The Top 5 CTEM Use Cases

Threat actors can pivot swiftly, developing new exploits and workarounds for previously patched vulnerabilities, leaving organizations in a constant race to fortify their defenses. Many organizations have established vulnerability management programs, but they don’t operate with the agility of threat actors.

Rather than evolve traditional programs with newer techniques to enhance existing programs analysts are proposing new ways to prevent exposures. Enter Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) – a paradigm shift in cybersecurity strategy. But what exactly is CTEM, and how can it revolutionize your security posture?

Top Continuous Threat Exposure Management Use Cases

Vulnerability Management 

Traditional vulnerability management approaches often struggle to keep pace with the rapidly evolving threat landscape, resulting in organizations being blindsided by attacks targeting overlooked vulnerabilities. 

CTEM revolutionizes this process by providing real-time visibility into the organization's attack surface. By continuously monitoring for new vulnerabilities and assessing their potential impact, CTEM enables organizations to prioritize remediation efforts effectively. Additionally, by contextualizing vulnerabilities based on business criticality and asset value, CTEM ensures that scarce resources are allocated where they will have the most significant impact.

SOC Analysis

SOC analysts are inundated with alerts, making it challenging to discern genuine threats from false positives. CTEM augments the capabilities of SOC teams by providing them with actionable intelligence derived from real-time threat exposure data. 

By correlating threat data with contextual information about the organization's assets and infrastructure, CTEM enables SOC analysts to focus their efforts on the most critical threats. Furthermore, by automating routine tasks, CTEM frees up valuable time for SOC analysts to concentrate on more strategic activities, such as threat hunting and proactive defense measures.

DevSecOps

Integrating security into the DevOps pipeline is essential for ensuring that applications are built and deployed securely. However, traditional security tools often introduce friction into the development process, slowing down release cycles and impeding agility. CTEM addresses this challenge by providing developers with real-time feedback on the security posture of their code. 

By integrating CTEM into CI/CD pipelines, organizations can automatically scan code for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, enabling developers to identify and remediate security issues early in the development lifecycle. This shift-left approach not only reduces the risk of introducing security vulnerabilities into production but also fosters a culture of security awareness and accountability within development teams.

Penetration Testing

Traditional penetration testing approaches are time-consuming, resource-intensive, and often produce an overwhelming number of false positives. CTEM streamlines the penetration testing process by continuously scanning for vulnerabilities and assessing their exploitability in real-time. 

By leveraging automated testing tools and techniques, CTEM enables organizations to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities more efficiently. Additionally, by providing penetration testers with access to up-to-date threat intelligence and contextual information about the organization's infrastructure, CTEM helps to minimize false positives and focus testing efforts on the most important assets and attack vectors.

Threat Hunting

Proactively identifying and mitigating threats is a constant challenge for security teams, particularly in environments with complex and dynamic attack surfaces. CTEM empowers security teams to stay one step ahead of adversaries by providing them with real-time visibility into their organization's exposure to threats. 

CTEM enables security teams to automatically identify anomalous behavior and potential indicators of compromise in their assets. Furthermore, by automating routine threat hunting tasks and providing analysts with actionable insights, CTEM helps to accelerate the detection and response to emerging threats, reducing the risk of a successful breach.

How CTEM differs from vulnerability management

As we've explored the core concepts and use cases of Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), it's crucial to delve deeper into how CTEM distinguishes itself from traditional vulnerability management practices. While vulnerability management plays a vital role in identifying and patching security weaknesses, CTEM offers a more proactive and comprehensive approach to cybersecurity. 

Real-time Monitoring vs. Periodic Scans

Traditional vulnerability management typically involves periodic vulnerability scans conducted at predetermined intervals, such as weekly or monthly. In contrast, CTEM employs real-time monitoring and continuous assessment techniques to identify threats, vulnerabilities, and risks as they emerge.

This real-time approach enables organizations to detect and respond to threats more rapidly, reducing the window of exposure and enhancing overall security posture.

Focus on Threat Exposure vs. Vulnerabilities

While vulnerability management primarily focuses on identifying and remediating individual vulnerabilities, CTEM takes a broader view of cybersecurity by considering the organization's overall threat exposure. This includes not only vulnerabilities but also factors such as misconfigurations, insecure network access, and other security weaknesses that could be exploited by attackers.

By assessing exposure posture comprehensively, CTEM enables organizations to prioritize remediation efforts based on the potential impact to the business.

Proactive Defense vs. Reactive Patching

Traditional vulnerability management is often reactive in nature, with organizations patching vulnerabilities after they have been identified by a vulnerability scan or security audit. In contrast, CTEM emphasizes proactive defense strategies that enable organizations to anticipate and mitigate threats before they can be exploited by attackers.

By continuously monitoring for emerging threats and assessing exposure posture in real-time, CTEM enables organizations to stay one step ahead of adversaries and reduce the risk of a successful attack.

Contextual Prioritization vs. Generic Severity Ratings

While traditional vulnerability management tools often assign generic severity ratings to vulnerabilities based on technical criteria, CTEM takes a more contextual approach to prioritization.

By considering factors such as business criticality, asset value, and potential impact to the organization, CTEM enables security teams to prioritize remediation efforts more effectively and focus on addressing the most critical threats first.

Integrated Approach vs. Siloed Solutions

Finally, CTEM integrates various security capabilities, including vulnerability management, threat intelligence, risk assessment, and incident response, into a unified framework. This integrated approach enables organizations to streamline their security operations, improve collaboration between different teams and departments, and enhance overall visibility and control over their security posture.

By breaking down silos and fostering a holistic approach to cybersecurity, CTEM enables organizations to achieve greater resilience and agility in the face of evolving threats.

Deploying CTEM

Overall, CTEM is a proactive approach to cybersecurity that enables organizations to continuously monitor, identify, and mitigate threats in real-time. By implementing a CTEM program, organizations can enhance their security posture, reduce their risk of a successful attack, and protect their critical assets and data from potential threats.

If you want to know more about the benefits of an offensive approach to security and how Hadrian’s AI-backed automated pen testing is able to combine the accuracy, frequency, and cost-savings businesses need to operate safely in the modern threat landscape, be sure to download our Ultimate Guide to Exposure Management Use Cases.