5 Ways to Reduce Your Cyber Threat Attack Surface

Published On: October 29, 2024Categories: Blog

It’s no secret that cybersecurity is at the top of most organizations’ minds. One key concept in cybersecurity is the “attack surface” and reducing it, but what exactly does that mean?

An attack surface describes the vulnerabilities in your IT environment, both digital and physical, that have the potential to enable an attack. A larger attack surface means you have more vulnerabilities that may become a costly cyberattack and jeopardize compliance.

As cloud environments evolve and scale, data sprawl continues to be a significant challenge for most organizations. One report revealed that 45% of organizations’ high-risk cloud exposures came from new cloud services that didn’t exist in the previous month, highlighting the increasing challenges of data sprawl.  

So, how can you better understand and start reducing your attack surface? You’ll need regular audits, training, technology, and an overarching focus on data security to reduce your organization’s attack surface as much as possible.

We’ll be breaking down exactly what an attack surface is and how you can start reducing yours today — read on to become a smaller target for would-be attackers.

What is an Attack Surface?

An attack surface is when an unauthorized user could infiltrate a system, extract data, or cause other harm. A company’s attack surface is the total number of possible entry points or attack vectors that may enable an attack.

Everything, including hardware, software, and physical locations, creates an opportunity for a bad actor to launch an attack, making the attack surface that must be defended significant.

Reducing your attack surface means eliminating and securing as many vulnerabilities as possible. There are plenty of ways to reduce your attack surface, and they all focus on understanding and securing risks and vulnerabilities.

Digital Attack Surfaces

A digital attack surface consists of every digital entry point on your network and is often the main focus when discussing attack surfaces. Your digital attack surface includes every internet-connected device, cloud service, APIs, and applications.

As companies adopt cloud-based services, web applications, and IoT devices — the digital attack surface expands and becomes more challenging to secure. As you expand, having the right practices in place is critical for securing your organization.

Physical Attack Surfaces

Digital attack surfaces often take up most of the attention as they typically pose a greater threat, physical attack surfaces are equally important. Your physical attack surface includes access to hardware and facilities that often allow attackers to bypass the digital attack surface — and its defenses — entirely. 

Securing physical access to infrastructure and facilities is equally as critical as securing digital attack surfaces. Ensure all physical access to IT assets is limited to only those who need it, and if using third parties, ensure they’re securing access as well.

5 Ways to Minimize Your Attack Surface

Attack surface reduction is securing or eliminating entry points and vulnerabilities throughout the IT ecosystem. The goal is to proactively reduce your attack surface by improving security and minimizing exposure to threats. 

So, let’s explore five ways to reduce your attack surface to secure sensitive data and integral IT systems.

1. Regular Security Audits and Vulnerability Scanning

Regular security audits and vulnerability scans are a cornerstone of attack surface reduction and overall security. The goal of these audits is to identify potential risks by analyzing the organization’s infrastructure, policies, and procedures.

One aspect of a security audit is vulnerability scanning, which is enabled by an automatic tool that can flag misconfigurations, outdated software, and open ports that may be exploited by attackers.

Security audits aided by vulnerability scanning tools allow teams to efficiently understand the risk landscape and implement mitigation strategies. As each risk is mitigated, the attack surface is reduced.

2. Cybersecurity Awareness and Employee Training

Employees are part of the attack surface as they may be socially engineered into unwittingly enabling an attack — bypassing even the most sophisticated security software. 

Conducting regular training sessions and focusing on cybersecurity awareness goes far in securing the organization. Non-technical employees don’t need to be trained on the details of cybersecurity; instead, they should have a strong understanding of how they can enable a cyber attack. 

An effective training program should focus on identifying phishing attacks, understanding password security, and adhering to best practices for handling sensitive information. Employees skilled in identifying and mitigating potential threats become your first line of defense and further reduce your attack surface.

3. Implement Strong Encryption and Firewalls

Encryption and firewalls are fundamental to reducing both digital and physical attack surfaces. Encryption ensures that even if data is intercepted, it remains unreadable to unauthorized parties. All sensitive data, whether stored or transmitted, should be encrypted to safeguard it from potential breaches.

Firewalls are another cornerstone technology that must be implemented for strong security. A firewall serves as a barrier between internal network traffic and external threats. The right firewall will monitor and control all incoming and outgoing traffic based on predetermined security rules.

Combined, encryption and firewalls reduce the possibility of a cyber attacker’s understanding of traffic — dramatically reducing the total attack surface.

4. Remove Unnecessary Applications or Code

Every application or simple script running on a system represents a potential vulnerability. Even benign software can become a security liability if not regularly updated or maintained. Removing any unnecessary applications, legacy code, or system management scripts that are no longer in use or supported is essential.

Ideally, your IT ecosystem will be streamlined to only what’s necessary to reduce the number of potential entry points for attackers. Decommissioning unused applications also reduces the costs of managing and securing them, freeing up time and resources to secure necessary systems.

5. Adopt Enterprise Data Security Posture Management (E-DSPM)

Enterprise Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) is securing your entire data estate, shifting the typical focus of securing from endpoints to data. While you’ll still have endpoint security and possibly zero-trust architecture in place, E-DSPM calls for a narrower focus on data discovery, classification, and protection.

As larger enterprises continue to adopt and scale cloud services, data sprawls across multiple platforms, making it difficult to monitor and protect. Enterprise DSPM solutions help to assess the security risks related to sensitive data, providing real-time insights into how data is accessed, stored, and protected.

Once implemented, E-DSPM platforms grant a high level of visibility into where data resides and who has access to it. You’ll also be able to identify any shadow or misclassified data — protecting data across the entire IT environment.

The result is full visibility and control across all environments combined with unmatched data discovery and classification at scale.

Reduce Your Attack Surface to Stay Secure and Compliant

Minimizing your attack surface is a vital component of any comprehensive cybersecurity strategy. By reducing the number of potential entry points and strengthening the existing ones, you make it significantly harder for attackers to breach your systems.

Many of the practices we’ve explored today can also help maintain compliance, especially E-DSPM. Reducing your attack surface will contribute to many regulatory requirements related to data privacy and protection, making it well worth the ongoing investment.

Inventa by 1touch is a leading-edge platform for data intelligence, visibility, and orchestration that plays a foundational role in reducing your attack surface. Our platform helps you understand where every byte of data lives, its classification, and it’s posture.

Are you ready to reduce your attack surface by gaining full control of your data? Book a demo today to see how Inventa can transform how you manage and secure data to help reduce your attack surface.