Why CISOs Need a New Approach to Enhance Attack Surface Visibility

The past two years have served as a major wake-up call for security experts and business leaders, who must now adapt to face new security threats and trends. A proactive, security-first approach is even more critical when practicing digital hygiene when it comes to risk management.

Businesses must adapt and prioritize their cyber security in the wake of such a turbulent year, growing cloud adoption, and a greater reliance on developing technology to function. Many are becoming vulnerable as the threat landscape continues to evolve, providing innumerable opportunities for attackers. CISOs today are concerned about identifying, tracking, and managing assets, necessitating a new approach to strengthen attack surface visibility.

CISOs are increasingly looking for ways to secure their company’s cyber resilience against new and evolving threats. End-to-end real-time visibility gives them a bird’s-eye view of their digital environment, allowing for improved risk detection and response, and it’s quickly becoming a must.

Vulnerabilities that potentially expand the attack surface can be introduced at any time. As a result, continual vulnerability detection allows security leaders to discover flaws in their apps and systems before attackers do. Any security flaws are discovered and addressed as needed, bolstering the digital infrastructure using a data-driven, risk-based strategy.

Continuous monitoring of vulnerabilities that contain or process data is provided via attack surface management. This proactive approach helps security professionals map, comprehend, and analyze the threat landscape, allowing them to think like an attacker and lower their cyber risk.

It’s Critical to Have a Proactive Security Strategy

Attack surface mapping is at the heart of resilience in today’s ever-changing threat scenario. Businesses must be able to see exactly what they own, what is connected to the internet, and what could be vulnerable to a cyber-attack. 

Continuous Monitoring is Vital 

Continuous monitoring enables companies to safeguard their external environment before rather than after attacks occur, reducing the chances of a successful breach. A proactive, forward-thinking approach is far more effective than a reactive one, especially given the surge in cyber-attacks. Antivirus software, firewalls, and other legacy defenses are no longer sufficient, as sophisticated attacks can readily defeat them.

Also Read: Three Ways How Enterprises Can Prioritize Cybersecurity at the Board Level

Evaluate Ability to Combat Risk 

Security leaders can assess their overall digital health and, as a result, their capacity to make risk decisions with complete visibility of the threat landscape. And this is another reason why boardrooms should prioritize cyber security.

Ensure Compliance

Maintaining compliance with regulations and policies has become more complex as security standards have become more demanding and the amount of sensitive data stored and sent has increased. Failure to follow compliance rules can have serious consequences for a company’s reputation and bottom line.

Competitive Advantage

Demonstrating a company’s ability and commitment to prioritize data security can give them a competitive edge while also helping to build consumer trust and ensure the company’s longevity.

Prioritize Remediation

Due to the continuous nature of this form of protection, organizations can be notified of changes as soon as they occur. They can prioritize remedial activities once they’ve identified their vulnerabilities and other potential attack vectors.

Make Informed Security Decisions

Businesses can alter their strategy to focus on areas that require attention after they have a clearer understanding of what and where the risks are. A manual penetration test is triggered when an application regularly flags vulnerabilities.

Security Needs to Be Scalable

As emerging technology allows operations and processes to become more efficient and faster, new and unavoidable risks arise. Increasing risk necessitates a scalable technique to ensure that the systems are easily safeguarded, even as the load grows.

Constant Surveillance is Crucial

Security teams will be able to patch vulnerabilities more efficiently, quickly, and effectively if they use a continuous threat intelligence system. There’s no need to be concerned about compiling endless asset inventories manually.