Is Attack Surface Management The Future Of Cyber Security?

Reports showed that there has been an increase in ransomware events in the past year. Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report saw an increase of 25% in overall attacks in 2021. Cyber security events are more debilitating for organizations today that operate on a highly interconnected capacity, resulting in broader attack surface, making cyber resiliency even more urgent.

The State of Cyber Security Today

In the last few years, organizations underwent a digital transformation that resulted in extremely interconnected apps, clouds, services, workloads, users, and devices operating in multi-cloud and hybrid environments. While this transformation contributed to convenience for end users, it has made organizations and enterprises more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

With the plethora of apps and databases and digital services that a singular enterprise employs today, cyber security leaders must oversee and control a wider breadth of vulnerable surface to avoid attacks. However, it is not just the attack surface that they need to oversee. They must also be aware of the beneath-the-surface relationships between applications. Due to their interconnectedness, a successful cyberattack on one asset could compromise others, if not the whole system. Enterprises must, then, find a way to minimize vulnerabilities such that the rest of the system can operate safely even after an asset has been compromised.

Attack Surface Management

A solution to the increased vulnerability due to wider attack surfaces is attack surface management. This new cyber security strategy involves mapping relationships within the business systems, automating the discovery of security coverage gaps, therefore allowing organizations to mitigate risk. With attack surface management, organizations can implement preventative policies and plans that protect the system as a whole and minimize tendencies to overlook some vulnerabilities.

Here are some steps enterprises can take to start implementing attack surface management:

Evaluate new vendors carefully, ensuring that they have secure third-party integrations and exposed interfaces.

Implement reporting standards. Take full advantage of CISO standards to map out new assets, vulnerabilities, tickets they addressed and attacks foiled, and the attack surfaces associated with critical business functions.

Emphasize the need for transparency in app creation, third-party access, and identity management.

Keeping Up With Ever-changing Tides

Protecting and managing your attack surface is crucial in today’s cyber security climate. Enterprises can protect their increasingly interconnected systems with passwordless authentication. Nok Nok Inc’s passwordless authentication systems integrates well with attack surface management strategies. This system enables users to sign in across platforms and apps securely without the need for passwords, which are so easy to steal. Our passwordless authentication protects entire cyber ecosystems from attacks. These are supplemented by multifactor authentication so that even if a password is compromised, other assets remain safe. Learn more about Nok Nok Inc’s products here.