Attack Surface Management vs Vulnerability Management

 

Hey everyone. Someone recently asked me what the difference was between Attack Surface Management and Vulnerability Management.

Attack Surface Management and Vulnerability Management are both important parts of a full cybersecurity strategy, but they handle cybersecurity risks in different ways. Following are the main ways they are different:

	Attack Surface Management	Vulnerability Management
Focus	Focuses on identifying and monitoring the external and internal assets, such as networks, applications, and systems, that could potentially be targeted by attackers. It involves understanding the organization's entire attack surface, including assets that may not be directly under the organization's control, such as cloud services or third-party vendors.	This focuses on identifying, prioritizing, and remediating vulnerabilities within an organization's systems and applications. It involves scanning for known vulnerabilities, assessing their severity and potential impact, and taking steps to mitigate or remediate them to reduce the risk of exploitation by attackers.
Scope	Extends beyond just vulnerabilities to include the broader attack surface of an organization, including exposure to threats such as misconfigurations, weak authentication mechanisms, or excessive privileges.	Narrower and specifically focuses on identifying and addressing vulnerabilities within the organization's systems and applications.
Approach	Continuous monitoring and assessment of the organization's attack surface, using techniques such as asset discovery, enumeration, and mapping to identify potential points of entry for attackers.	Periodic or continuous vulnerability scanning, assessment, and remediation efforts to identify and address known vulnerabilities within the organization's systems and applications.
Goals	Gain visibility into the organization's attack surface, understand the potential avenues of attack, and take proactive measures to reduce exposure and mitigate risk.	Identify and remediate vulnerabilities within the organization's systems and applications to reduce the likelihood of successful cyber attacks and minimize the potential impact of security breaches.

Stay tuned for the next blog post :-)