The power of CTEM & how to take advantage of it

As attack surfaces grow, traditional methods for guarding against threats only go so far. Organizations that don’t keep up with rapid advancements and expanding attack surfaces risk falling behind—or worse, a breach. As malicious actors take advantage of AI and new vulnerabilities emerge daily, the frequency and sophistication of attacks continue to increase. This makes point-in-time security measures like pentesting inadequate.

To combat the growing threat landscape, organizations should integrate Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) into their security strategy. CTEM combines aspects of vulnerability management and attack surface management into a continuous process that results in ongoing exposure reduction. In fact, “84% of organizations reported an increase in their external attack surface in 2024, and 36% saw a sharp rise in asset changes over the past year” (Cybersecurity Insiders & Cogility TacitRed, 2024), highlighting the urgent need for a more dynamic and continuous approach to threat management.

Why is CTEM the Way of the Future?

CTEM is no longer just a concept; it’s a proven way to align security strategy to organizational risk and enable continuous protection.

Traditional vulnerability management and attack surface management focus on known assets inside the corporate network or assets known to network administrators. In contrast, CTEM focuses on a broader attack surface that includes elements like social media and supply chains and prioritizes them based on level of risk.

This offensive approach effectively addresses several gaps left by traditional security methods, including:

• Asset Management: Many organizations struggle to maintain a clear inventory of their assets, which can lead to blind spots. Unmanaged assets pose risks due to outdated software and vulnerabilities. CTEM uses a combination of automated and manual testing to continuously map and document an organization’s attack surface, ensuring up-to-date visibility and integration of new or modified assets into security evaluations.
• Vulnerability Management: After documenting the attack surface and the associated technologies, CTEM helps identify vulnerabilities through a combination of testing methods. Timely patching of these vulnerabilities by the client significantly strengthens the organization’s security posture.
• Continuous Targeted Testing: Traditional penetration testing is point-in-time and is often conducted once annually. This leaves organizations vulnerable to zero-day threats that emerge throughout the year. CTEM’s continuous testing approach quickly assesses vulnerabilities, reducing the time between detection and patching from months to less than a day, thereby enhancing security.

CTEM shifts focus towards the areas that pose the highest level of risk to your business and prioritizes exposures that are exploitable. And with prioritization by actual risk, your security teams can focus on what matters most instead of chasing noise. Not to mention, because CTEM ties security efforts to business impact, you can more effectively communicate risk in business terms to company leadership.

The data is on CTEM’s side too. Gartner predicts that organizations that make investments based on CTEM will be three times less likely to suffer a breach.

Three Steps to Jumpstart CTEM at Your Organization

Implementing CTEM may sound complex, but it can begin with a few focused, strategic steps. By breaking the process into manageable phases, organizations can build momentum and gradually evolve toward a more mature, continuous security posture. Here are three practical steps to help you kickstart your CTEM journey:

Exposure Discovery

You can’t protect what you don’t know exists. That’s why it’s important to understand your exposure risk. You’ll need to inventory assets, identify vulnerabilities, and map out your attack surface. To accelerate efforts, we recommend starting small. Use existing tools (like vulnerability scanners) to evaluate high-value assets and business-critical systems first.

Prioritize Based on Business Risk

Not all exposures are created equal. It’s important to give exposures business context. Focus on vulnerabilities that are exploitable and affect critical systems to get a clear picture of your exposure based on business risk. This means using more than just the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to assess vulnerabilities. A high CVSS score doesn’t always mean a vulnerability is actively exploited—correlation and context are key.

Validate & Test Exploitability

Put your defenses to the test. CTEM is only effective if you validate the actual exploitability of your identified exposures. This can be done through breach and attack simulations and/or red teaming to ensure that the proper response plans are activated and defenses remain strong. All results and findings from simulations should be put into remediation workflows, ensuring that exposures are addressed.

Keep in mind that working your way to real-time validation can be a journey. Start with quarterly CTEM sprints to ease into continuous efforts.

If you’re feeling bullish about CTEM, Stratascale is here for you. Our team of offensive security experts employs a comprehensive approach to CTEM that combines cutting-edge security tools, threat-based intelligence, and expert knowledge to identify vulnerabilities, assess risk, and provide industry leading recommendations to secure expanding attack surfaces.

Contact a member of the Stratascale team for more information.

Cybersecurity Insiders, & Cogility TacitRed. (2024). 2024 Attack Surface Threat Intelligence Report. Cybersecurity Insiders.