How to Build an Effective Attack Surface Management Program [With Examples]

Ever wondered why hackers always seem one step ahead? The digital battlefield has changed. With remote work, rapid cloud adoption, and lightning-fast digital transformation, your organization is juggling a constantly shifting network of vulnerabilities. That’s where Attack Surface Management (ASM) steps in.

ASM is the continuous discovery, analysis, prioritization, remediation, and monitoring of all potential attack vectors—from a hacker’s perspective. It flips the security game by exposing blind spots your team didn’t even know existed.

Your attack surface includes everything an attacker could exploit: digital assets (networks, apps, cloud), physical components (hardware, buildings), and human elements (social engineering targets). Even the forgotten assets count.

Organizations relying on outdated security methods like annual pen tests are easy targets—because those tests only examine known vulnerabilities. High-profile breaches like SolarWinds and Colonial Pipeline prove attackers exploit what’s overlooked.
With ASM, you gain total visibility, automate risk mitigation, speed up threat response, and stay compliant with standards like NIST and GDPR.

And don’t confuse ASM with EASM—true ASM goes beyond internet-facing systems. In a world this connected, you must know your full attack surface—because you can’t secure what you can’t see.

Understand What Makes Up Your Attack Surface

Every organization leaves a digital footprint that hackers can exploit. Seriously, the digital tracks you leave behind are like breadcrumbs leading straight to your front door. To defend yourself effectively, you first need to understand exactly what makes up your attack surface.

Digital, physical and human components

Your attack surface isn’t just ones and zeros—it’s a three-headed monster ready to strike.

• Digital attack surface: This includes all internet-connected assets hackers can exploit—web apps, APIs, cloud services, OS and software, routers, firewalls, and shared databases. And no, it’s not the same size it was last year. With cloud adoption skyrocketing, your digital surface has exploded. Misconfigurations, outdated systems, and shadow IT (those rogue apps employees use without IT’s blessing) make it worse.

• Physical attack surface: These are assets you can touch—and potentially lose. Think servers, laptops, USB drives, IoT devices, and even discarded hardware still packed with sensitive data. Breaches happen through theft, unauthorized access, or careless disposal. Old-school threats still bite hard in a digital age.

• Human attack surface: Your biggest weakness. A brutal 95% of cyber incidents are caused by human error, and 74% of breaches involve a human element. This includes phishing, terrible passwords (looking at you, “password123”), oversharing, and poor security awareness.

Hackers know the weakest link is human—and that’s exactly where they strike first

Internal vs External Attack Surface Management

Understanding the difference between your internal and external attack surfaces is critical for building a security strategy that actually works:

External attack surface includes all the ways outsiders can break in. This includes:

• Public-facing websites and applications
• External APIs and cloud services
• Domain names and subdomains
• Internet-accessible ports and services

External Attack Surface Management (EASM) looks at your organization from a hacker's perspective. It's like checking all your doors and windows from the outside.

Internal attack surface involves all the vulnerabilities inside your walls that could be exploited by insiders or hackers who've already broken in. This includes:

• Internal networks and systems
• Employee access privileges
• Internal applications and databases
• Physical security controls

Internal attacks typically involve someone abusing their access, stealing data, or disrupting services—whether they're malicious insiders or hackers using compromised accounts.
Here's the deal: you need to watch both dimensions at the same time. The bigger your organization grows, the bigger your digital footprint gets, and the more ways hackers can get in. #nothingtohide means knowing everything you need to protect.

How Attack Surface Management Works? (Step-by-Step)

Wondering how attack surface management actually works in practice? It's not rocket science, but it does require a structured approach. And here's the thing - attack surface management isn't something you do once and forget about. It's a continuous cycle that evolves as your digital footprint changes.

Let's break down this process into bite-sized pieces you can actually use:
Attack surface management follows a five-stage lifecycle that security teams use to defend their organizations from the bad guys. It all starts with finding out what you've got that could be targeted. Here are the five key steps in the Attack Surface Management (ASM) lifecycle:

1. Asset Discovery
2. Classification and Analysis
3. Risk Prioritization
4. Remediation
5. Continuous Monitoring

Now, let’s break each one down in plain, practical terms:

1. Asset Discovery

This is where the magic begins. You need to find ALL your digital assets across your environment. And we mean everything - the stuff your IT team knows about, the shadow IT assets they don't, third-party vendor systems, and even those nasty rogue assets created by threat actors.
Modern ASM tools automate this discovery process, constantly scanning to find assets that might otherwise remain invisible. Because let's face it - you can't protect what you don't know exists.

2. Classification and Analysis

Once you've found all your assets, you need to sort them out. Which ones are critical? Which ones hold sensitive data? What's your risk exposure?
During this step, your security teams identify all the juicy stuff attackers would love to exploit - misconfigurations, outdated software, open ports, and coding errors. It's like finding all the unlocked doors and windows in your house before the burglars do.

3. Risk Prioritization

Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. Some need your attention right now, while others can wait. Good ASM tools calculate risk scores based on:

• How easily it can be exploited

• How badly it would hurt your business

• What hackers typically go after first

• Whether similar vulnerabilities have been exploited before

  This prioritization is crucial because without it, your security team will drown in a sea of alerts. And a drowning security team isn't protecting anyone.

4. Remediation

Time to fix those problems! During this phase, you implement solutions according to their priority order. This typically involves:

• Patching systems that need updates
• Changing configurations that are too loose
• Beefing up authentication measures
• Shutting down outdated systems
• Squashing bugs in vulnerable applications

5. Continuous Monitoring

Here's where most security approaches fail - they stop watching. The most critical aspect of attack surface management is ongoing vigilance. Your network changes constantly, which means new vulnerabilities pop up all the time.
Continuous monitoring catches these new weaknesses in real-time, letting you respond before attackers can exploit them. It's like having a security guard who never sleeps.

This whole process repeats regularly, creating a cycle of continuous improvement that adapts to evolving threats and your changing IT environment. Plus, good ASM platforms integrate with your existing security workflows through APIs, making it easier for your team to fix problems quickly.

Best Practices for Successful Attack Surface Management

Let's face it - implementing best practices for attack surface management isn't just a nice-to-have—it's absolutely critical for modern cybersecurity. When your organization is juggling an average of 31.5 security tools, you need a streamlined approach or you're toast.

Automate Asset and Vulnerability Discovery

Manual discovery is dead. It simply can't keep pace with today's lightning-fast environments. Here's what you need to do instead:

• Get continuous scanning in place rather than those useless once-a-year assessments that leave you vulnerable 364 days of the year
• Use both active and passive discovery techniques to get a complete picture of what's going on in your network
• Keep your asset inventory current - it's the foundation of everything else you'll do

Did you know 11% of all IT assets have zero endpoint protection? That's right - they're completely naked to attackers. This is why automated discovery isn't optional anymore.

Reduce False Positives

Alert fatigue is killing your security team. When they're bombarded with false alarms, the real threats slip right through:

• Look at your past alerts and fine-tune your detection rules to stop the noise
• Add context to your alerts - not every suspicious activity is an actual threat
• Use AI to filter out the garbage before your analysts waste time on it

This doesn't just improve your detection - it stops your security team from burning out and quitting on you. #securityteamssanity

Ensure Risk-Based Prioritisation

Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. Stop trying to patch everything at once:

• Look at what really matters: how critical is the asset? How exposed is it? What are the current threats?
• Think like a hacker - which vulnerabilities would YOU exploit first?
• Figure out which assets are most attractive to attackers and what would hurt your business most

Companies that prioritize threats properly will see a two-thirds reduction in breaches by 2026. That's not a typo - TWO-THIRDS fewer breaches!

Consolidate Alerts

Alert consolidation completely changes how your security team operates:

• Bring all those different feeds into one unified system so you can actually see what's happening
• Automate connections between alerts across your networks, clouds, and apps
• Use visualization tools that show you the complete attack chain without making you connect the dots manually

This approach cuts response time dramatically and eliminates the noise that makes your team miss the real threats.

Measure Value

If you can't measure it, you can't improve it:

• Track how long it takes to fix things (MTTR) so you can spot the bottlenecks
• Compare your remediation speed to industry benchmarks - are you faster or slower than everyone else?
• Create reports that explain security risks in business terms so executives actually understand what you're talking about

When you track these metrics, you'll spot trends and fix problems before hackers can exploit them. You'll go from reactive to proactive, and that's where the real security magic happens.

Examples of Attack Surface Reduction

Want to know what actually works? Let's look at real strategies organizations have used to slash their attack surface and strengthen their security game.

Disconnect unused internet-facing assets

Those dormant internet-connected systems? They're like candy for attackers:

• Hunt down and kill unused web applications—they're behind 42% of all security incidents
• Run port scanning to find and close unnecessary open ports
• Delete those obsolete data repositories that are just sitting there exposing your data

Companies that actually do regular audits and disconnect unused assets see their overall attack surface shrink by 30%. That's huge!

Enforce zero trust and MFA

That old-school perimeter security? It's dead. Completely useless in today's work-from-anywhere world:

• Lock down access with least privilege principles for everyone
• Roll out multi-factor authentication at every single access point
• Set up micro-segmentation to contain breaches when (not if) they happen

The proof is in the numbers: organizations using zero trust see 50% fewer breaches and 80% less damage when incidents do occur.

Monitor shadow IT and rogue devices

All those devices your IT team doesn't know about? They're creating massive blind spots:

• Deploy continuous network monitoring to catch unauthorized devices
• Run quarterly device audits across all your locations
• Create a clear process for approving new tech (and actually enforce it)

Here's the scary part: shadow IT typically eats up 30-40% of IT spending in enterprises. That's a third of your tech budget going to stuff you don't even know about!

Patch Management and Secure Configurations

Unpatched systems are like leaving your front door wide open:

• Focus on critical patches based on what hackers are actually exploiting
• Automate configuration management to prevent security drift
• Create baseline security configs for every system type

About 60% of breaches involve unpatched vulnerabilities. That means over half of all breaches could be stopped with basic patching. Let that sink in.

Real-world case: How a healthcare org reduced 60% of exposed endpoints

A regional healthcare provider with 12 facilities ran an attack surface assessment and found over 1,200 internet-exposed endpoints. They were shocked! Through a systematic cleanup:

• They eliminated 420 unnecessary public-facing assets
• Cut up their network with segmentation across all facilities
• Deployed automated discovery tools that actually work

The results? Within six months, their external attack surface shrank by 60%, and security incidents dropped by 75%. Now they spot new vulnerabilities within hours instead of weeks.

Choosing the Right Attack Surface Management Vendors

Ever wondered why so many security tools end up collecting dust? Picking the right attack surface management tool can make or break your security strategy. With every vendor claiming they're the best thing since sliced bread, how do you cut through the noise?

What to look for in ASM tools

When shopping for ASM solutions, don't get dazzled by flashy demos. Focus on what actually matters:

• Comprehensive discovery – Does it automatically find both known and unknown assets across your entire IT mess? Or is it just scratching the surface?
• Continuous monitoring – Can it detect threats in real-time, or is it just taking occasional snapshots when nothing's happening?
• Contextual prioritization – Will it tell you which vulnerabilities actually matter to your business, or just dump a mountain of technical alerts in your lap?
• Integration capabilities – Can it play nice with your existing security tools like SIEM, SOAR, and ticketing systems? Or will it be yet another isolated tool?
• Automated remediation workflows – Does it help you fix problems fast, or just point them out and leave you hanging?

The best ASM solutions don't just look at what's outside your walls – they give you a complete picture of your entire attack surface, inside and out. Because half the picture equals zero protection.

Top ASM Tools by Feature

• CyCognito – Best for automated discovery of both known and unknown assets
• Censys – Excellent for real-time monitoring of internet-facing infrastructure
• Randori (IBM) – Strong on attacker-focused prioritization and threat emulation
• Palo Alto Networks Cortex Xpanse – Great for full-spectrum visibility and continuous scanning
• Tenable.asm – Known for integrations with vulnerability management and SIEM tools
• Axonius – Ideal for integrating asset discovery with IT and security workflows
• Microsoft Defender EASM – Strong visibility across Azure environments with tight Microsoft ecosystem integration

Gartner's top picks and criteria

According to Gartner (and they're pretty smart about this stuff), the top Attack Surface Management Gartner vendors crush it in three areas: finding all your assets, accurately assessing vulnerabilities, and giving you intelligence you can actually use.

What separates the winners from the also-rans? First, they're not stuck in 2010 – they use real AI/ML capabilities that actually work. Second, they support everything from cloud to on-prem to that weird hybrid setup you've been running. Third, they don't drown you in useless alerts that make you want to throw your laptop out the window.

Names like CyCognito, Randori (now part of IBM), Censys, and Palo Alto Networks Cortex Xpanse keep popping up in Gartner's reports. Each has their own special sauce for different aspects of attack surface management.

How to evaluate based on your environment

Finding your perfect ASM match isn't about reading Gartner reports and calling it a day. It's about finding what works for YOUR specific environment:

Start by taking a good, hard look at your current security setup. What's working? What's a dumpster fire? Then, define actual use cases based on your industry's specific attack vectors and compliance headaches. After that, make at least two vendors prove themselves with a hands-on test in your actual environment – not some sanitized demo.

Throughout this process, be brutally honest about your team's technical skills, your available resources, and where you want your security to be in two years. If you're in healthcare, you might care most about finding medical devices. Financial firms might lose sleep over credential exposure.

And remember this: the vendor with the highest price tag isn't automatically your best bet. The right partner will actually understand your specific security challenges and show measurable improvements in your protection – not just show you a fancy dashboard with pretty colors.

ASM is Your First Line Of Defense

"You can't secure what you don't know exists" isn’t just a catchy phrase—it’s the brutal truth of cybersecurity. Attack Surface Management (ASM) turns that truth into action, becoming your frontline shield against a nonstop flood of cyber threats.

Here’s the deal: ASM flips security from reactive to proactive. It lets you detect and fix vulnerabilities before hackers even get a shot, cutting your breach risk by up to 50%. That’s not hype—it’s hard numbers.

What makes ASM so powerful? Perspective. While traditional tools play defense, ASM thinks like an attacker. It uses the same tactics hackers use to uncover blind spots that other tools miss entirely.

Make ASM your first move, and you get:

• Full visibility across internet-facing and internal systems
• Proactive risk shutdown with automated detection and patching
• Fast, continuous threat monitoring
• Easier compliance with standards like NIST, GDPR, ISO 27001

ASM isn’t optional anymore—just look at the MOVEit breach. Without constant visibility, you’re leaving your digital doors wide open.
Bottom line: ASM finds and fixes weaknesses before attackers do. That’s how you stop breaches before they start.