Cloud computing offers convenient digital solutions to businesses, allowing more scalability, flexibility, and cost efficiency to keep up with the modern fast-paced digital landscape. However, this shift towards cloud infrastructure raises the concern of exposing business assets to a wide range of external threats, as highlighted by a recent panel discussion between cybersecurity industry experts, Setu Parimi, the CTO of 1763986604-74d06f1bdede78c5.wp-transfer.sgvps.net and Kevin Nikkhoo, CEO of Xenex Soc and Cloud Access. During the discussion, the panel revealed that over 83% of cyber breaches result from external threats. This alarmingly high percentage highlights the critical need for implementing advanced cybersecurity strategies like Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) to fortify cloud environments.

In this article, we will discuss how CTEM helps your business protect its assets and information from external cyber threats and malicious actors. 

Evolution of Cybersecurity: Firewalls to CTEM

From traditional network firewalls and isolated data centers, cloud security infrastructure has come a long way. In the early days, perimeter defenses, with firewalls and Demilitarized Zones (DMZs) constituted the primary cybersecurity measures, serving as the first lines of defense. However, as organizations began adopting cloud services, it demanded an overall change of the traditional security practices. With the flexibility and easy accessibility of cloud computing, assets are no longer confined within physical boundaries. This leads to the need for external threat management and Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM).

“The assets are everywhere,” Kevin mentioned during the discussion. “They could be servers in Azure, AWS, Google, or could be services packaged in Kubernetes running on different servers.” With the continuous online exposure of organization assets in the evolving cyber landscape, conducting periodic vulnerability scans is no longer sufficient. To protect the data and sensitive information from malicious actors and external threats real-time monitoring has become a necessity. Continuous Threat Exposure Management represents a proactive approach designed to address the dynamic nature of modern cloud assets.

Features of Continuous Threat Exposure Management

Scoping the Attack Surface: CTEM helps in external cloud asset risk evaluation which helps you identify your internal and external assets.  

Asset Discovery and Risk Profiling: Cyber RiskProfiler methods also help you categorize your brand assets based on their criticality and risk profile.

Prioritization of Threats: Threats detected by the CTEM and CASM (Cloud attack Surface Management) methods aid the digital protection services in identifying the cyber risks depending on urgency and potential impact.

Validation and Remediation: The continuous threat exposure management methods also help you implement and fix possible vulnerabilities while continuously validating security measures.

By continuously assessing threats, organizations reduce security risks, ensuring that vulnerabilities are not open for exploitation. As Kevin emphasized, CTEM’s adaptability to the cloud’s dynamic nature is crucial to its effectiveness.

External Attack Surface Management (EASM) in Cyber Insurance

The increasing cyber-attacks in recent days have contributed to cyber insurance becoming essential to an organization’s risk management strategy. It has also become increasingly challenging to secure reliable cyber insurance due to the continuously rising cyber-attacks. The cyber insurance providers now demand stricter compliance, with specific requirements for endpoint security, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and external attack surface management (EASM) before approving your insurance request.

As Kevin highlighted, External Attack Surface Management solutions play a significant role in lowering cyber insurance premiums. These tools allow organizations to map and monitor their cloud assets, gaining visibility into potential vulnerabilities.

In Kevin’s words, “When you have it [EASM] in place, you have better visibility, you’re proactive about managing that risk [external cyber threats], and the risk of the organization gets reduced. Therefore, the premiums could be less.” By adopting an External Attack Surface Management solution, organizations not only enhance their security but can fulfill their cyber insurance requirements simultaneously, potentially saving thousands of dollars in premiums.

A well-integrated External Attack Surface Management solution:

• Maps external assets and continuously monitors their status.

• Identifies misconfigured assets and high-risk components.

• Provides actionable insights for remediation, which is essential for maintaining lower insurance costs.

Common Vulnerabilities in Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud infrastructures offer superior flexibility and improve collaboration efforts for organizations. However, the constant online presence of company assets often brings unique challenges for the business, threatening its brand protection strategies. Some of the most common vulnerabilities include:

Misconfigured Assets: A top risk factor is where cloud storage buckets (e.g., S3, Azure Blobs) are often inadvertently exposed to the public internet.

Unpatched Systems: Cloud assets, especially ephemeral or transient servers, are susceptible to becoming unpatched, leaving them open to attacks.

Ineffective Access Controls: Poor access management can lead to unauthorized access. Role-based access control (RBAC) and granular permissions are critical but are often poorly implemented in cloud settings.

As Kevin illustrated, the sheer volume of findings from traditional Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tools can be overwhelming, often producing false positives. In contrast, External Attack Surface Management tools offer a refined perspective by focusing on actual, exploitable vulnerabilities from an external attacker’s viewpoint.

Cloud Security Challenges: Dynamic Assets, DevOps Integration, and IoT Devices

Unlike traditional on-premises environments, cloud assets are highly dynamic. Organizations often provision cloud resources to meet demand spikes and decommission them afterward, leading to a constant state of flux. For example, retailers scaling up for holiday seasons need temporary servers, creating a security oversight if misconfigurations arise.

Another challenge is integrating security within DevOps pipelines. Cloud-native applications are often built using containers, microservices, and APIs, which can reside in multiple environments across different providers. The panel underscored that securing these components in real-time, especially across distributed systems, is a daunting task.

Finally, IoT devices and other connected applications complicate the cloud security landscape further, introducing additional vulnerabilities. Kevin emphasized that these interconnected devices require continuous monitoring and vulnerability management to avoid breaches.

Enhancing Cloud Security with AI and Machine Learning

AI and ML are gaining popularity in cybersecurity as a tool to improve cloud security practices. Their ability to process large datasets in a shorter timespan allows them to identify possible attack paths that can be undetected by human analysts.

Some notable applications of AI/ML in digital brand protection and cloud security include:

• Threat Detection: LLMs are capable of assessing large amounts of data. Using this assessment capacity, Machine Learning models analyze incoming traffic patterns to identify suspicious behavior.

• Autonomous Response: One of the principal benefits of artificial intelligence is its support of automating tasks. AI-driven tools can automatically detect and respond to different threat scenarios, which reduces the detection time considerably otherwise taken by human analysts.

• Cloud Attack Path Analysis: AI tools can also correlate misconfigurations across multiple assets to identify potential attack paths.

However, AI/ML models also come with their own unique challenges. False positives remain a major hurdle, as even the most advanced AI models can misinterpret or hallucinate data, leading to unnecessary alerts. hence, although AI/ML has its own benefits in fast-tracking threat assessment, the role of human analysts remains vital in approving AI-generated insights.

During the discussion, Mr. Kevin Nikkhoo also drew attention to the unavailability of skilled AI developers, which creates an obstacle to widespread AI adoption in cybersecurity. To overcome this, many organizations are choosing to upskill existing talent, training internal teams on Large Language Models (LLM) to enhance security measures without relying on external hires.

Continuous Threat Exposure Management vs. Traditional Threat Management

CTEM differs from traditional threat management in several key ways:

Continuous Monitoring: Unlike scheduled vulnerability assessments, Continuous Threat Exposure Management provides real-time insights into possible vulnerabilities and external threats, allowing proactive responses.

Focus on Dynamic Environments: Traditional methods often assume static environments. This, although helpful for previously used monolithic architecture, does not provide reliable security for more flexible cloud-native services. Thus, optimized Continuous Threat Exposure Management allows versatile and round-the-clock protection, which is more suitable for microservice architectures and cloud infrastructures.

Cross-Team Collaboration: CTEM emphasizes cross-functional collaboration, integrating security with business strategies and ensuring alignment across departments.

The traditional approach, which relies on periodic scans and internal-only assessments, is becoming obsolete. CTEM’s external focus allows organizations to keep pace with rapidly emerging threats, ensuring that vulnerabilities are addressed promptly before they can be exploited.

The Role of EASM in Proactive Cloud Security 

Risk Profiler, a prominent EASM solution, was cited as a powerful tool in Xenex Soc’s cybersecurity arsenal. Kevin shared several use cases where Risk Profiler was instrumental:

• Brand Risk Management: External Attack Surface Management provides continuous support for monitoring the unauthorized use of an organization’s brand identity and IP on external sites. This helps businesses manage brand risk and avoid potential harm created by malicious actors.

• Third-Party Risk Management: External Attack Surface Management practices also help businesses ensure that suppliers and partners meet security standards before software integration. This helps organizations secure themselves from potential security threats or unreliable vendors.

• Unknown Asset Discovery: EASM also helps identify cloud assets otherwise unfamiliar to the internal security team, which is particularly beneficial for large, distributed environments.

These advanced security assessments help organizations maintain a 360-degree view of their cloud security, accounting for both internal and external threats and aligning cybersecurity practices with business goals.

Preparing for the Future: Addressing Threats with Proactive Security

This discussion between 1763986604-74d06f1bdede78c5.wp-transfer.sgvps.net CTO Setu Parimi and Kevin Nikkhoo highlighted a crucial point about cloud security— this fast-evolving cybersecurity space requires a proactive, advanced threat management approach to battle modern-day security breaches. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, our defensive measures need to become smarter and more efficient.

Key Takeaways:

Adopt Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM): Traditional security methods like firewalls and periodic threat assessments are insufficient for the cloud environment’s dynamic nature. Real-time monitoring and threat management should be implemented to provide adequate support against external security threats.

Implement External Attack Surface Management (EASM): External Attack Surface Management solutions help you gain round-the-clock visibility into your organization’s external assets. This also prepares you to protect your digital data and brand identity as rigorously as internal assets.

Utilize AI/ML in Security Operations: Implementation of AI/ML with your cybersecurity practices can significantly improve threat detection and response. However, you need to ensure proper human oversight to mitigate false positives and other shortcoming of LLM modules.

Invest in Cross-Functional Collaboration: Security measures and training must be prioritized organization-wide, with CTEM facilitating coordination across departments for a unified defense strategy.

Final Thoughts,

By embracing these security practices and leveraging advanced tools and technologies, organizations can safeguard their cloud system from external threats. Continuous Threat Exposure Management also helps you ensure digital brand protection for business continuity and offers resilience against cyber risks.

Securing cloud infrastructure in today’s digital era requires a proactive, holistic approach. With continuously evolving attack patterns and the adoption of cloud technologies, security teams must embrace solutions like CTEM and External Attack Surface Management, supported by AI/ML advancements, to identify and eliminate possible vulnerabilities.