The cyber threat landscape shifts rapidly, with new vulnerabilities, threat actors and attacks emerging daily. At the same time, attack surfaces are expanding as fast as the workforce is dispersing. It is now virtually impossible for teams to secure all things at all times.
The roadblocks CISOs and SecOps teams are facing are well-known: information overload, user and data sprawl, alert fatigue, and a shortage of cyber skills, are just a few of the challenges impacting the effectiveness and efficiency of many cybersecurity activities. We know that cyber criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in how they exploit the inherent weaknesses in modern cyber defences.
This is the reason Gartner introduced the Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) program – a framework CISOs and SecOps teams can adopt to move from a reactive to a proactive mindset, actively prioritising risks most relevant to their organisation. Gartner predicts that by 2026, organisations that prioritise security investment based on a CTEM program will be three times less likely to suffer a security breach.
At its core, CTEM is a cyclical program that leads to a continuous management mindset. Rather than assessing security at the implementation stage – whether that’s a control, application or piece of hardware – and then only reassessing when a compromise arises, a CTEM-based program will alert you the moment a potential threat emerges. It will also mean you have plans and processes in place to assess, validate and remediate the issue immediately.
The objective of CTEM is to move to a continuous methodology that includes all teams—breaking down and removing silos—where people across the organisation understand that maintaining a good, secure posture is a 24/7 requirement and everyone has a part to play.
The five steps Gartner has set out in the CTEM cycle linking both threat diagnosis and remedial action are:
CTEM is a pragmatic approach to changing the entire IT security methodology, from onboarding new technology, people, and processes through asset decommissioning and departing employees. The CTEM program is a continuous cycle across the entire business, where validation and testing continuously identify, prioritise, validate, and remediate potential threats as they arise.
Before embarking on a CTEM program, many organisations will be moving from a ‘stop-start’ approach to security, where attention is pulled to daily issues that mean security teams are missing the big picture. CTEM helps you streamline your everyday tasks and keeps your people focused on the most important issue at the right time.
Proactive risk management and effective threat prioritisation provide a substantial benefit for security posture while also minimising compliance pressures. The actionable insights you gain, all aligned with key business objectives, mean you can be adaptable to changing compliance requirements while increasing the overall value of cybersecurity efforts.
While CTEM is a methodology rather than a technology, there are a number of key tools that provide the foundation for the continuous process of discovery, validation and remediation.
Central to this is the ability to automate the key CTEM steps:
Automated security penetration testing platforms model the way threat actors behave by creating virtual attack scenarios that safely exploit points of weakness in the organisation’s attack surface. By constantly testing the organisation’s security infrastructure, automated penetration testing platforms can provide accurate threat validation information and informed recommendations for remediation.
Automating this process provides a detailed and real-time view of the organisation’s security readiness – validating the potential impact of threats by safely exploiting vulnerabilities without impacting ongoing business operations. Vulnerabilities alone only tell half the story – exploiting these vulnerabilities with real-world attacks enables you to establish the severity and urgency of each threat and then prioritise remediation based on the most immediate concerns.
Building automated security penetration testing into a CTEM program delivers the reliable, consistent and accurate information you need to make the right decisions to continuously improve your organisation’s security posture.
BlueFort’s Evolve allows you access to flexible and on-demand cyber skills and expertise to help you deploy any new solution and fill in any cyber skills shortage you may have.
BlueFort is the UK’s leading independent Security Solutions Partner (SSP). Our unique combination of people and technology is focused on simplifying your cybersecurity journey. With a curated suite of tools, products and skills, BlueFort partners with CIO’s, CISOs and SecOps teams to simplify, consolidate, and optimise their cybersecurity environment.
BlueFort’s carefully tested suite of tools and technology simplifies the chaos of the cyber landscape, while its in-house experts provide a rapid and immediate solution to the cybersecurity skills shortage, reducing pressure on internal security teams and delivering ongoing, on-demand cyber resource flexibility.
BlueFort’s expert engineers work with you to plan and deploy an effective CTEM program. Working with a range of organisations across various industries means we are uniquely placed to help your team avoid common challenges and implementation roadblocks and ensure long-term success. Once CTEM is deployed, our engineers stay on hand to help your team stay on track and continuously optimise the CTEM program.
“Without Evolve, we would have to get in additional resources for bespoke deployments and we would certainly have to spend a lot of time in the research phase to make sure we are buying the right technology. We use BlueFort’s expertise to guide us down the right path – I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them.”
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The cybersecurity sector faces an effectiveness challenge. Despite the constant emergence of new technologies, notable breaches still persist. To thwart these attacks, the industry must embrace a fresh strategy centered around security operations. This is precisely where BlueFort comes into play.
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