Attack Surface Management Software: Why it’s Critical for Cybersecurity

ASM and its need in modern businesses

Organizations are growing their library of digital assets – from cloud infrastructure and SaaS applications to third-party platforms and remote endpoints, the modern attack surface is not confined to a traditional network perimeter. Every new domain, APO, web app, or vendor integration increases the digital footprint and adds more risk.

While the increased use of the digital assets isn’t the overarching issue, what makes it dangerous is the assets that appear off the radar of IT and security teams or are misconfigured.  Shadow IT, exposed cloud buckets, and poorly secured web services are products and tools that can quietly increase exposure and become open doors for cybercriminals.

With this in mind, it’s clear that Attack Surface Management software is critical for modern businesses. It enables organizations to gain a holistic view of their entire digital footprint and their digital assets, allowing them to map it continuously and prioritize the riskiest exposures before attackers do. Gaps in visibility often lead to breaches and ASM helps to close them before they escalate.

Automation and AI-powered insights

While a large part of ASM is discovering assets, it’s also important security teams understand the information ASM tools provide to ensure they can at speed. This is where automation and AI-driven analysis is important. With the number of assets organizations need to monitor, manual investigation can’t keep up.

The Assetnote Attack Surface Management tool uses continuous, automated scanning combined with analytics that identifies high-risk exposures as they appear. But the tool also highlights insights to prioritize the risks that matter the most. Not every vulnerability is born equal, so the additional layer of intelligence helps to reduce the noise and gives security teams the chance to hone in on vulnerabilities that attackers are most likely to exploit.

Ultimately, automation in ASM tools tells you what needs action and why. This speeds up decision making and reduces alert fatigue, helping organizations focus their potentially limited resources to where they are really needed.

How does ASM improve an organization’s security posture?

The power of ASM is its ability for organizations to go from defensive to proactive. Instead of waiting for vulnerabilities to be exploited, ASM allows businesses to take control of their exposures before attackers have the chance to act.

This proactive stance leads to improvements in an organization’s overall security posture:

Fewer blind spots by using ASM to discover and monitor shadow IT, forgotten assets, and misconfigured services.

Faster response which means businesses can address exposures as they appear – not weeks later.

More strategic focus to help prioritize incident response based on the level of vulnerability.
Not only this, reducing the likelihood of a breach also helps organizations meet compliance requirements. Standards like ISO 27001, NIST CSF, or SOC 2 require organizations to demonstrate control over their information systems, including asset inventories, vulnerability management, and risk assessment. ASM provides the visibility and evidence needed to meet those requirements.

Implementing ASM into a cybersecurity strategy

Selecting the appropriate ASM tool requires businesses to evaluate both the tool’s features and its compatibility with their operational processes. Organizations should consider the following when choosing an ASM solution:

Scalability

Businesses should factor in the potential growth of their organization when looking for an ASM tool, and select the one that can scale with them as their digital footprint expands.

Integration

An organization’s chosen ASM tool should seamlessly integrate with existing security tools like vulnerability scanners, ticketing systems, and incident response platforms. There is no use selecting a tool for the organizations then having to create workarounds for different platforms to talk to each other.

Cost

While cost is an important factor when choosing an ASM tool, organizations should also consider the cost of not having an ASM tool. These considerations should include the cost of a cyberattack, ransomware demands, legal requirements that may be needed, and even compensation for any customers that may be affected by an attack. Only after adding all of these costs up can a business weigh up whether an ASM tool is right for them.

Best practice methods for managing external threats

Real time scanning and continuous asset discovery

At the pace at which criminals are looking to exploit vulnerabilities, ASM tools that scan for new assets anything less than hourly can leave a business’s attack surface exposed between a vulnerability’s introduction and its detection. With hourly scanning security teams can close that gap, mitigating exposures faster than attacks can exploit them. This cadence is also better suited to the modern reality of organizations’ infrastructure, which is constantly in flux.

Automated risk prioritization

Not all exposures are the same, so ASM tools should not only detect but also help security teams prioritize vulnerabilities. Risk prioritization means security teams can focus on the highest-priority threats first and stop large scale cyberattacks, while managing their resources better and preventing alert fatigue.

Deep asset enrichment

The best ASM tools don’t just provide organizations with a table of assets. Businesses should look for tools that help them to understand exactly what technology is running on each endpoint and see how it changes over time. ASM should also identify versions so security teams can quickly find vulnerable dependencies and make quick decisions. It’s also important that ASM tools keep a detailed record of what has changed over time to better contextualize and give teams understanding of incidents as they occur.

Threat intelligence integration

ASM and threat intelligence can work together to provide a more comprehensive view of potential threats to a business. While ASM focuses on identifying vulnerabilities and exposures within an organization’s public-facing digital assets, threat intelligence informs an organization on the cybercriminals out there that might be looking to exploit those vulnerabilities – further helping them to prioritize their security based on the most likely threats. By integrating EASM tools and threat intelligence, businesses can get a complete view of their threat landscape, ultimately expanding their defensive radar and gaining visibility of potential attacks earlier.

Discover the blindspots in your public-facing attack surface

Attack Surface Management software is no longer optional. By enabling continuous visibility, proactive defense, and automated risk-prioritization, ASM strengthens security postures and supports important compliance goals. For organizations that want to stay ahead of cybercriminals and strike before attacks happen, ASM is an important tool for modern businesses.

For more information on ASM and how you can implement the practice into your cybersecurity posture, book a demo.

FAQs 

1. What is the difference between Attack Surface Management and Vulnerability Management? 

While vulnerability management focuses on identifying and patching known weaknesses in existing systems, Attack Surface Management takes a broader approach by continuously discovering all external-facing assets including unknown or forgotten ones and monitoring them for potential exposures. ASM helps organizations understand what attackers can see from the outside, while vulnerability management addresses specific security flaws in known systems. 

2. How often should an organization scan its attack surface? 

Organizations should implement continuous or at minimum hourly scanning to keep pace with modern cyber threats. Given that threat actors exploit new vulnerabilities within hours of discovery and that digital infrastructure constantly changes with new deployments, cloud services, and integrations, anything less than hourly scanning can leave critical gaps between when a vulnerability appears and when it’s detected. 

3. Can ASM tools detect Shadow IT and third-party risks? 

Yes, ASM tools are specifically designed to discover shadow IT unauthorized applications, cloud services, and third-party integrations that operate outside IT’s visibility. They scan from an external perspective, identifying all internet-facing assets associated with your organization, including forgotten subdomains, misconfigured cloud storage, and vendor connections that may pose security risks. 

4. Is Attack Surface Management only for large enterprises? 

No, ASM is valuable for organizations of all sizes. Small and medium businesses often have limited security resources and may be more vulnerable to attacks targeting forgotten assets or misconfigurations. ASM tools help these organizations achieve enterprise-level visibility and prioritization without requiring large security teams, making it easier to focus limited resources on the most critical threats. 

5. How does ASM help with regulatory compliance? 

ASM directly supports compliance requirements by providing comprehensive asset inventories, continuous vulnerability monitoring, and documented risk assessments all required by frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, and GDPR. The automated discovery and tracking capabilities ensure organizations can demonstrate control over their information systems and maintain evidence of their security posture for audits and compliance reporting.