Last updated at Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:48:56 GMT
Rapid7 recently collaborated with IDC on their comprehensive Attack Surface Management Spotlight guide. These Spotlight publications deliver expert analyst perspectives on critical business and technology challenges, emerging industry trends, and innovative solutions. We're pleased to share IDC analyst Michelle Abraham's insights on cyber risk exposure management and the imperative for organizations to implement proactive security strategies.
IDC’s trend forecast
“Managing exposures with proactive cybersecurity tools and platforms should be a mindset for the entire organisation, from the C-suite to the back office.” - Quote: Michelle Abraham, IDC
IDC agrees that it is no longer realistic to conduct asset management on spreadsheets due to the increasing complexity of cloud, SaaS and Generative AI technologies used by many organizations. IT teams have an added complexity brought about by hybrid and remote working. This expansion signifies that CAASM and ASM should be part of a wider exposure management system to cover cloud security, application security and vulnerability management.
IDC key takeaways
- Foundational visibility: Establishing comprehensive awareness of all assets, whether on-premises or in cloud environments. .
- Contextual intelligence: Integrating business context and threat intelligence to accurately assess risk levels and prioritize response strategies.
- Cross-functional utilization: Extending security data beyond the security team to support additional organizational use cases.
Understanding Key Exposure Management Concepts
Check out this blog which will cover off the definitions for ASM, CAASM and EASM.
“You can’t protect what you can’t see.” - Aaron Herndon, Principal Security Consultant, Rapid7
The benefits of holistic exposure management
Organizations that adopt a holistic approach to exposure management gain the ability to aggregate, deduplicate, and analyze data from diverse IT and business tools, resulting in a more comprehensive understanding of their security posture.
According to IDC, the most valuable ASM use cases include:
- Identifying which assets do not have Vulnerability Management software installed.
- Finding assets without endpoint protection solutions.
- Determining users, with Admin access, who have not got multi-factor authentication (MFA) activated.
- Proactively suggesting users who have a propensity to open and click on Phishing emails utilizing a high phishing susceptibility score.
Organizations that adopt a holistic approach to exposure management gain the ability to aggregate, deduplicate, and analyze data from diverse IT and business tools, resulting in a more comprehensive understanding of their security posture.
Business context is critical. The correct ASM tool will provide insight on the relative importance and criticality of each asset.
Which assets are exposed to the internet and whether there is sensitive data in these assets? Sharing data around asset management is extremely helpful for IT and security teams, ensuring everyone is operating from a “single-source of truth”.
The benefits of CAASM and ASM extend beyond the security team, in fact other job functions will reap rewards from highly contextualized asset data, including IT, finance and compliance. Security is a team sport.
We have developed several self-guided product tours highlighting key use cases identified by IDC above, for Surface Command and Exposure Command which you can check out at your leisure.
“Using CAASM and ASM is all about reducing risk.” - Quote: Michelle Abraham, IDC
IDC’s review of Surface Command and Exposure Command
“Surface Command reconciles data about assets, threats, vulnerabilities, and controls to determine the true attack surface.” - Quote: Michelle Abraham, IDC
IDC provides context around our Surface Command product that was released in August 2024, following the acquisition of Noetic Cyber.
Rapid7 delivers unparalleled attack surface visibility through the Command Platform, empowering security teams to identify, prioritize, and remediate risk across hybrid environments. Surface Command is the only solution available that combines native external and internal scanning into a single unified view of your attack surface, enriched with telemetry from third party security and ITOps tools via more than 130 out-of-the-box connectors.
The power behind Surface Command is its graph database, showing the relationships between assets, identities and the potential exposure to present the context of the business risk.
Exposure Command builds on this foundational attack surface visibility, layering on adversary-aware risk prioritization and integrated remediation workflows that make it easy for security teams to anticipate where attackers are going to target, pinpoint their most pressing exposures and act swiftly and collaboratively to address issues before they can be exploited.
Elevate your security posture with proactive exposure management
As highlighted by IDC analyst Michelle Abraham in this comprehensive Spotlight report, organizations that implement robust exposure management strategies gain significant advantages:
- Reduced attack surface: Identify and remediate vulnerabilities before they can be exploited
- Enhanced visibility: Maintain complete awareness of your entire digital footprint
- Improved resource allocation: Focus security efforts where they'll have the greatest impact
- Cross-functional value: Leverage security data across IT, compliance, and business operations
Rapid7's Command Platform delivers the comprehensive visibility and actionable intelligence needed to effectively manage your organization's attack surface. By combining external and internal scanning with powerful contextual analysis, our solutions enable security teams to stay ahead of sophisticated threat actors in today's complex technological environments.
Ready to transform your approach to exposure management?
Download the complete IDC Spotlight report to discover how proactive security strategies can protect your critical assets and strengthen your overall security posture.
