External Attack Surface Management: What’s Lurking Beneath The Surface

External Attack Surface Management (EASM) helps security practitioners identify and manage the systems they have exposed to the Internet. Subtle, inadvertent security exposures can lead to opportunistic crypto mining, ransomeware attacks, and site-wide organizational compromises.

In this white paper, we explain the value proposition of EASM, how it works, and how to evaluate which EASM solution is best for your company. While almost every EASM solution on the market incorporates Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), limiting the approach to just outside-in analysis fails to take advantage of your company’s insider knowledge. Defenders have few advantages in the cybersecurity game, but your deep understanding of your own environments and their contexts can increase the impact EASM has on your security posture.

External Attack Surface Management comes in three basic categories: risk rating platforms, SaaS tools, and managed service solutions. The tradeoff companies will grapple with in choosing the best fit is cost versus quality of findings. Ultimately, a managed service costs more but provides far more value for the money because the right partner will offer human-filtered expert insight. They also will be around when the inevitable global vulnerability appears (as Log4J did in spring 2022).

Download the white paper for the full details on why EASM can be a valuable tool in your cybersecurity toolkit.