have to regularly maintain the security posture they have.
The AI-powered model, Threat Exposure Management, enables teams to react promptly when a high-risk vulnerability is found within the system.
It also aids them in mitigating the threat early and prevents hackers from lingering within the network while they’re monitoring activity or gathering data.
