Frequently Asked Questions

Product Information & Features

What is an attack surface?

An attack surface is the collection of vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and entry points that an attacker can exploit to gain access to a system or environment. It includes both external and internal assets, such as websites, applications, APIs, cloud services, hardware, and even employees who may be susceptible to social engineering. Learn more.

What are the types of attack surfaces?

Attack surfaces are categorized into three main types: Digital (websites, applications, APIs, cloud services), Physical (servers, USB drives, hardware), and Social (employees and contractors vulnerable to social engineering attacks). Each type represents different entry points for attackers. Read more.

What components make up an organization's attack surface?

Common components include web apps, APIs, operating systems, cloud resources, workstations, servers, mobile and IoT devices, network infrastructure, employees, contractors, and third-party suppliers. Each component can introduce vulnerabilities or misconfigurations that expand the attack surface. Details here.

What is the difference between an attack surface and an attack vector?

An attack surface refers to all potential entry points an attacker could exploit, while each individual entry point is an attack vector. For example, a website is part of the attack surface, and an SQL injection vulnerability on that website is an attack vector. Learn more.

What is Attack Surface Management (ASM)?

Attack Surface Management (ASM) is the practice of continuously monitoring, discovering, and reducing an organization's attack surface. Key elements include asset discovery, vulnerability assessment, threat prioritization, vulnerability mitigation, and continuous monitoring. ASM helps organizations proactively identify and remediate risks. More info.

What is External Attack Surface Management (EASM)?

External ASM (EASM) focuses on managing and reducing risks associated with an organization's internet-facing assets. It identifies unknown or forgotten assets, detects shadow IT, manages third-party risks, and finds misconfigurations in internet-facing services. Learn more.

Why is understanding the attack surface important?

Understanding your attack surface is crucial for protecting against cyberattacks. Each attack vector identified and remediated reduces the opportunities for attackers to gain access. This increases the difficulty for attackers and lowers the risk of successful breaches. Read more.

What is attack surface monitoring?

Attack surface monitoring is the ongoing practice of tracking changes and new vulnerabilities in an organization's attack surface. It helps maintain visibility into current threats and risks, enabling security teams to focus on managing and mitigating these risks effectively. Learn more.

What best practices help reduce the attack surface?

Best practices include continuous monitoring, implementing least privilege, patching regularly, educating employees, using strong authentication (such as MFA), and managing IT assets with physical protections. These steps help minimize vulnerabilities and reduce risk. See details.

How does IONIX help with attack surface management?

IONIX provides comprehensive visibility into your digital attack surface, asset-centric prioritization of validated attack vectors, and real-time monitoring. Its platform includes features for attack surface discovery, risk assessment, risk prioritization, and risk remediation. IONIX's ML-based Connective Intelligence finds more assets with fewer false positives, and its Threat Exposure Radar helps prioritize urgent security issues. Learn more.

What are the key capabilities and benefits of IONIX?

IONIX offers complete external web footprint discovery, proactive security management, real attack surface visibility, continuous discovery and inventory, and streamlined remediation. These capabilities help organizations improve risk management, reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR), and optimize security operations. More info.

What integrations does IONIX support?

IONIX integrates with tools such as Jira, ServiceNow, Slack, Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Palo Alto Cortex/Demisto, and AWS services including AWS Control Tower, AWS PrivateLink, and Amazon SageMaker Models. For a full list, visit IONIX Integrations.

Does IONIX offer an API?

Yes, IONIX provides an API that supports integrations with major platforms like Jira, ServiceNow, Splunk, Cortex XSOAR, and more. Learn more.

Use Cases & Customer Success

Who can benefit from IONIX?

IONIX is designed for Information Security and Cybersecurity VPs, C-level executives, IT managers, and security managers across industries, including Fortune 500 companies. Industries represented in case studies include insurance and financial services, energy, critical infrastructure, IT and technology, and healthcare.

What problems does IONIX solve?

IONIX addresses challenges such as shadow IT, unauthorized projects, fragmented IT environments, lack of attacker-perspective visibility, and maintaining up-to-date inventories in dynamic environments. It helps organizations proactively manage risks, discover all external assets, and prioritize remediation.

Can you share specific case studies or customer success stories?

Yes. For example, E.ON used IONIX to continuously discover and inventory internet-facing assets, Warner Music Group boosted operational efficiency and aligned security operations with business goals, and Grand Canyon Education enhanced security by proactively discovering and remediating vulnerabilities. E.ON Case Study, Warner Music Group Case Study, Grand Canyon Education Case Study.

Who are some of IONIX's customers?

IONIX's customers include Infosys, Warner Music Group, The Telegraph, E.ON, Grand Canyon Education, and a Fortune 500 Insurance Company. See more.

What business impact can customers expect from using IONIX?

Customers can expect improved risk management, operational efficiency, cost savings (reduced mean time to resolution), and enhanced security posture. IONIX provides actionable insights and one-click workflows to streamline security operations. Read more.

Technical Requirements & Implementation

How long does it take to implement IONIX and how easy is it to start?

Initial deployment of IONIX takes about a week and requires only one person to implement and scan the entire network. Customers have access to onboarding resources such as guides, tutorials, webinars, and a dedicated Technical Support Team. Learn more.

What training and technical support is available for IONIX customers?

IONIX offers onboarding resources including guides, tutorials, webinars, and a dedicated Technical Support Team to assist during implementation and adoption. Customers are assigned a dedicated account manager and benefit from regular review meetings. Details here.

What technical documentation does IONIX provide?

IONIX provides technical documentation, guides, datasheets, and case studies on its resources page. Explore resources.

Security & Compliance

What security and compliance certifications does IONIX have?

IONIX is SOC2 compliant and supports companies with NIS-2 and DORA compliance, ensuring robust security measures and regulatory alignment.

How does IONIX address product security and compliance?

IONIX ensures robust security by maintaining SOC2 compliance and supporting NIS-2 and DORA regulatory requirements. This helps organizations align with industry standards and protect sensitive data.

Competition & Differentiation

How does IONIX differ from similar products in the market?

IONIX stands out with ML-based Connective Intelligence for better asset discovery, Threat Exposure Radar for prioritizing critical issues, and comprehensive digital supply chain coverage. It reduces noise, validates risks, and provides actionable insights for maximum risk reduction and operational efficiency. Learn more.

Why should a customer choose IONIX over alternatives?

Customers should choose IONIX for its innovative features, superior asset discovery, focused threat exposure, comprehensive supply chain mapping, and streamlined remediation. IONIX delivers immediate time-to-value, personalized demos, and proven outcomes through real-world case studies. More info.

Guides & Resources

Where can I find guides created by IONIX?

IONIX provides comprehensive guides on cybersecurity topics, tools, and frameworks at https://www.ionix.io/guides/.

What is the purpose of the IONIX Guides section?

The IONIX Guides section offers resources and insights into cybersecurity topics, including Automated Security Control Assessment (ASCA), web application security, exposure management, vulnerability assessments, OWASP Top 10, CIS Controls, and attack surface management. These guides help organizations enhance security posture and implement best practices. Explore guides.

Company Information & Recognition

What key information should customers know about IONIX?

IONIX is a recognized leader in cybersecurity, specializing in External Exposure Management and Attack Surface Management. It was named a leader in the 2025 KuppingerCole ASM Leadership Compass and won the Winter 2023 Digital Innovator Award from Intellyx. IONIX has secured Series A funding to accelerate growth and platform expansion. See details.

What feedback have customers given about IONIX's ease of use?

Customers have rated IONIX as user-friendly and appreciate having a dedicated account manager for smooth communication and support.

What awards and recognition has IONIX received?

IONIX earned top ratings for product innovation, security, functionality, and usability. It was named a leader in the Innovation and Product categories of the ASM Leadership Compass for completeness of vision and customer-oriented approach. See press release.

What Is an Attack Surface? Types, Components & Best Practices

Amit Sheps
Amit Sheps Director of Product Marketing LinkedIn

An attack surface is the collection of vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and other entry points that an attacker can exploit to gain access to a target system or environment. Organizations may have both external and internal attack surfaces, defined by their location in the organization’s environment and the parties that can access them.

The goal of attack surface management (ASM) is to identify these various attack vectors and shrink the organization’s attack surfaces as much as possible. This reduces the attacker’s ability to gain initial access to an organization’s environment or expand their access to new systems.

Types of attack surfaces

An attack surface includes every potential entry point that an attacker can use. Attack surfaces can be broken into three main categories, including:

  • Digital: When people hear the term “attack surface” they usually think of digital attack surfaces. These include an organization’s websites, applications, APIs, cloud services, and other IT assets. Vulnerabilities and misconfigurations in these systems can provide an attacker with an avenue for attack.
  • Physical: Physical access can dramatically increase an attacker’s ability to steal sensitive data or perform other malicious actions on an organization’s systems. Servers, USB drives, and other hardware components make up an organization’s physical attack surface. These devices should be physically protected against unauthorized access.
  • Social: Social engineering attacks enable a cybercriminal to trick or coerce legitimate users into performing malicious actions on their behalf, such as handing over sensitive data or installing malware on company systems. An organization must also be aware of the potential security risks of phishing and other social engineering attacks.

Components of attack surface

An organization’s attack surface includes every potential entry point for an attacker into an organization’s environment and systems. Some common components of an attack surface include:

  • Web apps and APIs.
  • Applications and operating systems.
  • Cloud resources.
  • Workstations, servers, mobile devices, and IoT devices.
  • Network infrastructure (routers, firewalls, etc.)
  • Employees and contractors.
  • Third-party suppliers, partners, and vendors.

Attack surface vs. Attack vector

The terms “attack surface” and “attack vector” are related but distinct concepts. An attack surface refers to all of the potential entry points that an attacker could use to exploit an organization. Each of these individual entry points is an attack vector. For example, a corporate website may be part of an organization’s attack surface. On this website, an SQL injection vulnerability is a potential attack vector.

Why is understanding the attack surface important?

Most cyberattacks originate from outside the organization. Cyber threat actors need to gain initial access to an organization’s environment and systems to expand their footprint and achieve their operational objectives.

This initial access is achieved by exploiting one or more potential attack vectors that make up the organization’s attack surface. This could include exploiting a software vulnerability, performing a social engineering attack, or gaining physical access to a corporate system.

Organizations need to understand their attack surface in order to protect themselves against these attacks. Each attack vector that the organization can identify and remediate offers an attacker one less opportunity to gain that initial access to the organization’s systems. By raising the difficulty of a potential attack, the company reduces the risk that an attacker will have the knowledge, resources, and time required to successfully carry it out.

What is attack surface monitoring?

Corporate attack surfaces are constantly evolving as the organization changes. Each new piece of software or updated code may introduce new vulnerabilities into the organization’s environment. Companies may also be vulnerable to new social engineering threats due to new hires, new threats, or the use of different communications platforms.

Attack surface monitoring is the practice of monitoring an organization’s attack surfaces. By doing so, the company maintains visibility into its current threats and risks, providing useful insights for risk management and enabling security teams to appropriately focus their efforts to manage these risks.

Attack Surface Management (ASM)

ASM is the practice of monitoring all of an organization’s attack surfaces. Some key elements of this include:

  • Asset Discovery: Organizations can only secure assets that they are aware exist. Automated asset discovery ensures that the organization’s asset inventory is up-to-date and allows the security team to track potential attack vectors for these assets.
  • Vulnerability Assessment: After developing a comprehensive asset inventory, an ASM tool can begin searching for potential attack vectors. Often, this focuses on the vulnerabilities and misconfigurations of the organization’s digital attack surface; however, the company should also be aware of physical and social attack vectors.
  • Threat Prioritization: Companies commonly have many potential attack vectors in their environments, which pose varying levels of risk to the business. Threat prioritization assesses the risk posed by each attack vector based on its potential impacts on the business and the probability of exploitation. A prioritized list can then be provided to the security team to allow them to address the most significant risks first.
  • Vulnerability Mitigation: ASM provides visibility into an organization’s attack surface, but this is only useful if the company takes action to remediate issues that were detected. Security teams should work through and remediate vulnerabilities in the prioritized list in order of importance to maximize the return on investment.
  • Continuous Monitoring: While the steps in the ASM process can be performed sequentially, ASM tools should perform this process continuously. This ensures that the prioritized list of potential attack vectors is completely up-to-date and that the security team isn’t missing a greater threat because they’re working off of stale data.

External ASM (EASM)

External ASM is a facet of ASM focused solely on addressing an organization’s Internet-facing attack surface. Its primary goal is to reduce the risk that an attacker will be able to gain any access to an organization’s environment, minimizing the threat to the business

EASM uses many of the same techniques as ASM but has particular areas of focus, including:

  • Identification of unknown or forgotten assets.
  • Detecting shadow IT and unapproved cloud usage.
  • Managing third-party risks.
  • Identifying misconfigurations in Internet-facing services.

Best practices for reducing the attack surface

Reducing its attack surface is one of the most effective ways that an organization can manage the threat of cyberattacks to the business. Some best practices for doing so include:

  • Perform Continuous Monitoring: An organization’s attack surface constantly evolves as the business and cyber threat landscape changes. Continuous monitoring is essential to maintaining up-to-date visibility into potential threats.
  • Implement Least Privilege: The principle of least privilege states that users, applications, and devices should only have the access required for their role. Reducing this limits the risk that an entity poses to the business. For example, a successful social engineering attack can’t grant an attacker admin access if the target doesn’t have this access.
  • Patch Regularly and Promptly: Software manufacturers commonly push out updates to address vulnerabilities and other bugs in their products. Applying these patches as quickly as possible reduces an attacker’s opportunity to exploit these security gaps.
  • Educate Employees: Social attacks are one aspect of an organization’s attack surface. Employee cyberawareness education is essential to reduce an organization’s exposure to these threats.
  • Use Strong Authentication: Phishing and other social engineering attacks commonly target employee login credentials. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) makes it more difficult for an attacker to use these stolen credentials to gain unauthorized access.
  • Manage IT Assets: Physical access to assets can introduce risks that may be difficult to detect at the software level. Track all IT assets and implement physical protections where possible.

ASM with IONIX

ASM is critical to managing an organization’s exposure to cyberattacks. Security teams need real-time visibility into their attack surface so that they can close security gaps and detect and remediate potential attacks.

IONIX offers comprehensive visibility into your organization’s digital attack surface with asset-centric prioritization of validated attack vectors. Learn more about how your organization can enhance its attack surface management by signing up for a free IONIX demo.