The cause of most data breaches can be mapped to limited attack surface visibility. Inverting this statement reveals a tactic for reducing your data breach risks - increase attack surface visibility. Cyber Threat Exposure Management presents an advanced security risk management approach by prioritizing attack surface visibility. To learn how to adopt a CTEM mindset and reduce your data breach risks, read on.
What is threat exposure management (TEM)?
Threat Exposure Management is the process of ensuring security programs can identify, prioritize, and manage unexpected security risks and exposures. TEM is a forced cybersecurity innovation in response to the attack surface challenges of digital transformation.
Security teams struggle to scale their risk management efforts in line with the rate of their expanding attack surfaces. As a result, security controls are not adapting to the evolving threat landscape, which limits security posture improvement potential and increases data breach risks.
Threat Exposure Management solves this problem by prioritizing the metric of visibility. To increase visibility, all the aspects of a cybersecurity program involved in the threat discovery process need to be broadened. This results in an attack path and attack vector management program comprising of the following components.
- External Attack Surface Management (EASM) - The process of continuously monitoring an organization’s external attack surface (including third-party service providers) for emerging risks. An EASM can map your external digital footprint (including fourth parties), identify critical assets, and discover supply chain security risks, making it an essentiall component of vendor information security.
- Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) - CAASM unifies multiple visibility sources (EASM, Extended Detection, and Response Solutions into one database), creating a foundation of broader visibility for other cyber risk management practices to build upon.
- Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (RBVM) - RBVM is a modern approach to vulnerability management where critical risks are prioritized in remediation response. By encouraging remediation efficiency, RBVM helps organizations continuously improve their security posture rating, even when potential threats are rising. Vendor Tiering - categorizing vendors based on risk criticality is an example of an RBVM practice.
- Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) - TIPs continuously gather information about threat actor activity on the surface and dark web and then aggregate this information in a singular database. TIP tactics such as ransomware blog data leak detection can help organizations preemptively secure compromise accounts before they’re exploited to breach a network. To learn, read our post overviewing the top cyber threat detection tools on the market.
- Penetration Testing - The practice of simulating real-world cyberattacks to discover vulnerabilities expands security team visibility into overlooked regions of their attack surface.
With all of these attack surface visibility-enhancing initiatives working together, security operations can respond to emerging cyber threats faster, reducing the potential negative impacts on an organization’s security posture. This results in cascading positive impacts across all of the components of Attack Surface Management and associated risk mitigation programs like Vendor Risk Management, including:
- Cyber risk mitigation
- Cyber risk management
- Incident response planning
- New threat remediation
- Vulnerability management
- Threat intelligence
- Risk assessment management
TEM isn’t an innovation. The strategy builds upon existing cybersecurity concepts to increase the emphasis on attack surface visibility.
Learn how UpGuard's Vendor Risk Management tool reduces third-party risk exposure.
Benefits of threat exposure management
A well-implemented TEM approach provides cascading positive impacts across risk mitigation and management programs (like Incident Response and Vendor Risk Management). The core benefits include:
- Improved visibility & reduced security blind spots: TEM forces the unification of asset data from every source—cloud, on-premise, and third-party—into a single location (via CAASM). This eliminates the silos that create security blind spots, enabling you to map your external digital footprint and identify critical supply chain risks.
- Strengthened risk prioritization: The move to RBVM is crucial. Instead of treating every vulnerability equally, TEM encourages remediation efficiency by prioritizing risks based on their criticality and exploitability, not just the number of outstanding CVEs. This ensures time is managed efficiently.
- Enhanced security posture: By continuously feeding discovery and prioritization data back into the security program, TEM enables organizations to maintain a continuously improving security posture. Even as potential threats rise, the efficiency gained in response helps organizations consistently improve their security rating.
TEM vs. CTEM: A comparison
The distinction between TEM and continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) is often blurred; however, the critical difference lies in the time component and the iterative cycle. CTEM is the fully operationalized, closed-loop version of TEM.
What is continuous threat exposure management (CTEM)?
Continuous Threat Exposure Management is a proactive approach to cybersecurity risk management that prioritizes real-time security threat discovery remediation and mitigation.
CTEM further advances the TEM model by adding real-time attack surface visibility. With real-time awareness of emerging threats, CTEM programs help security teams stay on top of emerging security threats instead of feeling like they’re perpetually lagging, thereby reducing the stress of Attack Surface Management.
With a CTEM program, organizations can detect and respond to emerging threats faster to ensure their security posture is always resilient to evolving cybercriminal tactics.
This “continuous” aspect is achieved through a symbiotic relationship between the CTEM program and related risk mitigation programs, where CTEM data is constantly iterated to improve its decision-making abilities.
Gartner illustrates this relationship as follows:
The CTEM strategy also significantly benefits Vendor Risk Management programs by moving risk assessment models from a rudimentary point-in-time approach to real-time risk awareness. The point-in-time model (where vendor attack surface visibility is only dependent on risk assessment) only paints a picture of third-party security risks at a single point in time between scheduled assessments. Security teams are essentially working in the dark, unaware of emerging risks increasing the threat of third-party breaches between each assessment, like vendor software misconfigurations, CVEs, and exposures facilitating phishing and malware attacks.
By combining risk assessments with continuous attack surface monitoring—i.e., incorporating a real-time component into third-party attack surface management—security teams are always aware of each vendor’s security posture and, therefore, the degree of data breach susceptibility.
CTEM revolutionized internal and external attack surface management by encouraging security teams to embrace a proactive risk management mindset rather than the reactive mindset that characterizes traditional models. With a reactive mindset governing threat discovery efforts, breach mitigation programs will be optimized to also detect active threats as well as static ones (such as cybercriminals inside your network). Faster active cyberattack compresses the data breach lifecycle, which according to the 2022 Cost of a Data Breach report, could save you $1.12 million in damages.
This vast range of benefits impacting just about every area of cybersecurity is why Gartner ranks CTEM amongst its top cybersecurity trends in 2023.
According to Gartner, organizations implementing a CTEM program by 2026 will suffer two-thirds fewer breaches.
Why CTEM matters
CTEM is a crucial strategy for mitigating organizational risk and ensuring business resilience in the digital era.
H3: 1. Reducing Breach Exposure and Enhancing Resilience
CTEM directly addresses the root cause of most data breaches—limited attack surface visibility. By operationalizing a proactive risk management mindset, CTEM programs enable organizations to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensure their security posture remains resilient to evolving cybercriminal tactics.
- Financial impact: Faster active cyber attack detection and response, enabled by CTEM, can compress the data breach lifecycle and, according to the 2022 Cost of a Data Breach report, save an organization over $$1.12 million in damages.
- Proven efficacy: Gartner projects that organizations implementing a CTEM program by 2026 will suffer two-thirds fewer breaches.
H3: 2. Aligning security with business goals
TEM/CTEM ensures security resources are aligned with business risk:
- Resource efficiency: By adopting a Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (RBVM) approach, CTEM frameworks help security teams distribute risk mitigation efforts efficiently. They focus the bulk of their response on threats that will have the most significant negative impact on the business.
- Enablement, not obstruction: Continuously assured security allows businesses to adopt new technologies and engage new vendors faster, knowing that a mechanism is in place to continuously monitor and validate the associated risks.
H3: 3. Supporting compliance and governance initiatives (GRC)
A CTEM approach provides continuous, demonstrable evidence of due diligence, which is essential for modern governance, risk, and compliance (GRC):
- NIST CSF Alignment: CTEM’s foundational stages of Discovery and Validation directly align with the Identify and Detect functions of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, providing the continuous monitoring that regulators demand.
- ISO 27001 Support: The iterative, closed-loop nature of CTEM aligns perfectly with the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle at the heart of ISO 27001, providing continuous evidence of risk assessment and vulnerability management.
- DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act): For financial institutions, CTEM's emphasis on real-time risk awareness and end-to-end resilience (especially across the third-party attack surface) is critical to meeting the stringent operational resilience requirements of DORA.
Implementing TEM: A step-by-step guide
The successful implementation of a CTEM program laid a strong foundation for optimized risk mitigation processes and strategies. This framework will help you orient your cybersecurity program towards a Cyber Threat Exposure Management approach.
H3: 1. Establish a foundational asset inventory (CAASM)
Start by eliminating the security silos that breed limited visibility. CTEM begins with a comprehensive asset inventory that covers your entire digital ecosystem.
- Actionable step: Implement Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) to unify data from all existing visibility sources—EASM tools, threat intelligence feeds, Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions, and even internal scanners—into a single, consolidated database. This unified view is the foundational visibility upon which all other CTEM processes are built.
- Case study (SaaS provider): A mid-sized SaaS provider uses an integrated CAASM solution to automatically reconcile asset data from their multi-cloud, on-premise, and third-party environments. This single source of truth immediately revealed 150+ previously unknown, internet-facing assets and misconfigurations that had slipped past manual tracking. This proactive discovery closed a critical security gap before it could be exploited by an external threat actor.
An optimized system is one that is readily scalable. Some examples of scalable improvement to common poor cybersecurity practices include:
- Replacing spreadsheets with a risk assessment platform - A risk assessment platform automates the complete lifecycle of security assessments, removing the tedious effort of tracking responses via spreadsheets.
- Tiering Vendors - Vendor Tiering allows critical vendors to be prioritized in remediation efforts, helping security teams manage their time more efficiently.
- Automating Vendor Risk Management notifications - Even with a risk assessment platform in place, workflows can be further optimized with notifications tracking risk assessment progress. This enables assessment responses to be addressed as promptly as possible.
Refer to these free resources for more risk management process optimization guidance:
- How to Make Vendors Respond to Risk Assessments (Faster)
- How to Get Vendor Questionnaires Completed Faster
H3: 2. Map the external attack surface (EASM)
Your security boundary isn't just your network; it encompasses everything that connects to it, including third-party systems.
- Actionable step: Implement External Attack Surface Management (EASM) for continuous, outside-in monitoring. This process maps your external digital footprint, identifies critical assets, and discovers supply chain security risks—including those posed by third parties. Effective EASM sets the foundation for an efficient cyber threat detection and response strategy.
- Tip: Ensure your existing threat discovery and risk management programs are optimized and scalable before implementing full CTEM, as the data feed demand between systems will significantly increase. For example, replacing unwieldy spreadsheets with a risk assessment platform automates the complete lifecycle of security assessments.
For an overview of attack surface management, watch the video below.
Experience UpGuard’s attack surface management features with this self-guided product tour >
3. Adopt a Risk-Based Approach
Enhanced visibility is only useful if security teams understand how to distribute risk mitigation efforts efficiently.
- Actionable step: Transition from generic vulnerability prioritization to an RBVM model.
Prioritize remediation based on two factors:
- Threat Context: Is the vulnerability currently being actively exploited in the wild?
- Asset Criticality: What is the potential impact of a breach on the asset's business function (a process known as vendor tiering in VRM)?
- This framework indicates which threats should be prioritized based on their likely impact on your security posture.
- Case study (financial firm): A global financial firm adopted an RBVM approach by integrating its TEM platform with its vulnerability scanner. By prioritizing remediation based on exploitability and impact to core services, they reduced their mean-time-to-detect (MTTD) for a critical breach from 72 hours to under 8 hours within a single quarter. This efficiency focused their limited patching resources exclusively on high-risk, high-impact flaws.
Learn the basics of Threat Exposure Management >
Implementing an Exposure Management Program or Exposure Management Strategy will further help security teams determine which regions of their IT ecosystem are most vulnerable to exploitation.
4. Integrate threat intelligence (TIP)
A TIP allows security to move from a reactive to a proactive defense.
- Actionable step: Establish a Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP) to continuously gather information about threat actor activity, monitoring for signs of compromise, such as data leaks on ransomware blogs or compromised employee credentials. This allows organizations to preemptively secure compromised accounts before they are exploited to breach a network.
H3: 5. Automate validation and response (the CTEM cycle)
The final step is establishing the "continuous" loop required for CTEM by moving from manual, periodic testing to automated, real-time validation.
- Actionable step: Use automation to constantly validate the exploitability of risks (the fourth step in the CTEM cycle) and integrate that data directly into your workflows. Enhanced threat visibility is only beneficial if you can promptly respond to each detected threat.
- Integrate CTEM data into your Incident Response Plan (IRP) to ensure staff can "calmly and methodically" work through appropriate threat response measures during a live cyber attack.
- Implement a policy to keep your IRP updated in line with emerging threats, as your CTEM program will continually feed it new threat data.
- Case study (healthcare org): A healthcare organization operationalized CTEM by integrating its exposure data directly with its GRC tool (e.g., a platform like UpGuard). This automation instantly linked a newly discovered third-party exposure to a specific compliance framework (e.g., HIPAA), reducing the time to implement a corresponding policy change and control from 2 weeks to 2 days. This provided continuous, audit-ready evidence of due diligence.
H3: 6. Cultivate a culture of continuous improvement
Real-time threat visibility extends beyond the digital landscape to the human element.
- Actionable step: Use CTEM data to inform and update both technical processes and employee awareness training. Update your cyber awareness training program to address the importance of threat visibility and vigilance in a daily business context.
- Keep stakeholders informed: A CTEM program provides valuable information that validates the efficacy of your risk mitigation efforts. This data stream needs to be fed into a cybersecurity reporting program so that it can be clearly and effectively communicated to stakeholders and the Board. This justification ensures continued investment.
Learn how UpGuard streamlines cybersecurity reporting >
Download our ebook to learn how Attack Surface Management helps you monitor and secure your most critical data and assets.
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