by Scott Gordon, Chief Marketing Officer
Last week, we discussed the first three requisites of demystifying modern EASM. Today we will examine the final two requisites:
4. Curated Intelligence – Zero Drudgery
Modern EASM should provide clear, actionable intelligence rather than overwhelming security teams with nominally processed data or general threat intelligence information that needs further validation and investigation. The goal is to streamline the decision-making process and facilitate faster, more impactful threat response. It is safe to assume that most EASM solutions will provide some value and save some time for security analysts by reducing alert volume and manual tasks. But why stop halfway? The modern EASM solution says: “Here is an active threat. This is the attack chain stage of the attack. This is the threat category and severity rating relative to other threat types. This is the specific device/login/certificate/etc. and other evidence necessary to prevent this threat or stop this attack from progressing — and prevent similar issues in the future.” Everything leading up to that point that is not handled as part of the automated process adds to workload drudgery.
To take the curating and analysis to the level of fully contextualized intelligence, the solution must have massive, multi-source threat data processing, highly advanced modeling, and multi-layered Expert AI-driven analysis. Most solutions present possible threats or threats with limited traceability. Providing comprehensive details about active security issues, prioritizing each finding relative to all other findings, and presenting validated evidence to enable an informed mitigation strategy is what it takes to remove ALL the drudgery. With curated intelligence, security teams can more efficiently examine external attack surface issues and take precise action. This also leads nicely into the final function of modern EASMs.
5. Flexible Integration
Effective threat response requires an EASM that provides flexible integration across various security teams and tools to ensure a cohesive defense strategy. This empowers threat response teams to take more coordinated action. It also enriches tools with valuable external attack surface management intelligence. While many situations warrant human review and decision making, there is a higher volume of simpler threats and vulnerabilities that could be automated all the way through the remediation process — preserving scarce security team resources.
Integration with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR), and other tools is vital for security posture resiliency. By ensuring that EASM solutions can integrate with these platforms, organizations can streamline their threat detection, analysis, and response workflows. This integration can facilitate the automatic sharing of intelligence and alerts across teams, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and can coordinate their efforts effectively.
Finding the Right, Modern EASM
As cyber threats continue to evolve, so must the technologies and strategies used to combat them. External Attack Surface Management has become a security best practice. This list of capabilities will help security teams evaluate EASM functionality and better understand how modern EASM solutions can be applied to make their enterprise more cyber resilient and their security analysts more efficient. Solutions that meet these requirements can ensure optimal results and value — significantly fortifying an organization’s security posture against external threats.
To learn more about EASM, visit our EASM University.
