External Attack Surface Management Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
ThreatNG EASM: Your Questions Answered
ThreatNG External Attack Surface Management (EASM) offers a comprehensive solution to identify and manage potential security risks across your organization's digital footprint. This FAQ addresses common questions about ThreatNG EASM, including its functionality, key features, and practical applications. Whether you're seeking to understand the basics of EASM or looking for specific details on ThreatNG's capabilities, this resource will provide valuable insights.
Digital Risk Protection FAQ
Security Ratings FAQ
Cloud and SaaS Exposure Management FAQ
Third Party Risk Management FAQ
Due Diligence FAQ
General Questions
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ThreatNG is a unified architectural engine that cures the "Contextual Certainty Deficit" by providing ultra-high-fidelity discovery and contextual assessment. It goes beyond traditional, passive EASM solutions by combining unauthenticated recursive discovery with cloud vulnerability detection, dark web monitoring, and Non-Human Identity (NHI) exposure assessment. It is designed to proactively manage your external attack surface, eliminate alert fatigue, and provide the mathematical proof needed to defend your corporate reputation.
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ThreatNG helps by:
Providing complete, "outside-in" visibility into your true external attack surface—including forgotten "Shadow IT" and "Shadow Cloud" environments—without requiring any manual seed data.
Proactively identifying and mapping exact attack paths using DarChain to prioritize the most critical risks.
Offering Legal-Grade Attribution to prove asset ownership, allowing you to dispute erroneous penalties from legacy Security Rating Services and protect your cyber insurance premiums.
Highlighting Positive Security Indicators (such as active Web Application Firewalls and MFA) to prove the return on investment of your existing security stack.
Mapping external findings directly to regulatory mandates like SEC Form 8-K to ensure continuous compliance and avoid executive liability.
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Unlike legacy platforms that function as basic port scanners and rely heavily on customer-provided seed data, ThreatNG utilizes a patented Recursive Discovery process (US Patent No. 11,962,612 B2). This means it dynamically identifies your entire digital estate—including hidden subsidiaries and third-party vendor risks—without manual configuration. Furthermore, by separating deep discovery from chaotic automated takedowns, it entirely eliminates the "False Positive Tax" that plagues traditional Integrated Remediation DRP models.
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It addresses various security roles and their respective responsibilities in managing and securing the organization's external attack surface:
Security Analyst: Analysts escape alert fatigue and the chaotic noise of the internet by using the Context Engine™ to focus only on highly relevant, validated threats instead of chasing false positives.
Security Engineer: Engineers use DarChain to identify specific "Attack Choke Points" and remediate vulnerabilities before they facilitate a complete exploit chain.
Threat Hunter: Hunters gain deep visibility into the "unknown unknowns," utilizing purely unauthenticated discovery to find rogue cloud buckets and exposed APIs.
Vulnerability Management Team: Discovers and manages vulnerabilities in external-facing systems, utilizing live telemetry to ensure timely patching of emerging threats without relying on obsolete, cached data.
IT Operations Manager: Gains precise visibility into external-facing assets to ensure proper configuration, effectively eliminating "Ghost Assets" from the organization's responsibility.
Chief Risk Officer (CRO): Translates technical findings directly into business impact, quantifying cyber risk exposure and aligning external findings with ESG and GRC frameworks.
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): CISOs are empowered as "Score Auditors," using Legal-Grade Attribution and Correlation Evidence Questionnaires (CEQs) to mathematically prove compliance, defend against unjust rating agency downgrades, and meet stringent reporting requirements.
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ThreatNG utilizes a patented, purely external, unauthenticated recursive discovery methodology (US Patent No. 11,962,612 B2). Starting with a minimal query, the engine recursively queries the internet to dynamically map hidden layers of infrastructure, forgotten subdomains ("Dangling DNS"), and shadow IT without ever requiring you to provide a seed list, complex API connectors, or internal agents.
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Yes, the external attack surface of third-party vendors and partners is discovered and assessed. Crucially, ThreatNG resolves the "Ghost Asset" problem by providing mathematically verifiable evidence of ownership, ensuring your organization is not unjustly penalized for vulnerabilities in a third-party vendor.
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ThreatNG EASM offers flexible scan scheduling options to meet your needs. You can perform one-time scans for immediate insights or schedule recurring scans at your preferred frequency to maintain continuous visibility into your attack surface and support Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) initiatives.
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ThreatNG performs exhaustive susceptibility assessments across multiple vectors, including Web Application Hijack Susceptibility, Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility, BEC & Phishing Susceptibility, Data Leak Susceptibility, and Non-Human Identity (NHI) Exposure. It evaluates live telemetry to ensure data is actionable and not based on stale snapshots.
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Risks are prioritized using DarChain (External Contextual Attack Path Intelligence). Instead of relying on static severity scores, ThreatNG correlates technical, social, and regulatory exposures into a structured Threat Model, elevating the priority of assets that serve as critical pivot points for larger network compromise.
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Yes, the platform includes an embedded Knowledgebase providing the strategic reasoning behind identified risks, actionable recommendations for mitigating them, and specific paths to disrupt the adversary's exploit chain.
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Various reports tailored to different audiences are generated, from high-level summaries for executives to detailed technical reports for security teams. These are prioritized by risk level (High, Medium, Low, and Informational) and cover inventory, ransomware susceptibility, and specific SEC filings.
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Data from various sources are correlated through the Context Engine™ to provide business context for risk prioritization, allowing security teams to focus on the most critical issues and eliminate the "Hidden Tax on the SOC" associated with manual data correlation.
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Role-based access control (RBAC) ensures stakeholders can access the information they need while safeguarding sensitive data.
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CEQs replace subjective, claims-based security assessments with irrefutable, observed evidence of external risk. They provide the Legal-Grade Attribution necessary to easily determine if a risk is valid and offer the exact evidentiary ammunition needed to audit legacy rating agencies and force the immediate correction of unjust security scores.
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Organizations can define and enforce consistent security policies across their entire external attack surface, ensuring compliance with internal standards and mapping external findings directly to relevant GRC frameworks.
Key Features and Capabilities
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Various intelligence repositories are leveraged, including dark web data, ESG violation tracking, ransomware event monitoring, and conversational risk (news and public chatter). ThreatNG utilizes a proprietary Context Filter to ensure this intelligence is strictly localized and relevant, reducing the noise of global threat feeds.
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ThreatNG identifies a massive spectrum of exposures, including exposed APIs, misconfigured cloud services, dangling DNS records, compromised credentials, and "Shadow AI" data leaks. It also specifically quantifies Non-Human Identity (NHI) exposure by scanning for leaked access credentials like AWS keys, OAuth tokens, and Slack webhooks embedded in code.
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Technical risks are translated into understandable implications for your organization, empowering businesses to make data-driven security decisions. This includes assessments for SEC Form 8-K compliance readiness, BEC & Phishing Susceptibility, Brand Damage Susceptibility, Cyber Risk Exposure, ESG Exposure, and Web Application Hijack Susceptibility.
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Organizations are empowered to manage their external attack surface and mitigate cyber threats proactively. Capabilities extend across several key areas:
Protecting Against Account Takeover and Brand Abuse: Total brand hijacking is prevented by automatically validating "Dangling DNS" records before they can be claimed by an adversary. Brand abuse is mitigated by tracking domain name permutations and typosquats used to launch highly convincing Business Email Compromise (BEC) campaigns.
Strengthening Data Security and Compliance: Data security is strengthened by actively mapping external findings directly to PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, NIST CSF, and SEC 8-K filing requirements. Exposed sensitive information across open cloud buckets and public repositories is identified, minimizing the risk of executive liability.
Managing and Securing Digital Assets: Comprehensive digital asset management is achieved through patented recursive discovery that finds "unknown unknowns," automatically mapping subsidiaries, joint ventures, and unsanctioned SaaS applications without the need for manual seed data.
Enhancing Risk Management and Threat Intelligence: Threat hunting is elevated through DarChain, which maps the exact attack paths an adversary would take. The Cross Entity Search Facility (Overwatch) allows teams to instantly search their entire portfolio for critical CVEs and technologies, ending the need for multi-day manual fire drills.
Securing the Supply Chain and Third-Party Ecosystem: Your security perimeter is extended to encompass your supply chain without inheriting their false positives. ThreatNG provides true context and attribution to ensure your organization is only monitoring and responding to risks directly associated with your business relationships.
Improving Security Operations and Governance: Improved security operations are achieved by surfacing Positive Security Indicators, allowing teams to document the effectiveness of their WAFs and MFA deployments.
Supporting Due Diligence and M&A Activities: Due diligence processes are secured by granting full, unauthenticated visibility into the security posture of target companies before an acquisition is finalized, preventing stalled contracts and surprise cyber insurance premium hikes caused by algorithmic misattribution.
Digital Risk Protection FAQ
Security Ratings FAQ
Cloud and SaaS Exposure Management FAQ
Third Party Risk Management FAQ
Due Diligence FAQ