Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM): A Modern Security Approach

18 April 2024

Your organisation’s security is a vital consideration in the modern age. With so many technological advancements and risks to consider in the digital era, cybersecurity cannot be overlooked. Your cybersecurity is your guard from the world of nasty cyber breaches and attacks. Ensuring you have the best protection is paramount.

CTEM is a top cybersecurity approach that quickly identifies and mitigates cyber threats. This approach keeps your organisation protected and aware of new threats and attacks.

In this blog, we’ll delve into the practical aspects of Continuous Threat Exposure Management and guide you on how to start implementing it today.

What is Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)?

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is a proactive and holistic cybersecurity approach, not just a reactive solution. The system detects and mitigates cyber threats and risks, keeping your organisation ahead of cybercrime.

However, CTEM doesn’t exist just to deal with threats as they arise. The idea is to focus on mitigation and prevention to protect against potential threats. This means patching up gaps and vulnerabilities inside your organisation’s cyber infrastructure.

CTEM is not a rigid system, but a flexible and adaptable approach. It’s designed to meet the evolving needs of your organisation and the modern age. It’s a proactive strategy that empowers you to find a roadmap to address the gaps in your organisation, keeping you prepared at all times.

In the ever-evolving world of cybersecurity threats, it’s crucial to ensure your organisation is prepared. Instead of relying on a system that cannot adapt to new threats, CTEM is flexible and allows you to stay prepared for anything.

Key Components of CTEM

Real-time Threat Intelligence

The first step of CTEM is real-time threat intelligence. This is more than just threat detection; it takes a more proactive approach to seeking threats and stamping them out.

A CTEM program detects threats and uses data to create actionable insights. This helps you understand and face whatever threats could be around the corner. This means you can take them head-on without any nasty surprises.

These insights will also tell you how to patch up your organisation, making your whole infrastructure more solid and protected. This will allow you to align your cybersecurity strategy with your business objectives, meaning your business will become even more prosperous in the future.

Automated Risk Assessment

Manual risk assessment can be time-consuming and incredibly subjective. It can even lead to a mismatch between risk level and measures taken, which is not good for your organisation at all.

CTEM program assesses and manages threats proactively, allowing quick response to vulnerabilities and threats. This is possible due to CTEM’s continuous nature. A CTEM program will continuously scan for threats and monitor your infrastructure. It lets you take proactive measures against cyber threats as they arise without any gaps in protection.

Prioritisation of Threats

The final component of CTEM is threat prioritisation. A CTEM program can identify and prioritise threats, making sure to deal with objectively worse threats before other, lesser threats. This process will help you ensure that you’re taking on the right threats instead of having to guess yourself and possibly missing a massive threat right under your nose.

CTEM prioritises threats by analysing their potential impact and likelihood of occurrence. It evaluates the severity and damage of that threat and uses it to generate information. This helps organisations dedicate their resources to critical threats.

This makes the whole process far more efficient and easy for organisations, as a CTEM program will use organisational data for its analysis, adapting itself to your needs.

Implementing CTEM

Implementing CTEM is a multi-step process. There are five stages that are all important to ensure you get the most out of your CTEM platform.

The five stages are as follows —

Scoping: Scoping is identifying the initial scope of an attack surface, letting you work out which parts of your infrastructure will be a part of the CTEM program.
Discovery: Discovery involves exploring your organisation’s infrastructure and assets to determine what needs to be reinforced and what security gaps exist.
Prioritisation: Prioritisation will let you prioritise whatever was found in the discovery process, which assets need to be reinforced, and which gaps need to be filled more urgently. These will be considered and addressed sooner than less sensitive aspects of your organisation.
Validation: Validation is an essential part of the process, as it involves testing your CTEM system to ensure everything is working correctly; this is done through a controlled simulation.
Mobilisation: The last step is the mobilisation phase, where you’ll implement CTEM into your organisation — rolling it out as planned during the implementation process.

Ready to Get Started?

Continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) is an essential technology for any modern business. Organisations can use it to protect themselves in real-time against threats and attackers. This can dramatically reduce the likelihood of a cyber incident.

Attackers are implementing many different innovations and technologies into their arsenals. It makes it essential to not underestimate the adaptability of CTEM. The power of having real-time information on threats and risks that you could face will ensure you stay protected in the long run.

Contact us today if you’re interested in starting with CTEM but don’t know where to begin. Our experts can help you protect your organisation.

Get protected today!