EASM

EASM, or External Attack Surface Management, is a security discipline that uses automated tooling and processes to continuously discover, inventory, monitor, and remediate assets that are exposed to the internet or otherwise accessible from outside an organization's trusted network. The goal is to reduce the external attack surface by identifying weak points before they can be exploited.

It covers all externally reachable assets, including internet-facing servers and applications, cloud services, third-party platforms, subdomains, IP addresses, domains, DNS configurations, TLS certificates, and shadow IT. It may also include exposed data or misconfigurations discovered on public endpoints.

Core capabilities typically include automated asset discovery and inventory, asset classification and context enrichment, continuous exposure monitoring and change detection, external vulnerability assessment and risk scoring, remediation workflow integration, and reporting with dashboards. EASM tools combine active scanning, passive data collection, and intelligence feeds to map an organization's external footprint.

Operationally, EASM is ongoing: identify assets, map them to business context, assess exposure risk, prioritize fixes, and verify remediation. Data from EASM is often integrated with security information and event management systems, ticketing systems, cloud management platforms, and vulnerability management programs to close the loop on risk reduction.

EASM complements internal asset management, vulnerability management, and incident response. It is increasingly part of broader security programs and governance, risk, and compliance efforts, particularly for organizations with complex cloud environments, remote workforces, and supply chains.

Benefits include improved visibility, proactive exposure reduction, faster risk prioritization, and better compliance posture. Challenges include scope definition, coverage gaps for non-internet-facing assets, false positives, data privacy considerations, and the need for cross‑team coordination and ongoing investment.