Any business looking to expand in this day and age needs some form of digital element, be it the devices used at the premises or the products they put on the internet. All these points are vulnerable to cyber-attacks and, therefore, need to be watched at all times to limit the potential negative impact. To address the risks, according to ImmuniWeb, a measure known as attack surface monitoring is employed.

Now this surveillance is only part of the danger mitigation process, but it can be argued that it is just as important as solving it, so ensuring it works optimally is cardinal. Let’s look at this monitoring aspect of a greater cybersecurity solution and see how it works as well as how it can be optimized.

Digital defense and comprehensive security

The idea of monitoring the attack surface simply refers to the continuous examination of an organization’s systems to identify any vulnerabilities that bad actors may exploit. It is part of a larger system known as attack surface management, which takes the findings of the observations and acts on them to make the organization’s systems more secure.

Attack surface monitoring is real-time scanning and evaluation of an organization’s full digital footprint, which includes websites, apps, internal networks and cloud services. This continual surveillance aids in the early detection of developing threats and weaknesses. Other crucial points to focus when applying the solution:

• Comprehensive coverage
• Real-time alerts
• Integration with ASM
• Data Driven Decisions
• Threat Intelligence and Regulatory Compliance
• Dynamic Adaptation and Incident Response

How it functions

Monitoring sees the use of various technologies to sweep over the attack surface, which is the entire space open to attacks from malicious entities. Said technologies include scans, logs and with these, a host of issues can be discovered and these include:

• Malware
• Potential insider attacks
• National or corporate espionage

Key areas for monitoring

Now, the areas that the attack surface monitoring practices of your choice would scan are vast, especially when you realize that digital transformation post-COVID only grew. As a result, malicious entities have various points or vectors, through which they can proceed with their actions. Among them are:

• Emails via phishing
• Weaknesses as a result of faulty cloud configuration
• Areas of weakness that are unknown to the organization
• Weaknesses along the supply chain through which malicious entry can be gained

Proven methods for enhancement

With all this in place, how does one optimize their attack monitoring abilities? Well a few things can be done and they include the following:

Focusing on the essentials

It should be noted that the attack surfaces of different areas will vary depending on size, with larger organizations having greater networks, more devices and a farther reach on the internet. As such, they have more weak points that can be exploited.

Constant monitoring of these assets is something that should be done. However, given the possibility that an organization may not have the resources to handle this, focus should instead be centered around the most essential areas.

Having measures in place to address the issues discovered

While monitoring in itself should be heightened to the best of its abilities, maximizing it requires that there be measures put in place to handle it. This can be done by establishing a patch management procedure, which sees that all potential issues such as bugs in the system that could fester, are handled immediately.

Employing automation

As stated earlier, larger organizations have much greater attack surfaces, which means that the likelihood of covering every potential risk needs to be heightened. Achieving this in the most efficient way possible would demand the use of anything that can allow for the automation of systems.

Tech of this kind can allow for speedy problem detection in real-time and the sooner these threats and weak points are detected, the quicker they can be addressed. Through things such as instant detection and subsequent notification of said issues to relevant parties, managing the problems becomes more streamlined and effective.

Staying ahead of malicious entities

Within the realm of cybersecurity is something known as cyber threat intelligence or CTI and it refers to a proactive practice in which organizations gain knowledge of what bad actors do. This stance is indeed proactive, as it allows organizations to get ahead of the problem and prepare for it, whatever it is.

This way of going about things is especially vital in this day and age where the tactics of malicious entities seem to continuously grow, sometimes surpassing the capabilities of potential victims.

Optimizing solutions for better cybersecurity

Periodically it is crucial to review and update ASM strategies to adapt to changes. This includes reassessing the scope of monitoring and:

• Leveraging threat intelligence
• Conducting regular security audits
• Training and educating staff

The upside of good monitoring

There is a reason that monitoring is so essential to the overall management process and that is that it simply enhances the whole mitigation process. If one were to sum up the importance of good attack surface monitoring into a few points, they would generally come up with the following:

• It quickens the organization in question’s response time to the issues discovered
• It gives an organization improved visibility of all digital assets
• It allows organizations using it a clear understanding of its security limitations, granting them the opportunity to allocate resources properly
• It is an aid to certain compliance-related elements of a business, covering them on that front

Final thoughts

If the digital realm continues to take over the business world and beyond the way it undoubtedly will, ASM measures will only become more present. For any organization, even this measure, as helpful as it is, needs to be working optimally and this especially applies to a crucial element of the process like attack surface monitoring. If done well, the level of benefit it provides those using it is enough to convince you of its necessity.

As time goes forward, these measures will evolve just as those they try to stop do. Naturally, this means that your monitoring abilities will need to do the same.