CTEM Remediation Mobilization
CTEM Remediation Mobilization is the fourth and action-oriented phase of the Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) program. It is the crucial point where the security team translates the validated and prioritized findings (from the previous phases) into measurable, tracked, and executed remediation tasks across the organization.
The goal of mobilization is not just to fix the problem, but to ensure the fix is assigned to the correct owner, completed efficiently, and verified quickly, thus closing the loop of the CTEM cycle.
Key Principles and Functions
Ticket Generation and Workflow Integration:
The platform automatically converts a validated, high-priority exposure into a structured work item or "ticket."
These tickets are pushed directly into existing IT Service Management (ITSM) tools (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira) or Vulnerability and Patch Management (VPM) systems. This ensures the security finding lands directly in the workflow used by the teams responsible for the fix (IT Operations, DevOps, Cloud Engineers).
Owner Assignment and Accountability:
Mobilization requires clear accountability. The remediation ticket must be automatically assigned to the correct owner based on asset classification (e.g., an exposed API vulnerability goes to the DevOps team that manages the API).
It tracks Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and remediation timelines for different risk levels (e.g., Critical exposures must be patched within 72 hours).
Remediation Context and Guidance:
The ticket must contain all the necessary context from the validation phase to empower the fix team. This includes:
Specific Asset Details: IP address, hostname, business unit, and owner.
Validation Evidence: Proof that the exposure is real and exploitable (e.g., a link to the confirmed exposed code snippet).
Prioritization Rationale: Why this fix is more urgent than others (e.g., "KEV status confirmed").
Remediation Steps: Clear, prescriptive instructions (e.g., "Upgrade Apache to version X.Y.Z" or "Remove public access policy from S3 bucket").
Verification Scheduling:
As soon as the owner marks a remediation task as complete, the mobilization phase automatically schedules the final step of the CTEM cycle: re-validation. This is the hand-off to the Continuous Monitoring phase, confirming the fix was successful and did not introduce new exposure.
Remediation Mobilization is the operational bridge between security intelligence and IT action, ensuring that exposure data results in quantifiable risk reduction.
ThreatNG plays a vital role by providing the validated evidence and critical prioritization context needed to generate effective, well-justified remediation tickets, thereby accelerating the fix process.
1. Reporting (Driving Ticket Generation and Accountability)
ThreatNG’s Reporting capabilities provide the structured output necessary for Remediation Mobilization by clearly communicating validated risk to the teams responsible for action.
Example of ThreatNG Helping (Accountability): The Security Ratings report flags a low-scoring business unit or subsidiary. This report acts as an accountability mechanism, immediately directing the organization's attention and remediation resources toward the entity with the worst overall exposure.
Example of ThreatNG Helping (Justification): The External GRC Assessment Mappings report identifies that an exposed server misconfiguration violates a PCI DSS control. This finding provides the regulatory justification needed to accelerate the remediation ticket past lower-priority tasks that lack compliance urgency.
2. External Assessment and Investigation Modules (Context and Guidance)
The core function of mobilization is providing the fix team with what to fix and how to fix it. ThreatNG’s validation data provides this prescriptive context.
Example of ThreatNG Helping (Context): A finding of high Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility (from External Assessment) immediately provides the necessary context for the ticket. The ticket includes the exact domain name and the external service it points to, giving the DevOps team the precise location and nature of the misconfiguration.
Example of ThreatNG Helping (Evidence): The Investigation Modules provide the specific evidence used to justify the action. When a ticket is generated to remove a database password, it includes the particular path and file name where the Database Credential was found via the Sensitive Code Exposure module, eliminating the need for the remediation team to waste time searching for the leak.
3. Intelligence Repositories (Prioritization Rationale)
The Intelligence Repositories provide the risk rationale that guarantees the remediation task is pushed to the top of the queue—a critical function of mobilization.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: An exposure is found on an organization's server. ThreatNG uses DarCache Vulnerability intelligence to confirm whether the CVE is actively exploited in the wild (KEV status). When the remediation ticket is generated, this KEV status is included, overriding all standard timelines and enforcing an emergency SLA (e.g., 24-hour fix window) for mobilization.
4. Continuous Monitoring (Verification Scheduling)
Continuous Monitoring automatically handles the verification step of mobilization, ensuring the fix was successful.
Example of ThreatNG Helping: After the IT team patches a server to address a vulnerability flagged by External Assessment, Continuous Monitoring automatically re-scans that specific asset within a short period. If the vulnerability is still present, the ticket is automatically re-opened and escalated, preventing a false-positive remediation.
Cooperation with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG specializes in the why (validated risk and prioritization) and works with complementary solutions that specialize in the how (execution and workflow management).
ThreatNG and a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Solution:
Cooperation: ThreatNG informs the SIEM about high-risk external access vectors, allowing the SIEM to mobilize internal defenses.
Example: ThreatNG validates the risk posed by exposed Sensitive Ports and high Cyber Risk Exposure at the network edge. This data is used to configure the SIEM to immediately generate a high-priority alert for any network traffic attempting to use that specific exposed port, effectively mobilizing the security operations center (SOC) to monitor the validated weak point actively.
ThreatNG and a Vulnerability and Patch Management (VPM) Tool:
Cooperation: ThreatNG provides the necessary prioritization and context to automate ticket assignment and scheduling within the VPM tool.
Example: ThreatNG's Overwatch system validates and prioritizes a critical CVE using DarCache intelligence. This finding is sent directly to the VPM tool, which uses the high-priority flag to assign the task to the patching team instantly, create the work order, and prioritize the deployment of the specific patch for that externally exposed system.
