What is exposure management? Guide & best practices

Published

Dec 20, 2024

Cybersecurity threats are like a game of whack-a-mole. Just when you think you've gotten everything under control, another one pops up out of nowhere. As an IT manager, it's your job to keep your company's digital assets safe from these ever-evolving threats. With new vulnerabilities emerging daily and attack surfaces constantly expanding, this can feel like an overwhelming task.

Where do you even begin? The answer lies in threat exposure management: a crucial process that helps you identify, assess, and mitigate risks to your systems and data. In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know about exposure management and how to implement it effectively in your organization.

What is exposure management? 

Simply put, exposure management (EM) is the practice of understanding and controlling your company's attack surface. It involves identifying all the ways an attacker could potentially gain unauthorized access to your systems, applications, and data, and then taking steps to minimize those risks. Doing this helps to reduce your exposure to cyber threats and minimize the impact of successful attacks. You might also hear EM referred to as attack surface management (ASM) or risk exposure management—while there can be subtle differences, these terms are often used interchangeably in cybersecurity discussions.

Exposure management vs. vulnerability management 

You might be wondering how exposure management differs from vulnerability management. While they're related, there are some key distinctions. 

Vulnerability management focuses specifically on identifying and fixing known weaknesses in your systems and applications, such as software bugs and configuration errors. Exposure management, on the other hand, takes a broader view of risk. It considers your entire attack surface, including both known and unknown exposures, from misconfigured cloud environments and privileged access to third-party risks and risky user behaviors. Through continuous monitoring and adaptive risk management, it helps identify potential threats before they become vulnerabilities.  In other words, exposure management is about managing your overall security posture, not just patching individual holes.

4 benefits of exposure management 

So, why should you care about exposure management? Here are five compelling reasons:

1. Gain a clear picture of your risks

One of the biggest benefits of risk exposure management is that it gives you a comprehensive view of your organization's risk profile. By identifying all the potential entry points for attackers, you can prioritize your security efforts and allocate resources more effectively.

2. Respond faster to incidents

Exposure management helps you identify and address risks before they lead to incidents. By understanding your attack surface and focusing on high-priority areas, you can prevent many issues from escalating into full-blown incidents. And when incidents do occur, this deep understanding helps you respond more quickly and effectively. 

3. Strengthen compliance posture

Many industries have strict regulations around data protection and privacy, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. By implementing EM, you can demonstrate to auditors and regulators that you're taking proactive steps to identify and mitigate risks to sensitive data.

4. Make informed risk decisions

Ultimately, EM gives you the information you need to make informed decisions about risk. By quantifying your exposure levels and potential impact, you can prioritize your security investments and communicate more effectively with stakeholders about the importance of cybersecurity.

4 challenges of exposure management (and how to overcome them)

While the benefits of exposure management in cybersecurity are clear, implementing it can come with some challenges. Here are four common hurdles and strategies for overcoming them:

1. Keeping up with a constantly changing environment

One of the biggest challenges of exposure management is simply keeping up with the rapid pace of change in your IT environment. As you add new systems, applications, and user accounts, your attack surface is constantly evolving.

To overcome this challenge, it's essential to automate as much of the exposure management process as possible. Tools like vulnerability scanners, asset discovery platforms, and security orchestration and automation (SOAR) solutions can help you continuously monitor your environment for new exposures and quickly remediate them.

2. Prioritizing an overwhelming number of risks

Another common challenge is figuring out which risks to tackle first. With so many potential exposures, it can be tempting to try to fix everything at once. But in reality, you'll need to prioritize based on the likelihood and potential impact of each risk.

To do this effectively, you'll need to establish a consistent framework for assessing and scoring risks. This might involve factors like the criticality of the affected system, the sensitivity of the data involved, and the ease of exploitation. By taking a risk-based approach, you can focus your efforts on the most significant threats to your organization.

3. Securing buy-in and resources

Exposure management isn't always an easy sell, especially when you're competing for limited budget and resources. To secure the buy-in and support you need, it's essential to communicate the business value using concrete metrics. Focus on quantifiable outcomes like risk reduction percentages, cost savings through early detection, and reduced likelihood of costly breaches.

One effective strategy is to tie exposure management to specific business objectives, such as reducing the risk of a data breach or improving compliance with industry regulations. By demonstrating measurable ROI and framing exposure management as an enabler of business success rather than just another cost center, you can build a compelling case for investment.

4. Overcoming silos and skill gaps

Exposure management requires collaboration across your entire organization, not just IT. While many organizations operate in silos with limited visibility into each other's activities, modern cybersecurity demands a unified approach combining threat intelligence, incident response, DevSecOps, legal teams, and more.

To overcome this challenge, it's important to foster a culture where cybersecurity is recognized as a company-wide responsibility. This means establishing cross-functional working groups, providing training and education to bridge skill gaps, and leveraging tools that provide a shared view of risks and exposures across the organization.

How to implement exposure management: 5 steps 

Now that you understand the benefits and challenges of exposure management, let's dive into the practical steps you can take to implement it in your organization:

Step 1. Map your attack surface

The first step in exposure management is to create a comprehensive inventory of all the assets that make up your attack surface. This includes obvious things like servers, applications, and databases, but also less visible assets like cloud services, IoT devices, third-party integrations, and shadow IT—systems or devices that employees use without IT's approval.

To do this effectively, you'll need to implement continuous discovery processes that combine automated tools and manual verification. This means regularly running network scans, analyzing configuration files, and interviewing application owners to understand how systems are interconnected and what data they process. Remember, asset discovery isn't a one-time task but an ongoing process as your environment constantly evolves.

Step 2. Assess your risks

Once you have a clear picture of your attack surface, the next step is to assess the risks associated with each asset. This involves considering factors like the criticality of the asset, the sensitivity of the data it handles, and the likelihood of a successful attack.

There are many different frameworks and methodologies for assessing risks such as industry-standard frameworks like CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) or FAIR (Factor Analysis of Information Risk), but one common approach is to use a risk matrix that plots the likelihood and impact of each risk on a scale from low to high. By prioritizing risks based on their position on the matrix, you can focus your remediation efforts on the most significant threats to your organization.

Step 3. Prioritize remediation efforts

With a prioritized list of risks in hand, the next step is to develop a remediation plan. This involves identifying the specific actions you'll take to mitigate each risk, such as patching vulnerabilities, hardening configurations, or implementing new security controls.

When prioritizing remediation efforts, consider not only the probability of each risk occurring and the potential severity of damage if exploited, but also your organization's risk appetite—which risks are acceptable versus intolerable. Sometimes accepting a certain level of risk might be more practical than investing in expensive or disruptive remediation measures, as long as it aligns with your organization's risk tolerance. 

Step 4. Implement security controls

Once you've identified the specific remediation actions you'll take, the next step is to implement them. This might involve deploying new security tools, updating configurations, or providing training to users on secure practices.

It's important to approach implementation in a systematic and repeatable way, with clear documentation and change management processes. This can help ensure that remediation efforts are consistent and effective across your entire environment.

Step 5. Monitor and improve

Exposure management is not a one-time exercise, but an ongoing process of continuous improvement. As your environment changes and new threats emerge, you'll need to regularly reassess your risks and adjust your remediation strategies accordingly.

To do this effectively, it's essential to establish clear metrics and KPIs for measuring the effectiveness of your exposure management program. This might include tracking things like the number of high-risk exposures, the time to remediate vulnerabilities, or the frequency of security incidents. By continuously monitoring these metrics and using them to drive improvements, you can ensure that your exposure management program remains effective over time.

4 exposure management best practices

To get the most value out of your exposure management program, here are four best practices to help you manage risk effectively:

1. Automate wherever possible

Exposure management can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, especially in large and complex environments. To scale your efforts and reduce the risk of human error, it's essential to automate as much of the process as possible. By doing this, you free up your team to focus on more strategic initiatives.

2. Prioritize based on risk

With so many potential exposures to manage, it's essential to prioritize your efforts based on the level of risk each one poses to your organization. This means considering factors like the criticality of the affected system, the sensitivity of the data involved, and the ease of exploitation. By taking a risk-based approach to exposure management, you can maximize the impact of your efforts and effectively manage risk across your business.

3. Implement regular security audits

Regular security audits help identify gaps in your exposure management program and ensure compliance with industry standards. These assessments, both internal and external (like through third-party penetration testing), should examine your systems, processes, and controls to uncover potential vulnerabilities and get a holistic view of your security posture. By conducting thorough audits on a scheduled basis, you can maintain a proactive stance against emerging threats and validate that your security measures remain effective.

4. Invest in employee cybersecurity training

Your employees are usually the first line of defense against online threats. Comprehensive training programs help staff recognize potential exposures, understand security policies, and know how to respond to incidents. Regular training sessions, simulated phishing exercises, and security awareness campaigns create a culture where everyone plays a role in managing exposures.

Protect your business digital assets with Rippling

Rippling offers a comprehensive suite of security and identity and access management (IAM) features to help businesses protect their digital assets and reduce their exposure to cyber threats. The platform combines an HRIS and IdP into one system, enabling stronger security with granular access controls across the entire user lifecycle.

With Rippling, you can:

  • Centralize user identity management across HR, IT, and security systems
  • Enforce strong authentication and access controls, including multi-factor authentication and single sign-on
  • Automatically provision and deprovision user accounts based on HR events like hiring, role changes, and termination
  • Monitor user activity and detect potential security incidents in real-time
  • Secure employee devices and endpoints with built-in device management capabilities
  • Ensure compliance with industry regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2

By integrating all your workforce data into a single platform, Rippling makes it easy to implement consistent security policies and access controls across your entire organization. You can define granular permissions based on employee attributes like department, location, or role, and automatically update access levels as users move through the employee lifecycle.

Through key partnerships like SentinelOne, rated a leader by Gartner for endpoint protection, and other third-party integrations, Rippling enables you to extend your exposure management capabilities across your entire technology stack. Whether you're looking to secure your cloud infrastructure, protect sensitive data in business applications, or monitor user activity across multiple systems, Rippling has you covered.

FAQs on exposure management

What metrics can IT managers track to measure exposure management success?

IT managers can track several key metrics to measure the success of their exposure management efforts, including:

  • Time to detect and remediate vulnerabilities
  • Reduction in the number of successful attacks or data breaches
  • Compliance with industry standards and regulations
  • Employee awareness and engagement with cybersecurity training programs

How does exposure management support compliance efforts?

Exposure management plays a critical role in supporting compliance efforts by providing evidence of ongoing risk assessment and mitigation activities. By aligning exposure management practices with regulatory requirements, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS, organizations can demonstrate their commitment to data protection and avoid costly fines and penalties.

What is an exposure management platform?

An exposure management platform is a software solution that helps organizations automate and streamline the processes involved in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks associated with their digital assets. These platforms typically offer features such as asset discovery, vulnerability scanning, risk scoring, and remediation tracking, enabling IT managers to maintain real-time visibility into their exposure landscape and prioritize their risk mitigation efforts.

What tools are commonly used for exposure management?

Several tools are commonly used in exposure management, including:

  • Vulnerability scanners: Automated tools that scan systems and applications for known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
  • Penetration testing tools: Simulated attacks that help identify weaknesses in an organization's defenses.
  • Asset discovery tools: Solutions that automatically identify and inventory all exposed assets, including shadow IT and third-party systems.
  • Risk assessment platforms: Software that helps organizations assess and prioritize risks based on factors such as likelihood, impact, and asset criticality.

This blog is based on information available to Rippling as of December 18, 2024.

Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide or be relied on for tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, accounting, and legal advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.

last edited: December 20, 2024

Author

Marisa Krystian

Senior Content Marketing Manager, IT

Marisa is a content marketer with over ten years of experience, specializing in security and workplace technology—all with a love of black coffee and the Oxford comma.