Protecting the expanding attack surface has become a challenging task, with security measures struggling to keep up. Managing this risk has become a priority for many organizations, prompting them to seek solutions.
In response to these challenges, Gartner introduced the Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) framework in 2022, stressing the importance of boosting security readiness and resilience across organizations.
“By 2026, organizations that prioritize security investments through a continuous exposure management program will have a significantly lower breach risk.” Gartner, “How to Manage Cybersecurity Threats, Not Episodes,” August 21, 2023
CTEM offers a holistic perspective on the attack surface and its vulnerabilities, assessing the effectiveness of security controls and facilitating the remediation of identified weaknesses.
Implementing CTEM may seem overwhelming due to its complexity. To simplify this process, we have deconstructed the framework into pillars, offering practical steps to guide you through exposure management.
Core Principle #1: Enhance your Insight into the Attack Surface
Asset management often falls short in providing a comprehensive view of the attack surface, primarily focusing on on-premise vulnerabilities. CTEM broadens this view to include internal, external, and cloud exposures, offering a more realistic understanding of security risks.
Begin by scoping the environment for digital assets in phases, starting with the external attack surface or SaaS tools, then expanding to digital risk protection for deeper visibility.
Organizations should analyze their risk profiles by identifying vulnerabilities on critical assets, including misconfigurations and security control weaknesses. Addressing these issues is essential for robust security.
Core Principle #2: Enhance your Vulnerability Management Approach
While Vulnerability Management (VM) has been crucial for cybersecurity, it is no longer sufficient on its own. CTEM shifts the focus to prioritizing vulnerabilities based on exploitability and risk impact on critical assets, rather than relying solely on conventional scores and ratings.
Prioritization should concentrate on security gaps that pose a significant threat to critical assets, ensuring that the most sensitive digital assets are protected first.
Efficient validation involves testing the entire attack path, from initial access to exploitation impact, aligning with attackers’ strategies.
Core Principle #3: Validation Propels CTEM from Concept to Proven Strategy
The validation phase in the CTEM strategy simulates attacker methods to prevent security gaps exploitation. Testing methods like thinking in graphs, automating tests, validating real attack paths, and continuous testing mimic attackers’ techniques.
Regular validation ensures the ongoing effectiveness of security controls, allowing organizations to adapt swiftly to emerging threats across the entire attack surface.
CTEM: Invest Today – Reap Continuous Benefits
Implementing a CTEM strategy involves integrating various elements of people, processes, and tools. While it may seem daunting, organizations can leverage existing asset and vulnerability management systems to extend their security preparedness and resilience.
- Ensure your tools adequately cover the entire attack surface of your IT environment and are consistently updated to keep up with change.
- View this as an ongoing refinement process. Adopting the CTEM framework creates an agile cycle involving discovery, mitigations, and validations. The work is never truly finished. As your business expands and evolves, so does your IT infrastructure.
- Place validation as the core of your CTEM approach. This grants you the assurance that your security operations will hold under scrutiny. At any given time, you should have a clear picture of your position. It may all be in order, which is excellent. Alternatively, a deficiency may be uncovered, but now you can address it with a predefined strategy, fully understanding the repercussions.
Discover more about implementing a validation-first CTEM strategy with Pentera.
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