Monitoring and securing digital assets is essential, but many security teams operate within limited budgets and need solutions that provide the most effective security coverage. With so many SaaS security products promising robust protection, how can an organization determine the best fit for its needs?
Hadrian’s External Attack Surface Management (EASM) and Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) represent two powerful approaches to improving an organization’s security posture. However, many security professionals lack clarity on their differences and how they contribute to an overall security strategy. While both tools are valuable, they serve different functions and cater to distinct cybersecurity needs. This blog will compare EASM and BAS, examining their benefits and limitations to help security teams make informed decisions on how to best secure their infrastructure and sensitive data.
What is Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)?
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) tools replicate real-world cyberattacks against an organization’s security defenses in a controlled and automated manner. These tools are designed to test security readiness by continuously simulating threats and vulnerabilities, including:
- Phishing attacks, malware infections, and lateral movement within the network.
- Testing endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities.
- Simulating credential theft and privilege escalation attacks.
- Evaluating firewall and SIEM response to adversary behaviors.
BAS platforms help organizations identify gaps in their security controls and validate whether their security tools and policies are effective against evolving threats.
Limitations of Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)
While BAS offers continuous security testing, it has limitations that security teams should consider:
- Limited External Visibility
BAS primarily operates within an organization’s internal network and security infrastructure. It does not proactively discover unknown assets exposed on the internet, meaning externally exposed services remain untested.
- Simulated, Not Real-World, Attacks
While BAS tools can mimic real attack scenarios, they operate in a controlled environment and may not fully replicate how attackers exploit zero-days, supply chain vulnerabilities, or misconfigurations.
- False Positives and Alert Fatigue
If misconfigured, BAS may generate excessive alerts, overwhelming security teams with low-priority or redundant findings.It requires tuning to ensure relevant and actionable insights.
- No Asset Discovery or Inventory Management
BAS assumes that organizations already know all their assets and focuses on testing existing security defenses. Shadow IT, forgotten subdomains, and publicly exposed services remain outside BAS testing scope.
What Sets EASM Apart?
EASM focuses on continuously discovering, monitoring, and securing an organization’s external-facing assets. Unlike BAS, which tests internal defenses, EASM proactively identifies internet-exposed vulnerabilities and attack vectors before cybercriminals can exploit them.
Key Features of Hadrian's EASM:
- Comprehensive Asset Discovery
Automatically identifies all externally facing assets, including shadow IT, forgotten subdomains, and third-party services. EASM ensures continuous visibility into the full attack surface.
- Risk-Based Prioritization
Ranks vulnerabilities based on exploitability and impact, allowing teams to focus on the most critical risks.
EASM products such as Hadrian also maps how adversaries could exploit misconfigurations, exposed APIs, or unpatched service, providing organizations a comprehensive overview of potential real world threats.
Actionable Remediation Guidance:
Hadrian’s EASM solution provides step-by-step instructions sourced directly from Hadrian’s security researcher team, which provides organizations immediate actions on remediating vulnerabilities, giving them a head start on threat actors. EASM such as Hadrian creates actionable items that security teams can leverage to resolve threats quickly.
Proactive Threat Detection:
Hadrian is capable of finding real-world threats that can impact your organization’s infrastructure, data integrity and reputation. From subdomain takeovers to remote code execution, EASM products offer advantageous insights that cannot be driven from internal scanning.
How They Complement Each Other
Hadrian’s EASM and BAS serve distinct purposes, but using both tools together can strengthen an organization’s overall cybersecurity posture.
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS):
- Tests internal security defenses against phishing, malware, and privilege escalation attacks.
- Evaluates security control effectiveness in detecting and responding to simulated breaches.
Hadrian EASM:
- Provides continuous visibility into external risks, including unpatched software, misconfigured cloud services, and exposed assets.
- Identifies and prioritizes real vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit before a breach occurs.
Organizations need a balanced approach to cybersecurity that combines proactive prevention and continuous testing. BAS is valuable for testing an organization’s ability to detect and respond to known attack tactics, but it assumes the security perimeter is already well-defined. EASM, on the other hand, continuously discovers and secures external-facing assets, preventing attackers from exploiting unknown vulnerabilities before they reach the internal network.
For organizations that want real-world attack simulation and immediate risk reduction, Hadrian’s EASM is a critical component in modern security strategies. It provides continuous monitoring, real-time threat intelligence, and actionable remediation, ensuring organizations stay ahead of adversaries in an ever-evolving threat landscape.
