Security Boulevard

Boston, Mass., Sept. 18, 2024] — One Layer, the leader in managing and securing enterprise private 5G/LTE Operational Technology (OT) networks, announced today the selection of its OneLayer Bridge private LTE network device management and zero trust security platform … (more…)

The post News alert: Evergy selects OneLayer to manage, secure its private cellular OT assets first appeared on The Last Watchdog.

The post News alert: Evergy selects OneLayer to manage, secure its private cellular OT assets appeared first on Security Boulevard.

10 Best Attack Surface Management Tools

What Is Attack Surface Management?

What Are the Different Types of Attack Surfaces?

Top Enterprise Attack Surface Management Tools

Selecting the Right Tool to Manage Your Attack Surface

Enhance Your Attack Surface Visibility with FireMon

Frequently Asked Questions

Get a Demo

10 Best Attack Surface Management Tools

As the cyberthreat landscape grows in both complexity and volume, organizations must adopt comprehensive strategies to protect their digital assets. One critical element of a vigorous cybersecurity program is attack surface management (ASM), which involves identifying, monitoring, and reducing potential attack vectors.

To identify the best attack surface management tools for enterprise, cybersecurity decision makers must understand what attack surface management is, and the types of attack surfaces they need to secure.

What Is Attack Surface Management?

Attack surface management refers to the continuous process of asset discovery, assessment, and risk mitigation associated with an organization’s network. This includes mapping all assets that could be potential entry points for malicious actors.

ASM involves several activities, including:

Asset Discovery

ASM tools identify the organization’s internet-facing assets. Rather than manually inputting your assets, asset discovery solutions use automation for attack surface mapping and inventory of company resources.

Asset discovery is used to identify the following types of assets:

• Known Assets: The organization is aware of these assets’ existence and is actively managing them. Known assets include user directories, websites, applications, servers, routers, and employee-owned or corporate-issued smartphones and computers.
• Unknown Assets: These assets use company networks without institutional approval or oversight. They include old software, abandoned websites, and unsupervised mobile devices and cloud services that access the company’s network.
• Vendor Assets: Although the company doesn’t own these assets, they’re part of its digital supply chain. They include public cloud assets, application programming interfaces (APIs), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps.
• Rogue Assets: This malicious infrastructure is created by threat actors to launch cyberattacks against a company. They include malware, phishing sites, and typo squatted domains.

Classification and Prioritization

Upon discovery, assets are categorized according to their risk exposure, criticality, and function to identify urgent security threats and make data-based decisions. Ordinarily, vital and easily exploitable issues take priority.

Remediation

The remediation process focuses on implementing measures to strengthen an organization’s security posture by addressing vulnerabilities and minimizing risk exposure.

Remediation measures that can improve security posture include:

• Reconfiguring systems Access controls
• Network segmentation
• Decommissioning vulnerable assets
• Adopting a zero-trust model

Continuous Monitoring

Continuous monitoring is necessary to counter emerging threats and assets. The goal is to identify new vulnerabilities and track changes to current ones. Remember, monitoring goes hand in hand with reporting.

What Are the Different Types of Attack Surfaces?

An attack surface is the sum of possible access points for unauthorized users to your systems. On the other hand, attack vectors, or threat vectors are specific attack routes to sensitive data.

Attack surfaces include:

Digital Attack Surfaces

Digital attack surfaces expose the software and hardware that link to a company’s network. Provided the hacker has an internet connection, they can exploit the following vectors to launch an attack:

• Misconfiguration: Cybercriminals can use incorrectly configured firewall policies, network ports, and wireless access points.
• Weak Credentials: Weak passwords are easier to guess or crack, allowing cybercriminals to steal data or spread malware, such as ransomware.
• Shared Directories: It’s not uncommon for hackers to steal data from collaborative directories or infect them with malware.
• Poor Encryption: Cybercriminals can intercept unencrypted data at different stages, whether the information is in processing, in transit, or at rest.

Physical Attack Surfaces

Physical attack surfaces comprise a company’s tangible assets.

Security risks include:

• Insider Threats: Dissatisfied employees can abuse access privileges to spread malware, disable devices, or obtain company data.
• Device Theft: When criminals access an organization’s physical premises, they can retrieve data from desktops, laptops, IoT devices, smartphones, servers, and other operational hardware.
• Access Control Systems: Attackers can use biometric scanners, security cameras, and keycards to gain unauthorized access to secure areas.

Top Enterprise Attack Surface Management Tools

The following is a list of the best attack surface management tools to help discover assets, monitor, and increase your security posture.

1. FireMon

FireMon’s asset discovery tool, Asset Manager, automatically discovers and maps all assets across the network in real time, creating a detailed inventory. This helps in identifying potential attack vectors and unmanaged assets that could be exploited.

FireMon’s network security policy management (NSPM) solution optimizes firewall rules and configurations to minimize unnecessary exposure and reduce the attack surface. It helps in removing redundant or overly permissive rules that could be exploited by attackers.

2. Qualys

Initially known as Qualys Cloud Platform or Qualysguard, the Qualys TruRisk Platform is a network security and vulnerability management tool. This platform offers security checks, application scanning, attack surface mapping, detection of network devices, and tools to prioritize and fix vulnerabilities. These features work together to help reduce and manage risk.

Qualys offers a comprehensive suite of features that prioritize real-time vulnerability management. It can continuously scan and identify security weaknesses across your network. The software solution also provides detailed asset discovery to catalog all hardware and software.

3. Tenable

Tenable’s Nessus vulnerability scanner offers extensive coverage of vulnerabilities with continuous real-time system assessments. It comprises built-in features for threat intelligence, prioritization, and real-time insights. Enterprises use it to identify and understand risks, allowing operators to prioritize and address them proactively.

Nessus enables businesses to detect potential vulnerabilities and focus on critical issues to streamline the threat remediation process. It also allows professionals to keep an audit trail and access detailed scan information. These include severity, status, and start and end times.

4. Rapid7

With a robust platform that helps protect your systems from attackers and grow with your needs, Rapid7 also ranks among the top attack surface management tools. The platform offers application security, vulnerability management, external threat intelligence, threat detection, and automation tools. It makes it a great choice for IT and DevOps teams who use them to quickly identify and respond to threats.

Rapid7 aims to make the digital world safer by simplifying cybersecurity and making it more accessible. The company provides security professionals with the research, tools, and expertise needed to manage today’s complex attack surfaces.

5. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Microsoft’s Defender focuses on external attack surface management and is offered on Microsoft’s Azure platform. It can identify vulnerabilities and exposures in web-based resources and map out an organization’s unique online attack surface.

Microsoft Defender’s real-time inventory monitoring lets you point out, analyze, and categorize external-facing resources as they emerge. Organizations can use it to enhance their attack surface visibility and discover assets across various cloud environments, including hidden resources like shadow IT.

6. CrowdStrike Falcon Surface

CrowdStrike addresses security challenges by offering a solution that combines endpoint detection and response, next-generation antivirus, cyber threat intelligence, and security best practices.

Falcon Surface also provides full visibility into internet risks affecting businesses and prioritizes threats based on expert insights and business needs.

7. Mandiant

Mandiant provides users with over 250 pre-built integrations to discover assets and cloud resources and identify relationships with partners and third parties. Like many of the other ASM tools, Mandiant monitors network infrastructure continuously to detect exposures and ensure a smooth transition during cloud adoption and digital transformation.

Mandiant helps security teams with the ability to tackle real-world threats by identifying misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and exposed areas that need attention.

8. Brinqa

Brinqa’s ASM platform includes features like a risk operations center, vulnerability risk management, and cloud risk management. Users can handle risks across their entire attack surface.

Brinqa creates a unified inventory of your attack surface by connecting all asset types, business context, threat intelligence, and security controls into a dynamic Cyber Risk Graph.

9. Cortex by Palo Alto Networks

This global platform by Palo Alto Networks reduces risks by assessing supply chain security, managing cloud security, and addressing various vulnerabilities. Cortex protects against remote access security issues, unpatched systems, insecure file sharing, sensitive business apps, IT portals, weak encryption, and exposed IoT devices.

Cortex Xpanse collects data from domain registrars, DNS records, and business databases to find and identify all of your internet assets. The solution can create a detailed and unique inventory of your online assets, uncovering unknown assets without needing to install or set up anything.

10. CyCognito

Cycognito’s cloud-based platform focuses on managing external attack surfaces. It uses bots and other tools to continuously scan, categorize, and map digital assets. The tool automatically identifies and ranks security risks as if they were real attackers

CyCognito mimics how attackers perform reconnaissance to proactively identify gaps in a company’s defenses.

Selecting the Right Tool to Manage Your Attack Surface

The list of available attack surface management solutions goes far past 10, and it can be difficult to determine what’s best for your organization. However, you may be able to narrow the field by keeping the following ASM best practices in mind:

Visibility Through Continuous Monitoring

Threats keep changing, and a strong cybersecurity program needs ongoing updates. This involves continuous monitoring with automated tools like security information and event management (SIEM) software to track and analyze data from various sources, including security operations integrations.

Prioritize the Most Critical Threats

Once you understand your attack surface, address the most serious vulnerabilities and risks before tackling less urgent issues. For instance, you can take assets offline and improve network security. A tool that provides both real-time visibility and monitors network changes makes prioritization easier.

Know Your Attack Surface

Understand where attackers might strike, which digital assets are at risk, and what protections are needed. Predictive modeling can help anticipate the impact of breaches. Effective defense strategies involve knowing what assets you have, monitoring for vulnerabilities, and using threat intelligence to stay ahead of potential attacks.

Enhance Your Attack Surface Visibility with FireMon

As network complexity increases, cyber asset management and attack surface monitoring become increasingly difficult. As your organization grows, so does the risk of introducing gaps in network visibility. This is where FireMon comes in.

FireMon Asset Manager provides real-time active, passive, and targeted network and device discovery to detect unknown, rogue, shadow clouds, network infrastructure, and endpoints in the enterprise.

Asset Manager can help to:

• Eliminate Blind Spots: Stay ahead of expanding attack surfaces by automatically discovering and cataloging networks, devices, and connections within your environment.
• Enrich Asset Data: Ensure operational intelligence by augmenting systems of record with accurate, up-to-date asset details and attributes.
•  Improve Data Fidelity in Systems of Record: Leverage API and integrations to provide continuous, complete asset information to your security stack.

Request a demo today and discover why FireMon is one of the best attack surface management tools for your enterprise.

Frequently Asked Questions What Are Attack Surface Management Tools?

Attack surface management tools are specialized cybersecurity solutions that help organizations discover assets, monitor, and reduce your attack surface. These tools continuously scan an organization’s networks to detect potential vulnerabilities or points of unauthorized access. Attack surface management tools enable organizations to proactively address security risks by providing comprehensive visibility into all assets.

What Should I Look for in Attack Surface Management Software?

When selecting an attack surface management vendor, it’s important to consider tools that offer real-time monitoring and alerts to promptly detect emerging threats. The software should also include robust risk assessment and prioritization capabilities. Additionally, consider ease of integration with existing security systems and a user-friendly interface.

Get 9x
BETTER Book your demo now Sign Up Now

Get a Demo

Customers

Customer Success Training Hub
User Center

Partners

Partner Directory
Partner Portal
Technology Partners

Company

About
Careers
Contact

The post 10 Best Attack Surface Management Tools appeared first on Security Boulevard.

An analysis of more than 39 million anonymized and normalized data points published today by Cycognito, a provider of platforms for discovering and testing attack surfaces, finds web servers accounted for more than a third (34%) of all the severe issues discovered.

The post Analysis Identifies Web Servers as Weakest Cybersecurity Link appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Austin, TX, 18th September 2024, CyberNewsWire

The post SpyCloud Unveils Massive Scale of Identity Exposure Due to Infostealers, Highlighting Need for Advanced Cybersecurity Measures appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Cary, North Carolina, 18th September 2024, CyberNewsWire

The post INE Security Wins 2024 SC Excellence Award appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Vim, a popular text editor in Unix-like operating systems, has been identified with two medium-severity vulnerabilities that could pose a security risk to users. These vulnerabilities, identified as CVE-2024-41957 and CVE-2024-43374, could allow attackers to cause a denial of service (DoS) or potentially execute code with user privileges. Let’s dive into these vulnerabilities, their potential […]

The post Ubuntu Fixes Memory Vulnerabilities in Vim: Patch Now appeared first on TuxCare.

The post Ubuntu Fixes Memory Vulnerabilities in Vim: Patch Now appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI ...

The post DMARC for PCI DSS: Your Practical Guide to 2025 Compliance Implementation appeared first on EasyDMARC.

The post DMARC for PCI DSS: Your Practical Guide to 2025 Compliance Implementation appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Apple Inc, announced a fightback after the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) allegedly forced a compromise on the security of its products.

The post Fair Ball or Foul Play?  EU’s Digital Markets Act Puts App Security on Shaky Ground appeared first on Security Boulevard.

In today’s cybersecurity landscape, protecting sensitive information is more critical than ever. The latest “Cyber Security in Focus report” by...

The post Data Detection & Response (DDR): Not the Dance Revolution It Claims appeared first on Symmetry Systems.

The post Data Detection & Response (DDR): Not the Dance Revolution It Claims appeared first on Security Boulevard.

GSOC modernization is a journey that starts with understanding your unique business needs This article was originally published in ASIS Security Management Magazine. In the past decade, global security operations centers (GSOCs) have been in their early adolescence. They were focused on baseline physical security functions such as monitoring alarm systems and video surveillance feeds.…

The post How to Modernize Security Operations Centers appeared first on Ontic.

The post How to Modernize Security Operations Centers appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Let’s first review the breach as published in many online sources. Here is the summary of what happened

The post Fortinet Mid-September Data Breach Advisory appeared first on Seceon.

The post Fortinet Mid-September Data Breach Advisory appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Authors/Presenters:Zili Zhang, Fangyue Liu, Gang Huang, Xuanzhe Liu, Xin Jin

Our sincere thanks to USENIX, and the Presenters & Authors for publishing their superb 21st USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI '24) content, placing the organizations enduring commitment to Open Access front and center. Originating from the conference’s events situated at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara; and via the organizations YouTube channel.

Permalink

The post USENIX NSDI ’24 – Fast Vector Query Processing for Large Datasets Beyond GPU Memory with Reordered Pipelining appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Read the blog to see how CrowdStrike and AppOmni come together for a more secure SaaS environment for organizations.

The post AppOmni and CrowdStrike Partner to Transform SaaS Security appeared first on AppOmni.

The post AppOmni and CrowdStrike Partner to Transform SaaS Security appeared first on Security Boulevard.

via the comic humor & dry wit of Randall Munroe, creator of XKCD

Permalink

The post Randall Munroe’s XKCD ‘Craters’ appeared first on Security Boulevard.

In this blog series, we dive into the challenges faced by our heroes of Threat-Informed Defense, how they address them, and the benefits they are driving for their team and organization. 

The post Tackling the Visibility Challenges in the SOC appeared first on Security Boulevard.

In this two-part series, we began by examining the structure of ServiceNow, and the relationship between articles, pages, and widgets. Now, in Part 2, we discover how a widget misconfiguration can be exploited. To read the intro (Part 1), click here. ServiceNow is one of the world’s most popular IT service management (ITSM) platforms, used […]

The post Part 2: Can Just Anyone Access Your ServiceNow Articles? appeared first on Adaptive Shield.

The post Part 2: Can Just Anyone Access Your ServiceNow Articles? appeared first on Security Boulevard.

The Contrast Security Runtime Security Platform — the engine that underpins Contrast’s Application Detection and Response (ADR) technology — blocked approximately 47K cybersecurity attacks during the month of August 2024. 

The post Top 4 Application Attacks Detected and Blocked by Contrast ADR | XSS, Method Tampering, Path Traversal and JNDI Injection | Contrast Security appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Learn how to set up your hacking environment to attack mobile apps & APIs running on modern versions of Android with Burp Suite.

The post Hacking Modern Android Mobile Apps & APIs with Burp Suite appeared first on Dana Epp's Blog.

The post Hacking Modern Android Mobile Apps & APIs with Burp Suite appeared first on Security Boulevard.

What if I told you that thousands of companies (30% of the accounts we reviewed) are leaving a backdoor open to their ServiceNow databases for anyone with limited programming skills? This is a story of how a simple misconfiguration in one of the world’s most used SaaS applications sitting at the core of a company’s […]

The post Part 1: Can Just Anyone Access Your ServiceNow Articles? appeared first on Adaptive Shield.

The post Part 1: Can Just Anyone Access Your ServiceNow Articles? appeared first on Security Boulevard.

Organizations are often inundated with many security threats and vulnerabilities in today's fast-paced cybersecurity landscape. As a result, many have turned to point solutions—tools designed to solve specific problems, such as vulnerability scanning, incident response, or threat intelligence. These tools can be effective in their respective silos, but when organizations rely on too many of them, inefficiencies arise, and significant cybersecurity risks can emerge.

The post From Fragmentation to Integration: Establishing a Cyber Risk Management Program appeared first on Security Boulevard.