Attack Surface Prioritization
Attack surface prioritization in cybersecurity is the process of ranking and ordering an organization's attack surface components based on their associated risk. The attack surface is the total collection of points on a system or network where an attacker could try to enter or extract data. Effective prioritization allows security teams to focus their limited resources on the areas that pose the greatest threat to the organization.
Here's a breakdown of the key elements:
Attack Surface Components: The various assets and entry points make up an organization's digital presence. They can include:
Web applications
APIs
Network devices
Servers
Cloud services
Databases
Endpoints (laptops, mobile devices)
Risk Assessment: This involves evaluating the potential impact and likelihood of a successful attack on each attack surface component.
Impact: The potential harm to the organization if the component is compromised (e.g., data breach, financial loss, reputational damage, operational disruption).
Likelihood: The probability that an attacker will successfully exploit a vulnerability in the component, considering factors like the presence of known vulnerabilities, the attractiveness of the target, and the attacker's capabilities.
Prioritization Criteria: Organizations use various criteria to prioritize their attack surface, including:
Data sensitivity: Components that handle sensitive data (e.g., customer information, financial records) are often prioritized higher.
System criticality: Components for business operations are prioritized to ensure availability and continuity.
Vulnerability severity: Components with known high-severity vulnerabilities are prioritized for remediation.
Exploitability: Components with easily exploitable vulnerabilities are prioritized.
Accessibility: Components directly accessible online may be prioritized due to their higher exposure.
Outcomes of Prioritization:
Efficient resource allocation: Security teams can focus their efforts on the most critical areas, maximizing the effectiveness of their work.
Improved risk reduction: By addressing the highest-risk components first, organizations can achieve the most significant decrease in overall risk.
Faster response: Prioritization enables quicker response to the most urgent threats.
How ThreatNG Helps with Attack Surface Prioritization
ThreatNG provides capabilities that enable organizations to prioritize their external attack surface components based on risk effectively.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG's external discovery provides a comprehensive inventory of all external-facing assets. This is the first step in attack surface prioritization, as you need to know what you have before you can prioritize it.
Example: ThreatNG discovers all of an organization's web applications, APIs, subdomains, and cloud services. This allows security teams to see the full extent of their external attack surface.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) can use ThreatNG's discovery data to maintain an accurate inventory of external assets. This integration allows for a more holistic view of assets and their importance to the organization.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG's external assessment capabilities provide detailed risk information about each asset. This is crucial for prioritization.
Examples:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses the likelihood of web application hijacking, providing a risk score.
Data Leak Susceptibility: It identifies potential data leak sources and assesses the sensitivity of the data at risk.
Cyber Risk Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates vulnerabilities and misconfigurations contributing to cyber risk.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Vulnerability Management solutions can use ThreatNG's assessment data to prioritize internal scanning. For example, if ThreatNG identifies a web application with high hijack susceptibility and access to sensitive data, internal scanners can prioritize that application for deeper analysis.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG's reporting capabilities present risk information in a way that facilitates prioritization.
Example: ThreatNG provides "Prioritized (High, Medium, Low, and Informational)" reports, directly supporting attack surface prioritization by ranking assets based on their assessed risk.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: GRC platforms can use ThreatNG's prioritized reports to inform risk management decisions and allocate resources to the most critical areas.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring ensures that attack surface prioritization remains dynamic and reflects the current risk landscape.
Example: ThreatNG continuously monitors for new vulnerabilities or changes in asset configurations that could affect their risk level.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms can automate responses to ThreatNG's monitoring alerts, ensuring that prioritization changes are acted upon quickly.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG's investigation modules provide detailed information that helps security analysts understand the context of risks and make informed prioritization decisions.
Examples:
Domain Intelligence: Provides information about domain reputation and related infrastructure, helping to assess the risk associated with domain-based assets.
Code Repository Exposure: Identifies exposed code repositories with sensitive information, highlighting a high-risk scenario.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs) can use ThreatNG's investigation data to enrich their threat feeds and provide more context for attack surface prioritization.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG's intelligence repositories provide valuable context for assessing the likelihood and impact of attacks on different attack surface components.
Examples:
DarCache Vulnerability: Provides information on the exploitability and severity of vulnerabilities.
DarCache Dark Web: Provides insights into compromised credentials and ransomware activity, which can increase the risk associated with specific assets.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Threat intelligence platforms can use ThreatNG's intelligence repositories to refine risk scoring models and provide more accurate attack surface prioritization guidance.
