The Opportunity—and Potential Problems

Security at the Pace of Business

What do security teams need to do to keep up?

The scope and pace of change—in terms of business requirements, technical complexity, and attacker capabilities—pressure organizations to improve their ASM capabilities. But the underlying cause for sophisticated ASM tools and tactics is more fundamental: the cybersecurity team can’t say “no” to digital business.

In an environment where agility is the most important corporate attribute and “real time” is a mandate for both business activity and IT solutions, it’s not practical to introduce response capabilities incrementally. Loss of data or assets diminishes customer trust, business relationships, and shareholder value (sometimes by billions). ASM needs to keep up with both internal business needs and external threat sources.

Doing so requires security organizations to build a strategy that allows their SOC professionals to focus on processes that can only be addressed internally. Effective tools, automation, and complementary third-party services—in other words, a business’s ASM/CV alignment—can help manage the rest. Numerous scenarios illustrate the connection between ASM/CV and business agility:

The business need/driver/action	How ASM/CV enables an effective cybersecurity response
Acquiring real-time data from an external source	Continuously monitors for potential vulnerabilities
Using a new cloud application to automate an important business function	Detects issues with the cloud application and how it will interact with extended business processes
Launching a portal to connect with customers and/or supply chain partners	Supports flexible connections by monitoring vulnerabilities and validating security posture
Acquiring a new company or division	Identifies associated exposure, helping to assess the cybersecurity risk associated with the acquisition