Simplicity In Complexity: The Key to Successful Threat Exposure Management

Brought To You By Rene Mulyandari 

Can something complex be simple at the same time? The answer to this question provides a hint on how to achieve successful threat exposure management in the age of increasingly aggressive and sophisticated cyber threats. 

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Security Operations 2022 describes the cybersecurity situation for most organizations as a struggle with complexities, as "organizations need to support a complex and sometimes competing array of approaches to security, while also supporting the growth of the organization via traditional IT infrastructure deployments, cloud-based deployments, and hybrid approaches.”

Organizations inevitably have to rely on various security products, since no single solution exists to address all kinds of threats for all kinds of scenarios and organizational needs. This makes cybersecurity more complicated than it already was. It causes security visibility and management challenges. There is a need for greater visibility and control, which is quite difficult given the multitude of security controls to oversee and the security data noise they generate.

Continuous Threat Exposure Management

Before going into the discussion on how to enhance threat exposure management, it helps to get acquainted with the concept of continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) first. This five-stage program was created to harness existing and new security validation techniques to enable prioritized remediation actions based on business context. Take note of it being a program and not a cybersecurity method or technology, as an important explanation is presented below.

The five stages provide a clear and repeatable path for security posture optimization. The cyclic or continuous nature of these stages facilitates quick remediation and the application of lessons learned from the previous cycle of processes to the next cycles. The stages are briefly described below:

• Scoping - The first step in threat exposure management, scoping is about identifying the various attack surfaces with inputs from the business administration and security operations teams.

• Discovery - This stage is where the actual IT infrastructure, network, apps, sensitive data assets, and other resources are mapped and examined to detect weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and flaws.

• Prioritization - At this stage, the identified threats or vulnerabilities are evaluated for their likelihood of getting exploited. Issues determined to have a higher likelihood of getting attacked are prioritized to make sure that the more urgent concerns are addressed earlier, not buried deep among less important alerts or data.

• Validation - This is the security testing stage, wherein cyber attack simulations are examined to assess the efficacy of existing cyber protections. It employs various security validation techniques and tools. 

• Mobilization - This crucial stage is where the cybersecurity team collaborates with the business management team to decide on the right corrective measures and other actions based on how the threats impact business operations.

CTEM, with its five stages, shows how something that is generally perceived as complex can also be simple at the same time. There are many technical terms and processes that may be involved in threat exposure management, including automated red teaming, breach and attack simulation, vulnerability prioritization, the testing of SOAR playbooks, and incident response validation.

Bringing these different tools and methods together can be challenging. However, with a well-defined program that provides a clear framework of what needs to be done and what tools or technologies to use, continuous threat exposure management can be undertaken with less difficulty. CTEM, hence, can appear as a complex but simple solution.

Solving The Simple-Complex Paradox

Complexity can demonstrate simplicity by being sophisticated but easy or intuitive to use. A threat exposure management solution that is comprehensive, advanced, and multifunctional usually intimidates users. The use of various (oftentimes disjointed)  tools, especially unfamiliar ones, does not inspire confidence, especially among organizations that are completely new to the modern ways of managing threats.

However, if a cybersecurity solution is thoughtfully streamlined in its security architecture, supporting technologies, and functions, it becomes easier to use. Organizations can take full advantage of such a cybersecurity solution with a fast learning curve and optimum outcomes.

Going back to CTEM as an example of simplicity in complexity, recall that it is not a cybersecurity technique, methodology, or technology itself. It is not a fixed set of security tools, procedures, frameworks, and best practices. As mentioned, it is a five-stage program that involves the use of many security tools or technologies. It is also about enabling collaboration between the business and cybersecurity teams to arrive at the best security decisions based on the impact of threats on business outcomes.

CTEM embodies simplicity in complexity because it is a program that guides organizations on how they can unify the different security controls, mechanisms, and processes they use to create a continuous threat exposure management system that effectively achieves its purpose.

It is like a key that unlocks the convoluted situation of threat handling many organizations are encountering. It brings order to the chaos.

The CTEM program offers an upgrade over the outdated risk-based vulnerability management processes still used by some organizations. It presents a practical systematic approach in detecting and prioritizing threats amid quickly expanding attack surfaces. It is like a template that helps organizations move towards adopting a more feasible solution for the new cyber threat landscape while obtaining inputs from the security and business management sides to arrive at the best possible business-driven security decisions.

The use of numerous cybersecurity tools, methods, and even frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK is complicated and challenging. However, CTEM helps bring all of these together into a unified solution that is quick to learn and use. It also comes with easy-to-consume straightforward reports, performance monitoring, and insights on managing drift control, which contributes to faster but well-informed security decision-making.

In Summary

A complex system becomes simple when users learn how to work with it efficiently. It is not only because users have understood the system better, but because they have a better way of making the different components of the system work harmoniously with each other to attain results that would otherwise be impossible without unification and coordination.

This is what the CTEM program is meant to achieve. It glues together various essential components and processes to significantly enhance threat exposure management practices. Also, it adds the business and security team collaboration factor to improve threat-handling outcomes further. 

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