How External Attack Surface Management helps prevent cyber-attacks

How do you make this happen? An External Attack Surface Management (EASM) platform can help. With an EASM-Tool, your organization can continuously scan for exposed assets, misconfigurations, compromised credentials, data leaks, dark-web whispers and security gaps across your external attack surface, allowing you to transform hindsight into foresight and remediation into prevention.

The growing problem of unmanaged digital assets

According to Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report, 90% of ransomware cyberattacks start with bad actors gaining initial access through an unmanaged device in the organization’s network. More concerning, nearly half (47%) of organizations allow unmanaged devices to access their networks, creating a dangerous proliferation of shadow IT. These statistics point to a fundamental issue: You can’t protect what you can’t see.

As your organization expands its digital footprint with cloud adoption, remote work initiatives, M&A activities, and digital transformation efforts, your external attack surface grows. And without proper visibility and management, these expanding attack surfaces create security gaps that hackers seek and exploit as entry points into otherwise protected environments.

Proactive prevention through comprehensive visibility

EASM solutions provide a continuous, outside-in view, showing how a potential attacker sees your organization’s internet-facing assets. Unlike traditional security approaches, EASM scans your IPs and Domains to discover all of your organization’s digital assets and those connected to them, including the ones that might be currently unknown to your security teams.

EASM’s offers proactive prevention by providing: 

Vulnerability identification: EASM solutions scan external networks to detect exploitable weaknesses including open ports, misconfigured services, outdated software, and weak encryption protocols, assigning severity ratings to help your security team prioritize remediation efforts.

Continuous asset monitoring: Modern EASM platforms provide 24/7 surveillance of all external-facing assets, including domains, IP addresses, cloud resources, and web applications. They immediately alert teams when changes occur that could introduce security risks.

Shadow IT detection: EASM platforms uncover unauthorized technology deployed outside standard IT processes by correlating publicly available information with organizational identifiers, revealing rogue systems that typically lack proper security controls.

Regulatory compliance validation: EASM solutions automatically verify that your organization’s external-facing assets meet security requirements for regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, ISO27001 and PCI-DSS, proactively identifying possible compliance violations before audits or breaches occur.

Threat intelligence integration: Many EASM platforms connect with threat intelligence feeds, helping provide additional visibility in cyber risk sources that could originate from outside your companies control.

Strategic attack surface reduction: Beyond merely identifying vulnerabilities, EASM platforms empower your organization to systematically decommission unnecessary exposed services, redundant assets, and legacy systems, eliminating potential attack entry points.

Security workflow automation: EASM solutions can integrate with your existing security tools, letting you automate remediation workflows, create tickets, assign tasks, and track progress until resolution — dramatically reducing the time vulnerabilities remain exploitable.

Implementing EASM as a preventative measure

Ready to boost your organization’s protection with an EASM solution? Consider solutions that provide: 

• Continuous monitoring: Effective EASM solutions provide real-time monitoring rather than periodic assessments. Leading platforms automatically track asset changes, detect new vulnerabilities, and monitor encryption certificates to give your team constant visibility into security risks.
• Non-intrusive, passive discovery: Look for a platform with passive discovery techniques that operate without disrupting business operations or requiring on-premises installations. The best solutions use advanced reconnaissance techniques to build comprehensive datasets, working continuously without triggering security alerts.
• Risk prioritization: Insist on a platform that offers attack surface scoring at multiple levels. Quantitative scoring will help your security teams focus remediation efforts on critical vulnerabilities, allowing them to address high-risk exposures before attackers can exploit them.
• Integration capabilities: To streamline remediation, choose an EASM that connects with your existing security infrastructure, offering seamless connections to ticketing, ITSM, SOAR, and asset management systems.
• Actionable dashboards: Superior EASM solutions feature interactive dashboards with customizable alerting and reporting. Look for a platform with a user-friendly interface that transforms complex data into actionable insights — this will ensure your security team can quickly understand exposure and make informed remediation decisions.
• Insights into Cyber Risk: The combination of attack surface data and threat intelligence in a single platform offers a full overview of external threats and risks facing your organization. This makes it easier to prioritize threats and risk sources and fight them proactively.

Moving from reactive to proactive security

EASM can move your organization from a reactive security posture to one that proactively anticipates and mitigates threats. By gaining visibility into your complete external attack surface, identifying vulnerabilities before attackers, and systematically reducing exposure points, your organization can significantly reduce the likelihood of a successful breach.

For a quick snapshot of your organization’s existing assets and vulnerabilities, consider taking advantage of a complimentary attack surface evaluation. For example, Outpost24’s free assessment can reveal unknown internet-facing assets and security gaps that would otherwise remain undetected until exploited by attackers.

As cyber threats continue to grow, your organization must shift from asking if you’ll be attacked to what you will do when it happens. EASM gives your organization a strategic advantage, allowing you to proactively approach vulnerability management. By eliminating blind spots before attackers can exploit them, EASM enhances your security and converts unknown risks into managed assets. Get in touch to learn more.