Risk Open
In the context of cybersecurity, a Risk-Open approach signifies an organization's willingness to take on significant cyber risks in pursuit of aggressive growth, market disruption, or groundbreaking innovation. It's an entrepreneurial and aggressive stance where cybersecurity is viewed as a necessary enabler for achieving ambitious business objectives, even if it means operating at the forefront of risk. The focus is less on avoiding risks and more on rapid iteration, learning from failures, and dominating a market or technology space.
Here's a detailed breakdown of what "Risk Open" implies in cybersecurity:
Core Characteristics of a Risk-Open Cybersecurity Posture:
Aggressive Pursuit of Opportunity:
Innovation at All Costs (within strategic bounds): The organization will embrace new, unproven, or high-risk technologies (e.g., bleeding-edge AI, quantum computing, experimental blockchain applications) if they offer a significant competitive advantage.
Market Disruption Focus: Security might be consciously deprioritized in the short term to achieve "first-mover" advantage or rapidly scale operations, with the understanding that security will be refined as the product or service matures.
Rapid Iteration and Deployment: Speed of deployment and agility are paramount. Security processes are designed to be extremely lean and automated, minimizing any potential friction in the development and release cycles.
Emphasis on Post-Breach Resilience and Learning:
Acceptance of Incident Likelihood: Cyber incidents are explicitly recognized as highly likely given the high-risk appetite. The strategy shifts from "prevent all breaches" to "assume breach" and focuses on minimizing impact, rapid recovery, and learning.
World-Class Detection and Response: Investment in incident response, forensics, and rapid recovery capabilities is exceptionally high. The ability to detect breaches quickly, contain them, and resume operations with minimal disruption is paramount.
Learning Culture: Every security incident is seen as a valuable learning opportunity. Post-mortems are conducted rigorously, and lessons are immediately integrated into future designs and processes to improve resilience for subsequent iterations.
Experimental and Adaptive Security Controls:
Embracing New Security Paradigms: Willingness to experiment with innovative, potentially unproven security technologies and methodologies that align with the high-risk environment (e.g., chaos engineering for security, advanced deception technologies).
Automated Security in CI/CD: Heavy reliance on automated security testing and controls integrated directly into continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to maintain rapid development cycles.
Minimalist Compliance (at inception): While compliance is addressed eventually, it may not be the primary driver at the early stages of product development or market entry. The focus is on functionality and speed.
Decentralized and Empowered Security:
Embedded Security: Security teams are deeply embedded within development and operational teams, acting as advisors and enablers rather than centralized gatekeepers.
Risk Delegation: Individual teams or product owners may have significant autonomy in making real-time risk decisions within broad, high-level guidelines, fostering speed and ownership.
High Tolerance for Ambiguity: The organization and its security leadership are comfortable operating in environments with significant uncertainty regarding cyber risks, continuously assessing and adapting.
Trade-offs and Potential Downsides:
Highest Inherent Risk: This approach carries the highest potential for significant and costly cyber incidents, including data breaches, intellectual property theft, or operational disruptions.
Reputational Damage: Multiple or high-profile incidents could lead to severe reputational harm, affecting customer trust, investor confidence, and market position.
Regulatory Scrutiny: Increased risk exposure often leads to heightened scrutiny from regulators, potentially resulting in fines or operational restrictions, especially as the organization scales.
Talent Drain: A high-pressure, high-risk environment might lead to burnout or turnover among security personnel if not managed carefully.
Examples of Risk-Open Actions in Cybersecurity:
Launching a novel, unproven online service into a new market quickly, with a lean security team, relying heavily on cloud-native security features and automated monitoring, and planning to iterate on more advanced security controls once market fit is proven.
Aggressively pursuing early adoption of nascent technologies (e.g., a new decentralized ledger technology for financial transactions) that inherently carry unknown security risks, betting on early market dominance and a rapid response capability to address emerging threats.
Prioritizing software delivery speed over exhaustive pre-release security testing, instead relying on extensive bug bounty programs and robust post-deployment monitoring and patching to identify and fix vulnerabilities rapidly.
Deliberately building minimum viable products (MVPs) with core functionality, even if it means some non-critical security features are deferred, with the understanding that these will be added in later, rapid iterations based on market feedback and incident analysis.
Accepting the risk of some insider threats or intellectual property leakage in a highly collaborative and open internal environment to foster innovation, while investing heavily in forensic capabilities and data exfiltration detection to respond rapidly when it occurs.
Aggressive business objectives drive a risk-open cybersecurity posture, and cybersecurity is viewed as an adaptable function that must keep pace with rapid innovation and market disruption, even if it means embracing higher but actively managed levels of cyber risk.
ThreatNG is uniquely positioned to assist organizations with a Risk-open cybersecurity posture as an all-in-one solution for external attack surface management, digital risk protection, and security ratings. It provides the essential external visibility and rapid intelligence needed to support aggressive growth and innovation. It allows organizations to accept higher cyber risks while ensuring they have robust capabilities to quickly identify, assess, and respond to potential threats. ThreatNG's design aligns with a risk-open approach by enabling rapid iteration, learning from possible failures, and maintaining market dominance through agile security insights.
External Discovery ThreatNG performs purely external, unauthenticated discovery using no connectors. This capability is crucial for a risk-open organization because it allows for rapid and comprehensive mapping of the digital footprint created by aggressive business initiatives. For example, when launching new products, services, or expanding into new digital territories, ThreatNG can immediately identify newly spun-up cloud instances, experimental web applications, or unmanaged subdomains that might carry inherent risks. This fast, broad discovery enables the organization to understand the expanded attack surface as quickly as it's created, allowing them to iterate and adapt security measures in lockstep with their rapid development cycles.
External Assessment ThreatNG provides a comprehensive set of external assessment ratings that are highly beneficial for a risk-open organization. These ratings offer rapid insights into potential vulnerabilities and exposures as new initiatives are implemented.
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: This score is substantiated by analyzing externally accessible parts of a web application to identify potential entry points for attackers. A risk-open organization launching numerous new web applications or services can quickly assess its susceptibility, allowing it to proceed with deployment and prioritize addressing high-impact vulnerabilities post-launch or swiftly implement compensating controls.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG evaluates this using external attack surface and digital risk intelligence, incorporating Domain Intelligence, which includes analysis of subdomains, DNS records, and SSL certificate statuses. For an organization that is open to risk for competitive advantage, this assessment allows them to deploy new subdomains for experimental projects or marketing campaigns rapidly. At the same time, ThreatNG continuously monitors for and flags potential takeover vulnerabilities, enabling quick remediation without stifling innovation.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This rating is derived from Sentiment and Financials Findings, Domain Intelligence (including Domain Name Permutations, Web3 Domains, and Email Intelligence), and Dark Web Presence (Compromised Credentials). A risk-open organization might engage in aggressive market communication. ThreatNG helps them understand their exposure to business email compromise and phishing, enabling them to quickly adapt their communication strategies or implement targeted security measures when new threats are identified.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: Derived from attack surface intelligence, digital risk intelligence, ESG Violations, Sentiment and Financials (Lawsuits, SEC filings, 8-Ks, Negative News), and Domain Intelligence (Domain Name Permutations and Web3 Domains). An organization pushing for market disruption might attract negative attention. This assessment helps them continuously monitor for potential brand damage risks from their external footprint, allowing for agile public relations and mitigation efforts.
Data Leak Susceptibility: This is derived from external attack surface and digital risk intelligence based on Cloud and SaaS Exposure, Dark Web Presence (Compromised Credentials), Domain Intelligence, and Sentiment and Financials (Lawsuits and SEC Form 8-Ks). For organizations rapidly experimenting with new cloud services or SaaS platforms, this assessment is crucial for identifying unintended data exposures in real-time, allowing them to address leaks while maintaining rapid development and deployment cycles quickly.
Cyber Risk Exposure: This considers parameters from the Domain Intelligence module, including certificates, subdomain headers, vulnerabilities, and sensitive ports, factoring in Code Secret Exposure. Cloud and SaaS Exposure and compromised credentials on the dark web are also considered. This holistic view provides a quick understanding of the overall cyber risk associated with new or rapidly deployed assets, allowing a risk-open organization to make swift, informed decisions about acceptable risk and necessary rapid response.
ESG Exposure: ThreatNG rates based on discovered environmental, social, and governance (ESG) violations through its external attack surface and digital risk intelligence findings. It analyzes and highlights Competition, Consumer, Employment, Environment, Financial, Government Contracting, Healthcare, and Safety-related offenses. For a risk-open organization, this helps balance aggressive growth with maintaining ethical and regulatory standing, enabling agile adjustments to strategy to avoid significant non-cyber risks.
Supply Chain & Third Party Exposure: Derived from Domain Intelligence (Enumeration of Vendor Technologies from DNS and Subdomains), Technology Stack, and Cloud and SaaS Exposure. An organization with an open risk appetite might rapidly form partnerships or use numerous third-party services to accelerate growth. This assessment helps them quickly understand the security posture of these external dependencies, allowing for agile vetting and continuous monitoring to manage supply chain risks.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: This is derived from external attack surface and digital risk intelligence, including domain intelligence (exposed sensitive ports, exposed private IPs, and known vulnerabilities), dark web presence (compromised credentials and ransomware events and gang activity), and sentiment and financials (SEC Form 8-Ks). For a risk-open organization, this assessment is paramount as it provides a clear understanding of the likelihood of high-impact events, even when taking on higher risk. It enables them to prioritize investment in cutting-edge detection and rapid response capabilities to minimize the impact of inevitable incidents.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates how exposed an organization’s mobile apps are through discovery in marketplaces and for the following contents: Access Credentials, Security Credentials, and Platform Specific Identifiers. For an organization rapidly deploying mobile applications to capture market share, this assessment allows them to quickly identify and address hardcoded credentials or sensitive data exposures, maintaining development velocity while proactively managing critical mobile application risks.
Positive Security Indicators ThreatNG identifies and highlights an organization's security strengths, detecting the presence of beneficial security controls and configurations, such as Web Application Firewalls or multi-factor authentication. It validates these positive measures from the perspective of an external attacker, providing objective evidence of their effectiveness. This feature helps a risk-open organization quickly validate that its core security investments are yielding results, allowing it to confidently invest in riskier, innovative ventures elsewhere.
Reporting ThreatNG provides various reporting options, including Executive, Technical, Prioritized (High, Medium, Low, and Informational), Security Ratings, Inventory, Ransomware Susceptibility, and U.S. SEC Filings. The prioritized reporting is especially crucial for a risk-open organization, as it enables them to rapidly focus resources on the highest-impact external risks, allowing for agile decision-making and swift remediation without impeding the pace of business. This ensures that security efforts are always aligned with the most pressing threats.
Continuous Monitoring ThreatNG offers continuous monitoring of all organizations' external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings. This constant vigilance is critical for a risk-open organization. As new technologies are adopted and the attack surface dynamically expands with rapid innovation, continuous monitoring ensures that any newly introduced vulnerabilities or changes in the external threat landscape are immediately identified. This enables agile adjustments to security controls and rapid incident response, preventing escalating risks from derailing strategic initiatives.
Investigation Modules ThreatNG's investigation modules offer detailed insights, providing the depth of information a risk-open organization needs to quickly understand and triage specific threats associated with their dynamic and expanding environment.
Domain Intelligence: This includes a Domain Overview (Digital Presence Word Cloud, Microsoft Entra Identification, Bug Bounty Programs, and SwaggerHub instances), DNS Intelligence (Domain Record Analysis, IP Identification, Vendors and Technology Identification, Domain Name Permutations, Web3 Domains), Email Intelligence (Security Presence like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records, Format Predictions, and Harvested Emails), WHOIS Intelligence, and Subdomain Intelligence (HTTP Responses, Header Analysis, Server Headers, Cloud Hosting, Website Builders, E-commerce Platforms, Content Management Systems, Code Repositories, Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility, and Content Identification).
Example of ThreatNG helping: If a risk-open organization rapidly deploys many new online services, Subdomain Intelligence can quickly identify misconfigured subdomains that expose development environments or sensitive content. This allows them to quickly secure or remove these accidental exposures, preventing potential breaches that could halt their fast-paced innovation.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This discovers public code repositories and their exposure level, investigating for sensitive data such as Access Credentials (API Keys, Access Tokens, Generic Credentials, Cloud Credentials), Security Credentials (Cryptographic Keys), Configuration Files, Database Exposures, Application Data Exposures, Activity Records, Communication Platform Configurations, Development Environment Configurations, Security Testing Tools, Cloud Service Configurations, Remote Access Credentials, System Utilities, Personal Data, and User Activity.
Example of ThreatNG helping: A risk-open organization that prioritizes rapid code deployment might accidentally push sensitive API keys or configuration files to public code repositories. ThreatNG's Sensitive Code Exposure module would immediately flag these, enabling the rapid revocation of keys and the implementation of automated checks within their CI/CD pipeline to prevent future occurrences, allowing them to maintain development velocity while managing critical code-related risks.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: This identifies Sanctioned Cloud Services, Unsanctioned Cloud Services, Cloud Service Impersonations, and Open Exposed Cloud Buckets across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. It also lists various SaaS implementations associated with the organization.
Example of ThreatNG helping: If a risk-open organization experiments with numerous new cloud services or SaaS applications to gain a competitive edge, Cloud and SaaS Exposure can immediately identify if any of these are misconfigured, exposing sensitive data, or if unapproved (shadow IT) services are being used. This allows the security team to quickly assess and remediate the risk, ensuring that the drive for innovation doesn't create unmanageable security gaps.
Intelligence Repositories (DarCache) ThreatNG's continuously updated intelligence repositories (DarCache) provide the timely, relevant, and actionable threat intelligence crucial for a risk-open organization to stay ahead of threats and make rapid, informed decisions.
Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture): This repository contains compromised credentials. A risk-open organization can use this to quickly identify any compromised employee or customer credentials appearing on the dark web, enabling immediate password resets and multi-factor authentication enforcement. This is vital for managing the increased attack surface with rapid growth and external exposure.
Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware): This tracks over 70 Ransomware Gangs. This allows a risk-open organization to stay abreast of the latest ransomware Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), enabling them to proactively adapt their defenses and refine incident response plans for the most prevalent and impactful threats, even as they embrace new digital risks.
Vulnerabilities (DarCache Vulnerability): Provides a holistic and proactive approach to managing external risks and vulnerabilities by understanding their real-world exploitability, the likelihood of exploitation, and the potential impact. It comprises:
NVD (DarCache NVD): This tool offers a deep understanding of each vulnerability's technical characteristics and potential impact, including Attack Complexity, Attack Interaction, Attack Vector, Impact scores (Availability, Confidentiality, Integrity), CVSS Score, and Severity.
EPSS (DarCache EPSS): Data offers a probabilistic estimate of the likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited soon. Combining EPSS with other vulnerability data allows for a more forward-looking approach to prioritization, addressing vulnerabilities that are not just severe but also likely to be weaponized. A risk-open organization uses EPSS to focus patching efforts precisely on vulnerabilities with the highest probability of exploitation, optimizing their limited resources and enabling faster development cycles by avoiding unnecessary delays.
KEV (DarCache KEV): Identifies vulnerabilities actively exploited in the wild with critical context for prioritizing remediation efforts. This is paramount for a risk-open organization to quickly address immediate and proven threats that could impact their rapidly changing environment, allowing them to respond to critical vulnerabilities as they emerge in the wild.
Verified Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Exploits (DarCache eXploit): Direct links to Proof-of-Concept (PoC) exploits on platforms like GitHub, referenced by CVE, significantly accelerate the understanding of how a vulnerability can be exploited. This information is invaluable for security teams to reproduce the vulnerability, assess its real-world impact, and develop effective mitigation strategies, enabling rapid and targeted responses to critical external exposures.
Complementary Solutions ThreatNG's rich external data and rapid insights can be significantly amplified when combined with other cybersecurity solutions, creating a dynamic and highly responsive security ecosystem for a risk-open organization.
ThreatNG and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) Platforms: ThreatNG's continuous monitoring and detailed assessment reports, especially those highlighting critical risks and recommended actions, can feed directly into a SOAR platform.
Example of ThreatNG helping: ThreatNG identifies a newly deployed, unpatched server with a high-severity vulnerability (identified via DarCache KEV) on the external attack surface.
Example of ThreatNG and complementary solutions: The SOAR platform can automatically ingest this alert from ThreatNG, create a high-priority incident ticket, notify the relevant DevOps team, and even trigger an automated patch deployment or temporary network segmentation for that server, enabling a rapid and automated response that aligns with a risk-open approach to managing emergent threats.
ThreatNG and Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Tools: ThreatNG's Cloud and SaaS Exposure module identifies external cloud misconfigurations and open exposed buckets.
Example of ThreatNG helping: ThreatNG discovers a publicly accessible storage bucket in AWS that was unintentionally left open during a rapid development deployment.
Example of ThreatNG and complementary solutions: This external finding from ThreatNG can be integrated with a CSPM tool, which can then automatically remediate the misconfiguration by enforcing correct access policies or alert the cloud operations team for immediate manual intervention, ensuring that the externally identified cloud risk is addressed swiftly within the cloud environment.
ThreatNG and Vulnerability Management (VM) Systems: While ThreatNG excels at identifying external vulnerabilities and their exploitability (DarCache Vulnerability), VM systems manage internal scanning and patching workflows.
Example of ThreatNG helping: ThreatNG identifies a newly discovered severe vulnerability with a high EPSS score on an organization's public-facing web server, indicating it's likely to be exploited.
Example of ThreatNG and complementary solutions: This highly prioritized external vulnerability data from ThreatNG can be fed into the VM system, which then automatically elevates the priority for patching this specific server across the organization's assets. This ensures that the most impactful external vulnerabilities are addressed with extreme urgency within the internal remediation workflows, supporting the rapid response needed by a risk-open organization.
ThreatNG and Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIPs): ThreatNG's intelligence repositories (DarCache Dark Web, Ransomware, Compromised Credentials) provide rich, real-time threat data.
Example of ThreatNG helping: ThreatNG's DarCache Ransomware identifies a new, aggressive ransomware gang actively targeting organizations in the same industry.
Example of ThreatNG and complementary solutions: This threat intelligence from ThreatNG can be ingested into a broader TIP, which correlates it with other intelligence feeds and internal telemetry. This enriched intelligence can then proactively update defensive controls (e.g., firewall rules, EDR signatures) across the enterprise and inform security operations center (SOC) analysts about new TTPs to watch for, enabling proactive defense against emerging threats.
