As organizations continue to face an expanding and evolving threat landscape, the importance of proactive cybersecurity measures cannot be overstated. Gartner's latest Innovation Insight report provides insights and recommendations into how attack surface management (ASM) technologies, such as cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM), external attack surface management (EASM) and digital risk protection services (DRPS)  are transforming the way businesses protect their digital environments. In this blog, we’ll explore the key takeaways from Gartner's report and discuss how these innovations can help your organization stay ahead of cyber threats.

1. Attack Surface Management vs. Attack Surface Assessment

Key point from the report:

Discovering, inventorying and contextualizing is an assessment process, rather than a management one. Thus, “attack surface assessment” (ASA) is a more accurate term.

There are already enough acronyms in cybersecurity to make your head spin, but the distinction between "assessment" and "management" is worth noting. It actually makes a lot of sense. When we talk about managing an attack surface, we're really talking about discovering assets, inventorying them, and analyzing their context. These activities are all about assessment.

Think of it this way: the assessment process involves evaluating all your assets, pinpointing vulnerabilities, and understanding the potential risks each asset brings to your IT environment. This is more about assessment rather than management, which is more about oversight and control. So, it’s crucial to understand the nuanced terminology to grasp what’s being done at each stage of securing your digital landscape.

2. Increased Investment in Proactive Security

Key point from the report:

By 2028, investments in proactive technologies that improve visibility and reduce exposure will grow twice as fast as investments in reactive technologies that detect and respond to incidents.

As attack surfaces keep expanding and attackers get smarter and faster, organizations are finding that simply detecting threats feels like an endless game of whack-a-mole. This is why investing in proactive security measures is becoming crucial. By enhancing visibility and reducing exposure, proactive security solutions like CAASM, EASM, and DRPS help organizations anticipate and address risks before they can be exploited. This not only reduces the chances of successful cyberattacks but also minimizes their impact, leading to a stronger overall security posture. Plus, these investments lighten the load on incident response teams and save significant costs associated with data breaches. Ultimately, proactive security provides a strategic edge in today’s fast-evolving threat landscape.

3. The Asset Inventory Problem

Key point from the report:

Asset inventory is a common and well-known problem for organizations, only 17% organizations can clearly identify and inventory a majority (95% or more) of their assets.

Asset inventory is crucial for cybersecurity, yet it’s a common headache for many organizations. Without a clear and comprehensive inventory, managing vulnerabilities, securing environments, and responding to incidents becomes a difficult task. When organizations can't accurately account for all their assets, they end up with blind spots, leaving them vulnerable to attacks on unmanaged or unknown assets.

That's where Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) solutions come in. By integrating with existing security and IT tools and leveraging APIs, CAASM can pull data from a variety of sources—cloud services, on-premises systems, SaaS applications, and more. This comprehensive approach ensures that no asset is left unaccounted for.

With CAASM, you get enhanced visibility, better risk management, and improved operational efficiency. Plus, it simplifies compliance and reporting by keeping your asset inventory accurate and up-to-date. Essentially, CAASM helps turn the chaotic process of asset management into a streamlined, manageable task, giving you the peace of mind that comes from knowing your entire cyber environment is secure.

4. Enhanced Visibility and Reporting

Key point from the report:

Build an effective register of owned assets, including identities, applications, and third-party SaaS, IaaS and PaaS functions. Accurate recording enables wider visibility and reporting of the cybersecurity risks associated with both the externally facing and the internally managed attack surfaces of the organization.

Keeping an up-to-date and comprehensive asset inventory allows organizations to foresee potential threats and take proactive actions before any vulnerabilities can be exploited. ASM, CAASM and EASM solutions provide continuous monitoring of the cyber environment and update asset inventory in real-time.

By maintaining a current and detailed asset inventory, you can stay ahead of threats and enhance your organization's ability to manage risks proactively. It's not just about identifying vulnerabilities; it's about being ready to address them before they become issues. This proactive approach and technologies enable organizations to implement continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) for today’s fast-paced cyber threat landscape.

Last thing

If you haven’t already, be sure to download the Gartner Innovation Insight: Attack Surface Management. Schedule a demo to learn how JupiterOne can help you perform cyber asset inventory, manage your attack surface and continuously monitor for exposures.

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Gartner, Innovation Insight: Attack Surface Management, 2024, Mitchell Schneider, Pete Shoard, John Watts, 9 April 2024.

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