Risk
In cybersecurity, risk is the potential for harm or loss to digital assets, information, or systems resulting from a cybersecurity event. It's a measure of the likelihood that a threat will exploit a vulnerability and the impact of that exploitation.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Threat: A threat is any circumstance or event that can cause harm. Common cybersecurity threats include malware, phishing attacks, denial-of-service attacks, and insider actions.
Vulnerability: A weakness in a system, application, or process that a threat can exploit. Examples include software bugs, weak passwords, misconfigurations, and a lack of user awareness.
Likelihood: Likelihood is the probability that a given threat will exploit a specific vulnerability. This assessment considers factors such as the threat actor's capabilities, motivation, and the target's attractiveness.
Impact: Impact refers to the extent of the damage or loss that would result if a threat successfully exploits a vulnerability. This can include financial losses, reputational damage, data breaches, legal consequences, and disruption of operations.
Risk in cybersecurity is not simply the existence of a threat or a vulnerability in isolation; it's the combination of all these factors. It's about understanding what could happen to your digital assets, how likely it is to happen, and how dire the consequences would be.
Risk management in cybersecurity involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating these risks to an acceptable level.
Let's explore how ThreatNG addresses cybersecurity risk, emphasizing its modules and potential synergies with complementary solutions.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG excels in external discovery by performing "purely external unauthenticated discovery" without needing connectors. This capability is crucial for identifying an organization's complete attack surface, revealing assets visible to potential attackers.
Example: ThreatNG can discover all subdomains associated with a company, including those that might be unknown or forgotten, along with their associated open ports and services.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: This external discovery data is highly valuable for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems. SIEMs can use ThreatNG's findings to correlate external vulnerabilities with internal events, providing a more comprehensive view of potential risks. For example, if ThreatNG discovers an exposed entry point, the SIEM can monitor for related intrusion attempts.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG provides various external assessment capabilities, delivering security ratings and detailed analysis across various risk vectors.
Examples:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes externally accessible parts of web applications to identify potential entry points for attackers to hijack the application.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: It assesses the risk of subdomain takeover by analyzing DNS records, SSL certificate statuses, and other relevant factors.
Data Leak Susceptibility: ThreatNG identifies potential data leaks by examining cloud and SaaS exposure, dark web presence (Compromised Credentials), and Domain Intelligence. It also discovers code repositories and their exposure level, investigating them for the presence of sensitive data.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates an organization’s mobile app exposure by discovering them in marketplaces and analyzing them for the presence of access credentials, security credentials, and platform-specific identifiers.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Vulnerability Management solutions can use ThreatNG's external assessment data to prioritize internal scanning and remediation efforts. For instance, if ThreatNG identifies a high susceptibility to subdomain takeover, the vulnerability scanner can focus on the affected systems and configurations.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG offers various reporting formats, including executive, technical, and prioritized reports, to communicate risk information effectively.
Example: ThreatNG provides "Prioritized (High, Medium, Low, and Informational)" reports, enabling security teams to focus on the most critical risks and allocate resources accordingly.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) platforms can use ThreatNG's reports to gain insights into an organization's security posture and demonstrate compliance with relevant regulations.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG continuously monitors the external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This proactive approach enables organizations to stay ahead of evolving threats.
Example: ThreatNG continuously monitors for changes in an organization's digital footprint, such as the emergence of new subdomains or exposed services, and alerts security teams to potential risks.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms can automate responses to ThreatNG's alerts. For example, if ThreatNG detects a new, unauthorized subdomain, the SOAR platform can trigger an automated workflow to investigate and mitigate the risk.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG includes a suite of investigation modules that provide detailed information for security analysts to assess and understand risks.
Examples:
Domain Intelligence: Provides a comprehensive overview of an organization's digital presence, including DNS records, subdomains, and email security configurations. For instance, it identifies "SwaggerHub instances, which include API documentation and specifications," which can help in assessing API-related risks.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This type of work uncovers public code repositories and digital risks, including exposed credentials and secrets within the code that could lead to unauthorized access.
Search Engine Exploitation: This tool helps users investigate an organization’s susceptibility to exposing sensitive information via search engines, such as files or directories that should not be publicly accessible.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs) can use the detailed intelligence from ThreatNG's investigation modules to enrich their threat feeds and provide more context to security analysts. For example, if ThreatNG's Dark Web Presence module identifies compromised credentials, the TIP can correlate this information with other threat data to assess the potential for account takeover attacks.
ThreatNG's Help: ThreatNG's "Intelligence Repositories (Branded as DarCache: Data Reconnaissance Cache)" provide continuously updated information on various threat vectors.
Examples:
DarCache Vulnerability: This provides a holistic and proactive approach to managing external risks and vulnerabilities by understanding their real-world exploitability, likelihood of exploitation, and potential impact.
DarCache Mobile: Indicates the presence of access credentials, security credentials and platform specific identifiers within Mobile Apps, helping to identify potential mobile app-related risks.
Synergy with Complementary Solutions: Threat intelligence platforms can use ThreatNG's intelligence repositories to enhance their data and provide more comprehensive threat assessments. For example, a TIP could use DarCache Vulnerability data to prioritize vulnerability patching based on the likelihood of exploitation, as indicated by EPSS scores.
