Attack Surface Management: Monitoring Unknown Assets and Vulnerabilities

It is well-known that most companies utilize various network equipment, databases, applications, and domains and that these IT properties often operate under a myriad of IP addresses and ports. Hackers with malicious intent, with this knowledge, begin their methods of infiltration by searching for open ports and targeting servers with severe security vulnerabilities. This has made Attack Surface Management (ASM) investment critical for all companies, especially given that modern IT assets are far more dispersed compared to their older counterparts. The widespread use of cloud storage and increasing corporate divisions, subsidiaries, and mergers can create a complex and distributed IT environment that may require more work to secure, potentially exposing more entry points for hackers to infiltrate corporate assets.

Image representation of a complex & exposed attack surface

Criminal IP (https://www.criminalip.io) provides extensive intelligence services regarding online IT assets. Clients can use the API system provided to access their company’s IT assets and integrate multiple cloud security tools, vulnerability management systems into one administrative system. However, companies often have difficulty monitoring IT assets or integrating existing security systems with API alone due to various reasons, chiefly due to a lack of manpower.

Criminal IP’s new product, Criminal IP ASM, does an admirable job of alleviating these issues. By allowing users to view their visualized data at a glance, with no manual input needed from the user, this service does great in managing corporate IT assets while assessing threat intelligence levels with state-of-the-art Attack Surface Management capability.

Criminal IP ASM’s Automated ASM Dashboard

Why Do We Need to Monitor Our Attack Surface?

While the popular portrayal of hackers in the media is those motivated by a single intent and target, the truth is that most attackers do not set predetermined targets for infiltration. In fact, the first step that most malicious hackers take is to collect attack surface information from various companies to search for vulnerable entities to prey on. Once they find exploitable assets on an attack surface, that is where they begin scouting for a specific attack point. Therefore, it is imperative to find vulnerable exposure points before malicious hackers and prevent your company’s assets from being a target in the first place.

Hacker’s Attack Process

Criminal IP is dedicated to global, real-time monitoring of all IP addresses and ports. Using extensively scanned data, Criminal IP ASM displays externally linked assets through a comprehensive dashboard to help identify attack surface assets before they become targets for exploitation.

A list of internet assets monitored with Criminal IP

Finding and Eliminating Vulnerable Assets on Attack Surfaces

Criminal IP ASM aims to achieve the overarching objective of reducing the number of vulnerable assets on attack surfaces. The best prey for hackers is sensitive assets with open ports and left unattended assets. Once your organization’s IP addresses have been scanned, you can view them on your ASM dashboard. Identifying attack surface assets and removing them as soon as possible is imperative.

Criminal IP detected vulnerable open ports

Example screen of Criminal IP’s automated scans identifying neglected and unidentified assets

Managing Vulnerabilities and Certificates to Prevent Leaking and Abusing Corporate Assets

Attack surfaces are not only limited to vulnerable ports and sensitive applications; domain certificates, leaked/forged/exploited corporate assets, and CVEs can also be considered as a major part of the attack surface. The automated attack surface management feature provided by Criminal IP ASM does more than just provide port scanning data. It provides the ability to identify vulnerabilities and risks that can be attacked on all assets, such as IP addresses, domains, certificates, and applications. In addition, it provides the fastest and easiest way to view all of these attack surfaces on a single dashboard.

Criminal IP ASM’s extensive features

For a practical demonstration of how Criminal IP’s Threat Intelligence Data is used to manage your attack surfaces comprehensively, a free demo application is currently available for those interested.

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