In July 2022, Gartner introduced the continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) program as a transformative approach to bolster cyber resilience in today's evolving attack surface and threat landscape. They describe CTEM as a "program that surfaces and actively prioritizes whatever most threatens your business".
Continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) is a proactive cyber security strategy developed to ensure organizations can anticipate, identify, and mitigate vulnerabilities across their digital footprint in real-time. Conceived by industry analysts at Gartner, this approach marks a significant evolution from traditional security measures that were often reactive and episodic.
CTEM operates on the principle of continuous vigilance, employing advanced automated tools alongside expert manual analysis to scan an organization’s networks, applications, cloud environments, and other digital assets. This continuous scanning process is crucial for uncovering vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited by cyber criminals.
The process of CTEM involves several key steps:
1. Continuous identification: Using automated tools, CTEM continuously scans for vulnerabilities across all digital assets, ensuring that newly emerging threats and weaknesses are identified promptly.
2. Prioritization and risk analysis: Not all vulnerabilities pose the same level of risk. CTEM methodologies include prioritizing vulnerabilities based on factors like exploitability, potential impact, and the current cyber threat landscape. This ensures that resources are allocated efficiently, focusing on the most critical vulnerabilities first.
3. Mitigation planning: Once vulnerabilities are identified and prioritized, CTEM involves planning and implementing mitigation strategies. This may include patch management, configuration adjustments, or other security enhancements to address identified risks.
By integrating these steps into a continuous cycle, CTEM enables organizations to not only react more swiftly to vulnerabilities but also to adopt a more strategic approach to cyber security. This continuous, proactive management of threat exposure is designed to keep pace with the rapidly changing digital landscape, where new technologies and sophisticated cyber threats are constantly emerging.
In light of the evolving nature of cyber threats, organizations are faced with the following needs:
Gartner emphasizes the need for organizations to adopt CTEM due to the limitations of existing traditional security approaches, which often fail to adequately reduce exposure to threats. By implementing CTEM, organizations can gain complete control over their exposure risk posture, regardless of its origin, in an effective manner.
The following use cases can be addressed through a CTEM program:
In the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape, the implementation of continuous threat exposure management emerges as a critical strategy for organizations aiming to safeguard their digital assets. CTEM represents a shift towards a more proactive, continuous approach to cyber security, addressing vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. This section delves into both the significance of CTEM in modern cyber security strategies and the tangible benefits it brings to organizations.
CTEM marks a departure from traditional, reactive security measures by focusing on the continuous identification and mitigation of threats. This proactive stance is foundational to preventing breaches and minimizing potential damage, ensuring that organizations are always one step ahead of cyber threats.
With the attack surface expanding to include not just physical infrastructures but also cloud services, remote devices, and third-party services, CTEM ensures comprehensive coverage across these domains. It offers complete visibility into the entire attack surface, enabling organizations to detect vulnerabilities in real time across infrastructure, applications, and cloud environments. This holistic view is vital for securing all potential entry points and minimizing the risk of exposure.
The dynamic nature of the cyber threat environment necessitates a security approach that can quickly adapt to new vulnerabilities and attack vectors. CTEM facilitates this adaptability, allowing organizations to respond to emerging threats swiftly and maintain a robust defense against both known and unforeseen challenges.
By offering one operational platform to own exposure risk, CTEM enhances an organization’s ability to manage cyber security threats. It provides manageable, accurate, and correlated security data findings, enabling better prioritization and remediation decision-making. This strategic approach to risk management optimizes security efforts and resource allocation, focusing on the most critical issues first.
CTEM not only ensures organizations comply with evolving regulatory standards but also builds trust among customers, partners, and stakeholders. Demonstrating a commitment to continuous security monitoring and improvement underscores an organization’s dedication to protecting sensitive information.
Organizations that implement CTEM can gain a competitive advantage by showcasing their commitment to cyber security. Efficient collaboration across departments, coupled with rapid remediation times, positions these organizations as market leaders in terms of cyber resilience, attracting more business opportunities and fostering customer confidence.
Key stat: In a recent KPMG survey of 1,325 CEOs, 77 percent see information security as a strategic function and a potential competitive advantage. Geopolitical uncertainty is increasing concerns over corporate cyberattacks for 73 percent of executives.
The CTEM framework brings a host of benefits that enhance an organization’s security posture by:
Gartner introduces a five-step process for implementing a continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) program:
1. Scoping: Define the cyber security exposure scope, focusing on external and SaaS threats.
2. Discovery: Develop a process to discover assets and assess their risk profiles.
3. Prioritization: Prioritize threats based on urgency, security, availability of compensating controls, tolerance for residual attack surface, and level of risk.
4. Validation: Validate potential attack pathways and response plans.
5. Mobilization: Mobilize people and processes to operationalize the CTEM findings.
Read more: How to own risk with the Vulcan Cyber exposure management solution
Implementing CTEM within an organization requires a structured approach that encompasses strategic planning, deployment of appropriate technologies, and cultivation of a security-aware culture. Here’s a step-by-step guide to effectively implement CTEM:
Exposure management, integral to continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) focuses on the precise identification, assessment, and mitigation of exposure risks. This section aims to demarcate exposure management within the cyber security ecosystem, emphasizing its unique methodologies and strategic importance.
Exposure management is dedicated to the meticulous oversight of an organization’s susceptibility to cyber threats, distinct from the broader task of threat management. Its primary focus is on vulnerabilities as potential exposures rather than immediate threats, providing a nuanced approach to preemptive risk mitigation.
The principal aim of exposure management is to systematically reduce the window of opportunity for attackers by:
Within the CTEM framework, exposure management serves as a critical component that ensures vulnerabilities are not just identified and patched, but that their potential to expose the organization to risk is thoroughly evaluated and addressed. This involves a strategic cycle of assessment, prioritization based on exposure potential, and the implementation of targeted mitigation tactics.
CTEM and traditional vulnerability management differ in their scope, approach, and objectives:
Scope
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The Vulcan Cyber exposure operating system (ExposureOS) is designed to help information security teams aggregate, correlate, prioritize and remediate exposure risk from one platform.
With the Vulcan Cyber exposure management solution, you can:
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