Threat Exposure Management (TEM) is a comprehensive, cyclical cybersecurity discipline that proactively identifies, prioritizes, and mitigates security weaknesses across an organization's entire digital ecosystem. It is an evolution beyond traditional vulnerability management, shifting the focus from simply reporting flaws to actively managing and reducing the organization's total risk exposure from an external, adversarial viewpoint.
TEM is a foundational use case in cybersecurity because it represents the continuous, strategic process of identifying, prioritizing, and neutralizing all potential attack entry points.
ThreatNG's Role in Executing Threat Exposure Management
ThreatNG is an all-in-one platform that implements the principles of Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) by providing an external-adversary view of an organization's digital footprint. It continuously discovers, assesses, and prioritizes threats originating outside the network, effectively transforming reactive vulnerability management into proactive risk mitigation.
External Discovery and Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG’s foundational capability is its ability to perform purely external unauthenticated discovery using no connectors. This means it continuously scans the public internet, mapping the entire attack surface—domains, IP ranges, certificates, and cloud assets—just as an attacker would.
Continuous Monitoring Example: Continuous monitoring ensures that when new assets spin up (such as a forgotten development server) or existing assets change state (such as a private repository becoming public), the exposure is immediately noted. This process is vital for discovering Shadow IT and external assets, like a Corporate Internet Exposed Gateway Device.
External Assessment and Security Ratings
The platform conducts detailed External Assessments to rate and prioritize the discovered risks, providing an instant understanding of the impact. ThreatNG translates raw findings into security scores that drive action:
Cyber Risk Exposure Example: The rating is high for a Directly Connected Internal System, where Domain Intelligence reveals an exposed, sensitive port (e.g., RDP or SSH). The assessment links this exposure to Known Vulnerabilities (CVEs) in the identified software.
Data Leak Susceptibility Example: This rating is high if Cloud and SaaS Exposure discovers an open, misconfigured cloud storage bucket, revealing the potential for sensitive data leakage, like Corporate Bank Account Routing Information Exposed.
Brand Damage Susceptibility Example: This rating captures risks that directly harm public perception and revenue, highlighting a Counterfeit Product Offered For Sale Or Use on external sites.
Intelligence Repositories
ThreatNG’s intelligence repositories, such as DarCache, continuously ingest data from the dark web and underground sources to detect compromised data and inform assessments.
Credential Exposure Example: The Compromised Credentials (DarCache Rupture) repository is explicitly designed to detect credentials and secrets. It provides immediate confirmation that credentials tied to a specific hostname or to an Infected Employee-Owned Device Corporate Credentials are in the wild, enabling proactive password resets rather than waiting for an attack.
Ransomware Exposure Example: The Ransomware Groups and Activities (DarCache Ransomware) repository tracks ransomware gang activity, which serves as a source for detecting a Ransom Dump Supplier or Ransom Dump Customer, allowing the organization to understand third-party risks.
Investigation Modules and Reporting
ThreatNG provides specialized investigation tools to transform chaotic manual searching into decisive security insight.
Reconnaissance Hub Example: The unified interface allows a security analyst to pivot instantly from a high-level alert (e.g., a spike in the Cyber Risk Exposure score) to a granular investigation using Advanced Search. If a critical vulnerability is announced, Overwatch instantly shows the organization's exposure across all assets, and the analyst can pivot to Advanced Search, filtering for all systems related to a Contractor or Vendor Managed System to prioritize remediation.
Advanced Search Example: An analyst uses Advanced Search to filter all discovered ports and services for common weaknesses, or filters Domain Name Permutations to find specific Homoglyph Attack Domains, rapidly validating the threat.
Reporting: This process enables efficient reporting by transforming a large volume of chaotic external data into decisive security insight.
Cooperation with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's highly validated and prioritized external exposure data is designed to enhance the effectiveness of other security tools.
Working with SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response): When ThreatNG’s Code Secret Exposure feature finds a publicly exposed Source Code Repository created by an Employee that contains exposed API keys, this critical finding can be automatically sent to a complementary SOAR platform. The SOAR platform can immediately execute a workflow to revoke the exposed keys, notify the code repository owner, and open a ticket, automating the response without manual intervention.
Working with SIEM (Security Information and Event Management): If Dark Web Presence detects a large volume of Infected Employee-Owned Device Corporate Credentials from a data leak, the entire list of compromised email addresses can be streamed to a complementary SIEM solution. The SIEM can then correlate these external leaks with internal login attempts, instantly creating a high-fidelity alert if an attacker attempts to use the stolen credentials against the corporate network.
Working with Ticketing or GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) Systems: Findings from the External GRC Assessment—such as the identification of a Remote Site Owned System Presumed Connected running vulnerable software—can be automatically routed to a complementary Ticketing or GRC system. This ensures the exposure is formally logged, assigned to the correct remediation team, and tracked through the organization’s formal risk framework.
