REAL-TIME ATTACK SURFACE ANALYSIS
With the proliferation of IoT devices, API-centric environments, and modern cloud architecture features such as serverless, microservices and auto-scaling, enterprise organizations must conduct increasingly complex cyber risk assessments to evaluate security posture and adjust security controls over time. New technology investments present new monetization opportunities, but also new threats and security issues with which to contend.
Security professionals are tasked with understanding the entire scope of an organization’s application and underlying infrastructure environment, including where they may be liable to hacks or attacks, both internally and externally.
Attack Surface Analysis
A comprehensive attack surface analysis and report can be broken down into the following components:
1. The sum of all paths for data coming in and exiting the application(s)
2. Code that governs how these data transfers occur
3. All relevant business data being generated and stored in the application
4. Code that protects stored data
As part of any leading CISO’s job description, collecting data, and mapping out and reducing the attack surface is critical in today's technology development life cycle to prevent hacks and liability. As enterprises become more reliant on software and data each year, maintaining a secure software environment and network is essential; not only for its value as intellectual or proprietary property, but also to mitigate data breaches and cyberattacks that can cost a company millions of dollars.
Reducing the attack surface means reducing the likelihood of your applications and underlying infrastructure being compromised. Many steps can be taken to minimize the attack surface. Any activity that reduces the number of vulnerabilities (potential threats) in a system can be considered attack surface reduction.
For example, it’s common practice for attack surface reduction to eliminate code redundancies and unnecessary complexity within an application’s architecture. Following principles set forth by lean software development methodology and Occam’s Razor, the simplest code version with the least amount of assumptions is usually the one with the smallest attack surface.
Audit and eliminate unnecessary functionality, APIs, and code. Auditing APIs specifically can be a useful starting point because they are likely involved in data transfer between applications and third-party systems.
Scaling down your attack surface starts by completing a vulnerability scan and using automated, real-time tools to model your application and potential risks. This process is also called threat modeling, a core responsibility of any CISO or security professional. Historically, threat modeling was achieved by using outdated tools (sometimes not designed for threat modeling) and ad-hoc, manual, redundant processes.
However, threat modeling offers organizations a comprehensive and automated solution that works with existing security controls and existing tools (CI/CD, for example) to automate a self-service threat modeling practice that scales your entire SDLC. Using ThreatModeler as an attack surface analyzer, CISOs, security architects - even developers - can identify, predict then mitigate threats across an organization’s entire attack surface.
ThreatModeler™ has introduced modern threat modeling software and automation into the threat modeling process, enabling enterprises to manage their attack surface and avoid threats.