What is attack surface management?
Your attack surface is everything in your organisation that an attacker can reach. Websites, mail servers, cloud environments, workstations, SaaS services and the test system someone forgot to switch off two years ago.
Attack surface management maps all of this continuously. From the outside, the way an attacker looks. And from the inside, by combining data from your existing security tools. That way you see what is there, who owns it and where security is missing.
Why it matters
In larger organisations nobody knows exactly how many systems there are. Cloud environments are added, departments buy their own services and IT partners change. Every system nobody knows about is also not updated or monitored.
- No blind spots: shadow IT and forgotten systems come to light too.
- Gaps in your security: you see which devices have no endpoint protection or agent.
- Facts for management and auditors: an up-to-date, well-founded overview instead of an outdated list.
Which Rapid7 products?
- Surface Command: the Rapid7 ASM product. Combines an external scan with data from your own tools.
- Exposure Command: the platform Surface Command is part of, together with vulnerability management.
How Brandaris uses it
We often start with a baseline assessment: what is there, what can be reached and what is not secured? Then we draw up a short list of what needs to happen first, in plain language. After that we keep it up to date, so the overview stays current.
Attack surface management is the foundation for exposure management and vulnerability management.