Do know what attack surface monitoring is?

Cyber is increasingly among the top concerns for companies worldwide, becoming a priority for 59% of Latin American businesses. This trend is well-founded, as cybercrime is becoming more complex, audacious, and creative, with Brazil being the leader in cyberattacks in Latin America.

Cybercriminals have dominated the headlines since the beginning of the pandemic, with data hijacking via ransomware and data leaks now being some of the most discussed topics globally. The constant growth in the use of digital services—caused by the hyper-digitalization from the pandemic and the increasing number of startups that are born in the cloud—has created more entry points for these criminals.

But what is an attack surface?
All equipment and systems that process the company's data, and upon which the company depends to function, can possess one or more points (or vectors) of entry that unauthorized users can exploit to extract data. The sum of all these points is what we refer to as the "attack surface." In other words, these are the company’s valuable assets, which, if subjected to attacks, could harm the business or even lead to its failure.

Examples of digital assets considered part of the attack surface include the company's domains and subdomains, hosts/servers, the services running on those servers, web applications, and all environments, platforms, and digital services that the business may depend on in some way, including cloud solutions.

As companies increase their capacity to serve users, introduce new functionalities and services, or expand their investments in digital transformation, their internet exposure surface grows exponentially, which also increases the avenues for attacks. In a world that is increasingly cloud-driven, it is critically important to identify which systems of the company are publicly accessible and which confidential information and vulnerabilities may be exposed.

If a company does not know all of its exposed assets, it lacks visibility into the risks it faces and cannot understand which vulnerabilities threaten the business. This is why so many companies today invest in attack surface management, continuously monitoring their assets.

The cybersecurity challenges of startups
Startups do not undergo digital transformation; they are born in the cloud, allowing them to be more agile in testing functionalities that can attract new users. This focus on product development can lead them to overlook part of the hyper-complexity that exists in the cloud. It is essential to understand that cloud providers offer a myriad of configuration options because they accommodate both early-stage companies and older ones undergoing digital transformation. Many security failures arise from poor configurations of these environments. As the startup grows, creating new services and expanding the complexity of its cloud, its attack surface expands too, necessitating continuous mapping and monitoring.

Attackers operate on a "net fishing" logic, automating unauthorized access attempts to thousands of companies, regardless of size, based on known vulnerabilities. It is much easier to attack a highly mutable environment that does not prioritize security or cannot implement security without stifling growth than to attack a well-established, large company with linear processes and financial resources for a robust security program.

Saving time, money, and maintaining flexibility
Startups often deal with budget constraints, and it is common to see an overburdened technology team, sometimes lacking security specialists. Managers need to "fight a lion every day" amid the demands of innovation, with security becoming yet another problem to solve, preventing decision-makers from focusing on the business without wasting time.

Unxpose serves as an extra arm for the team, providing mapping of the company's assets and continuously monitoring the attack surface 24/7. Moreover, the solution is automated, intelligently prioritizing all identified flaws and vulnerabilities based on their actual impact and risk to the business. This alleviates the team without overwhelming them with notifications and unsolvable problems. Unxpose also offers educational tutorials for all discovered vulnerabilities, explaining the risks and how to remediate them in a comprehensible language tailored for non-security specialists.