What Is Continuous Attack Surface Testing?

Continuous attack surface testing is the process of assessing all of an organization’s assets to identify and remediate potential exposures and cyber threats. It is fully automated and applies to both the internal and external attack surfaces. It is part and parcel of continuous attack surface management (CASM), which also includes risk management, vulnerability management, and remediation.

Think of it as putting your corporate network under a constant stress test to ensure it stays safeguarded against all kinds of intrusions or attacks.

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Read More about Continuous Attack Surface Testing

Such testing helps organizations stay ahead of not just already known but also unknown and emerging threats and bad actors. Learn more about it and connected concepts here.

What Role Does Continuous Attack Surface Testing Play in Continuous Attack Surface Management?

CASM is an advanced approach to attack surface management (ASM) that focuses on continuously monitoring and analyzing an organization’s digital footprint. As such, they don’t only watch for traditional network and security elements but also cloud services and Internet-facing assets, which comprise their external attack surface.

CASM, as mentioned earlier, has various components, including risk and vulnerability management. The process comes into play in processes that determine if the vulnerabilities present in the network are exploitable.

What Are the Key Components of Continuous Attack Surface Testing ?

The process has four major characteristics, which are discussed in greater detail below.

Continuous Monitoring

As the name suggests, such testing requires organizations to continuously monitor all of their digital assets, including networks, applications, and endpoints, to identify vulnerabilities as they arise.

Automated Testing

To hasten the process and provide information in real time, it uses automated testing tools that simulate attacks and probe for weaknesses.

Comprehensive Coverage

Attack surfaces cover both internal and external threats. Continuously testing it for faults, therefore, means covering all aspects of the attack surface, including external and internal assets, cloud environments, and third-party integrations.

Immediate Remediation

Unlike the term suggests, the process doesn’t stop at testing. Once all vulnerabilities and issues have been identified, they should immediately be flagged for remediation, ensuring that risks are addressed promptly.

What Benefits Does Continuous Attack Surface Testing Provide?

The process provides several benefits. It allows organizations to discover and validate previously unknown assets. In addition, they also identify if assets are truly part of the network. It also identifies vulnerable assets and finds exposures. As previously mentioned, it enables CASM. Finally, it gives organizations the necessary information to strengthen their security posture further and manage cyber risks.

Is Continuous Attack Surface Testing Synonymous with Continuous Penetration Testing?

Continuous Attack Surface Testing versus Continuous Penetration Testing

While many may confuse the process with continuous penetration testing, the two processes differ in terms of scope, goal, and approach.

Scope

Continuous attack surface testing applies to the entire attack surface. Continuous penetration testing, on the other hand, focuses on application security. So, the latter’s scope usually just covers one web application or, in some cases, a few web or mobile apps.

Goal

While continuous attack surface testing aims to discover and monitor as many digital assets an organization owns as possible, continuous pentesting solely finds and exploits new attack vectors and paths so the security team can address them.

Approach

Continuous attack surface testing is automated, while continuous pentesting always includes manual work. The former is not intrusive and doesn’t impact day-to-day processes, but the latter can be quite intrusive and may affect the stability of the app while undergoing testing.

Key Takeaways

Continuous attack surface testing assesses all of an organization’s assets to identify and remediate potential exposures and cyber threats.
It comes into play in CASM in processes that determine if the vulnerabilities present in the network are exploitable.
Continuous monitoring, automated testing, comprehensive coverage, and immediate remediation are the key components of the process.
Continuous attack surface testing differs from continuous pentesting in terms of scope, goal, and approach.