We’re excited to introduce NordStellar’s latest feature – attack surface management (ASM) – designed to provide continuous visibility and assessment of your organization’s external attack surface.

“By introducing ASM, we aim to help improve our clients’ overall security posture, ensuring that their security teams are equipped with insights needed to effectively manage their attack surface, minimize exposure to external threats, and meet regulatory requirements for vulnerability assessments,” says Vakaris Noreika, head of product at NordStellar.

ASM helps security teams monitor internet-facing assets, such as websites, servers, applications, and cloud resources, while identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. By automating the discovery of security gaps, NordStellar’s ASM empowers organizations to proactively reduce cyber risks and strengthen their security posture.

Why companies have trouble managing their attack surface

Many companies lack full visibility into their external-facing assets, making it difficult to detect potential vulnerabilities that could be easily found by attackers on the dark web and exploited.

“Any security gaps in a company’s websites, servers, applications, cloud resources, or internet of things devices are a ticking time bomb, and it’s vital to identify and mitigate these vulnerabilities before attackers have a chance to act,” says Noreika.

However, many organizations still struggle with understanding and managing their attack surface due to several key challenges:

• Unidentified and unmanaged assets. Many organizations struggle to maintain a complete and accurate inventory of their internet-facing assets. Without visibility, securing unknown or forgotten systems becomes impossible, leaving critical blind spots for attackers to exploit.
• Inefficient manual processes. Traditional methods of asset discovery and vulnerability assessment often involve manual processes, spreadsheets, and disparate tools. This is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
• Difficulty prioritizing remediation efforts. With limited resources, knowing which vulnerabilities pose the greatest risk and require immediate attention can be a challenge.
• Lack of real-time threat detection. The attack surface is constantly changing, with new vulnerabilities being discovered and exploited daily.
• Shadow IT and unknown risks. Unauthorized devices, applications, or services connected to the network without IT’s knowledge (shadow IT) significantly expand the attack surface and introduce uncontrolled risks.

How NordStellar’s ASM works

NordStellar’s ASM consists of two main modules – automatic asset discovery and external vulnerability management. Automatic asset discovery maps your infrastructure by running various domain enumeration processes. This way, ASM automatically identifies and catalogs all internet-exposed assets related to your organization, such as web servers, applications, and other network-connected devices. NordStellar can also discover domains, SSL certificates, and IPs.

In the meantime, external vulnerability management continuously monitors and scans the discovered assets for known weaknesses, delivering actionable intelligence to streamline recovery efforts.

How security teams can put ASM into practice

Continuously monitoring and assessing the attack surfaces is by no means an easy task, requiring a great deal of time and human resources. NordStellar’s ASM provides value for different members of your security team:

• Security analysts. Imagine starting your day by opening the ASM dashboard, where critical internet-facing vulnerabilities – whether it’s a misconfigured server or an exposed cloud resource – are already detected. You can dive straight into investigating the highest risks, collaborating with IT teams, and implementing fixes before attackers can exploit them.
• Security engineers. Picture integrating ASM into your workflow. The platform continuously scans your external assets, uncovering weak points that could be exploited. With ASM’s automated discovery, you streamline your vulnerability patching process and address gaps while freeing up time to focus on strategic infrastructure security questions.
• Security managers. See yourself walking into a stakeholder meeting with NordStellar’s ASM reports. You can clearly demonstrate how the team has reduced the organization’s attack surface, track remediation progress in real time, and provide data-backed proof of compliance. You’re ready to show the tangible value of proactive risk reduction to the entire business.

With ASM, every member of your security team gains the tools they need to strengthen your organization’s security. From real-time monitoring to automated insights and clear reporting, ASM helps you stay ahead of threats and focus on what matters most – keeping your business protected.

Key benefits of NordStellar’s ASM

Security teams are under constant pressure to manage the attack surface: unknown assets, evolving vulnerabilities, and manual processes hamper them down and create unnecessary risk. That’s where NordStellar’s ASM comes in, providing:

• Minimized attack surface. By identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities, NordStellar’s ASM helps you reduce the chance of a successful attack.
• Enhanced shadow IT visibility. With ASM, you’ll be able to maintain an accurate list of internet-exposed assets, protecting them from unknown threats.
• Automation-driven operational efficiency. This lets you avoid manual vulnerability scanning, which is time-consuming and prone to errors.
• Real-time threat detection. Unlike traditional periodic scans that leave gaps between assessments, ASM ensures continuous monitoring and alerting.
• Mitigating vulnerabilities before attackers do. NordStellar’s ASM lets you protect your assets before threat actors can do damage.
• Meeting compliance requirements. You can use ASM to demonstrate compliance with industry regulations that require regular vulnerability assessments.
• Cost saving. With this feature, you can minimize the financial impact of security incidents.

Threat exposure is a metric that every business owner should be aware of. Some might even say that it’s the most important part of maintaining business success. With that in mind, let’s explore threat exposure — specifically, what it is, what it shows, and how companies can reduce it.

Threat exposure: What is it?

Threat exposure is the combined total of cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities that threaten the company. It encompasses the weaknesses of every part of an organization’s IT environment, starting with the system and finishing with the third-party providers.

The importance of understanding threat exposure

Understanding a company’s threat exposure can provide insight into its security posture. Large threat exposure makes organizations vulnerable to cyberattacks and can lead to significant legal troubles along with major reputational and financial damage. Identifying vulnerabilities and implementing external attack surface management can help businesses curb the biggest cybersecurity weaknesses and reduce the chances of a successful cyberattack.

“Data is the new gold” — once just a catchy Salesforce campaign slogan, now strikes true more than ever. Protecting personal, company, and client information should be a top online priority for any business. Researching and defining effective threat exposure management strategies are the first steps in doing just that.

The dangers of ignoring threat exposure

Ignoring threat exposure in the organization is the same as ignoring the first symptoms of a disease. Eventually, both will cause serious problems. While you may not lose your life, disregarding a company’s threat exposure management can result in data breaches, brute-force attacks, and other cybersecurity incidents. Consequently, these can lead to lawsuits, fines, bad press, and operational disruptions.