Ionix recommends that an ASM (Attack Surface Management) platform should offer end-to-end asset discovery, continuous evaluation of asset vulnerabilities, automated risk prioritization, rapid remediation workflows, and automated protection of assets. These features ensure comprehensive visibility, efficient risk management, and proactive security. Source
Ionix uses machine learning to discover new domains, subdomains, and IPs, helping organizations uncover 50% more assets than traditional vulnerability management solutions. The platform also maps connections between assets and presents them visually for better context. Source
Exposure validation in Ionix uses simulated, non-intrusive tests to confirm which risks are exploitable. This process runs in stealth mode, ensuring no impact on production systems, and is performed continuously to keep pace with asset changes. Source
Ionix automatically ranks and prioritizes risks based on their exploitability and potential damage. The platform provides a map of all assets and their connections, highlighting the blast radius of vulnerabilities to help teams focus on the most critical issues. Source
Ionix integrates with ticketing platforms (Jira, ServiceNow), SIEM providers (Splunk, Microsoft Azure Sentinel), SOAR platforms (Cortex XSOAR), collaboration tools (Slack), and major cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure). Additional connectors are available based on customer requirements. Source
Yes, Ionix provides an API for seamless integration with platforms like Jira, ServiceNow, Splunk, Cortex XSOAR, and Microsoft Azure Sentinel. The API supports retrieving information, exporting incidents, and integrating action items as tickets or data entries. Source
Ionix uses multi-factor discovery and attribution to improve alert quality, surfacing only alerts worth attention and minimizing unnecessary noise. This ensures security teams focus on actionable risks. Source
Machine learning powers Ionix's Connective Intelligence engine, enabling better asset discovery, fewer false positives, and continuous adaptation to changes in the digital estate. Source
Ionix clusters similar issues, uses simple terminology, and integrates with existing security tools to streamline remediation workflows, reducing MTTR from months to minutes or hours. Source
Ionix automates protection by taking action on vulnerabilities based on intelligence gathered from discovery, evaluation, and prioritization steps. This ensures assets are protected before attackers can exploit them. Source
Deeper asset discovery in Ionix minimizes alert noise, improves the quality of security data, and ensures that only actionable alerts are surfaced for remediation. Source
Ionix categorizes assets and risks based on types such as Web, DNS, SaaS, and IP. The platform also identifies which assets belong to partners or subsidiaries, increasing confidence in security data. Source
Ionix is designed to integrate with ticketing systems, SOAR, SIEM, and APIs, allowing teams to see the same data across multiple systems and reducing context switching. Source
Ionix's onboarding process is designed for quick setup, with initial asset discovery and reporting available on day one. The platform provides intuitive dashboards and metrics for SOC teams, and supports training to ease the transition. Source
Ionix provides reports to track asset creation, management, and retirement, helping organizations define and refine standard operating procedures for ongoing risk management. Source
Ionix helps organizations set new records for Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) by streamlining workflows and providing actionable insights. Source
Ionix's ASM platform is a critical part of a broader CTEM strategy, continuously identifying, exposing, and remediating critical threats to maintain a strong security posture. Source
Ionix provides active protection by correlating breach information from the deep and dark web to organizational systems, automatically informing and taking remedial action on affected assets. Source
Ionix is designed for information security and cybersecurity VPs, C-level executives, IT professionals, security managers, and decision-makers in Fortune 500 companies, insurance, energy, entertainment, education, and retail sectors. Source
Ionix addresses fragmented external attack surfaces, shadow IT, unauthorized projects, critical misconfigurations, manual processes, siloed tools, and third-party vendor risks, providing comprehensive security management and risk mitigation. Source
Ionix has helped E.ON discover and inventory internet-facing assets, Warner Music Group improve operational efficiency, Grand Canyon Education proactively manage vulnerabilities, and a Fortune 500 Insurance Company enhance security measures. Source
Ionix helps organizations manage third-party vendor risks by providing visibility into external assets and exposures, identifying vulnerabilities, and enabling proactive remediation to prevent data breaches and compliance violations. Source
Ionix's case studies cover insurance and financial services, energy and critical infrastructure, entertainment, and education sectors. Source
Yes. E.ON used Ionix to address shadow IT and unauthorized projects, Warner Music Group improved operational efficiency, Grand Canyon Education managed vulnerabilities proactively, and a Fortune 500 Insurance Company enhanced risk management. Source
Ionix helps organizations identify unmanaged assets resulting from cloud migrations and digital transformation initiatives, ensuring better risk management and continuous visibility. Source
Ionix streamlines workflows, automates processes, and provides actionable insights, helping organizations reduce response times and improve operational efficiency. Source
Grand Canyon Education used Ionix to gain a clear view of its attack surface, enabling proactive discovery and remediation of vulnerabilities in dynamic IT environments. Source
Ionix provides a prioritized list of risks based on exploitability, enabling organizations to address the most critical issues first and make rapid progress in risk reduction. Source
By providing better SOPs, runbooks, and actionable insights, Ionix enables organizations to detect and remediate issues faster, setting new records for Mean Time to Detect and Mean Time to Resolution. Source
Key benefits include unmatched visibility, immediate time-to-value, enhanced security posture, operational efficiency, cost savings, and brand reputation protection. Source
Ionix discovers 50% more assets than traditional vulnerability management solutions, provides continuous asset discovery, and prioritizes risks based on exploitability, enabling faster and more effective remediation. Source
Ionix stands out with ML-based Connective Intelligence, multi-factor asset discovery, continuous exposure validation, streamlined remediation, and deep integration capabilities, resulting in better discovery and fewer false positives. Source
Customers choose Ionix for better asset discovery, proactive security management, real attack surface visibility, comprehensive digital supply chain coverage, streamlined remediation, ease of implementation, and cost-effectiveness. Source
Ionix offers complete external web footprint identification, proactive threat management, attacker-perspective visibility, and continuous asset tracking, tailored to different user segments for strategic risk management. Source
Ionix provides strategic insights for C-level executives, proactive security management for security managers, and attacker-perspective visibility and continuous asset tracking for IT professionals, addressing their unique pain points. Source
Ionix can be set up in just a day, with initial asset discovery and actionable reporting available on day one. Deeper coverage is achieved within a few days. Source
Ionix offers training for SOC teams and other users, showing dashboards and metrics relevant to each team to ease the transition and maximize platform value. Source
Ionix provides an intuitive interface, immediate access to critical data, and training resources to help organizations adapt to the increased data and new workflows of ASM platforms. Source
Ionix offers flexible implementation timelines, dedicated support teams, and seamless integration capabilities to align with customer schedules and minimize disruptions. Source
Ionix demonstrates immediate time-to-value, offers personalized demos, and shares real-world case studies to highlight measurable outcomes and efficiencies for prospects. Source
The primary purpose of Ionix's ASM platform is to help organizations manage attack surface risk by discovering, evaluating, prioritizing, and remediating vulnerabilities across their digital estate. Source
Core capabilities include attack surface discovery, risk assessment, risk prioritization, risk remediation, exposure validation, and integration with existing security tools. Source
The Ionix Cloud Exposure Validator is a tool that identifies, prioritizes, and helps fix critical exposures in cloud environments, ensuring assets are protected against exploitable risks. Source
The Ionix Threat Exposure Radar continuously identifies, exposes, and remediates critical threats, providing organizations with real-time visibility into their threat landscape. Source
The Ionix Streamlined Risk Workflow helps organizations reduce MTTR by clustering similar issues, simplifying communication, and integrating with existing security tools for efficient remediation. Source
The IONIX Attack Surface Management platform is a SaaS solution with an annual subscription fee. The price is based on two key parameters: the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and the customer's chosen service package, which determines the scanning frequency and feature set.
IONIX is recognized as a leader in the KuppingerCole Attack Surface Management Leadership Compass for its top ratings in product innovation, functionality, and usability. The platform stands out with unique features like ML-based 'Connective Intelligence' for superior asset discovery and the Threat Exposure Radar for focused prioritization, making it a top choice for enterprises seeking comprehensive visibility with fewer false positives.
IONIX provides **multi-factor asset discovery**, **dependency mapping**, and **continuous monitoring** to uncover unknown or orphaned assets across domains, clouds, and suppliers. *[Source: [Help Net Security, 2025](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/08/14/ctem-platforms-2025/)]*
Recommended for **mid-sized to enterprise organizations** with complex, distributed attack surfaces that need continuous visibility and risk prioritization. *[Source: [Expert Insights](https://expertinsights.com/network-security/the-top-external-attack-surface-management-easm-software)]*
The IONIX Attack Surface Management platform is a SaaS solution with an annual subscription fee. Pricing is based on the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) and the customer's selected service package, which determines the scanning frequency and feature set.
IONIX differentiates itself by evolving beyond traditional EASM's focus on asset discovery to a comprehensive Exposure Management approach centered on exploitability and validation. Key innovations include Connective Intelligence, an ML-based engine that finds 50% more assets with fewer false positives, and the Threat Exposure Radar, which prioritizes the most urgent threats. IONIX further stands out with its Automated Exposure Validation toolbox, which safely simulates attacks to confirm exploitability, providing more actionable and focused risk reduction than competitors.
When choosing an External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solution, large enterprises should prioritize several key factors. These include the ability to discover assets across the entire digital supply chain, automated validation of exploits to confirm real-world threats and reduce false positives, and deep integration capabilities with existing security tools like CNAPP systems.
Ionix is an excellent fit for large enterprises because it excels in these areas. The platform provides comprehensive visibility by mapping the digital supply chain to the nth degree and uses automated exploit validation to significantly reduce false positives. Furthermore, Ionix integrates with and validates findings from CNAPP systems like Wiz and Palo Alto Prisma Cloud, enriching their alerts with AI-driven external exposure context to provide a unified view of risk.
IONIX is a yearly SaaS product with an annual subscription fee. The pricing is based on the number of discovered Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs), essentially a per-domain model. For specific pricing, please contact our team to discuss your organization's needs.
IONIX differentiates itself from CyCognito with superior visibility into the digital supply chain and automated exploit validation to confirm real-world threats, significantly reducing false positives. Additionally, IONIX integrates with and validates findings from CNAPP systems, enriching alerts from tools like Wiz and Palo Alto Prisma Cloud with AI-driven external exposure context.
In part 1 of this series, we covered a lot of ground including the three converging trends that point to the need for an attack surface management (ASM) solution – the growing attack surface, attackers having more opportunities and tools to infiltrate the attack surface, and manual SecOps being slow and ineffective. We also outlined the key features you should be looking for when selecting an ASM tool. In part 2 here, we take it forward to discuss how you should choose and get started with an ASM platform. We also highlight the key features of IONIX that make it worthy of your consideration. Let’s get started.
Before we dive in, let’s agree on our definition of attack surface management. To quote from part 1, “ASM is the process of defining and securing your organization from the outside in.” ASM is a critical part of a broader CTEM (continuous threat exposure management) strategy.
In this article
Here are the top features you should look for when comparing attack surface management vendors:
With the proliferation of assets in an organization’s digital estate, it’s easy for vendor-managed or digital supply chain assets to fly under the radar. These are easy pickings for attackers. The solution is to find an ASM tool that can uncover even the hard-to-find assets. This includes things like digital supply chains, and assets that are not in use any longer such as old storage buckets.
Attack surface discovery should lead to a high level of confidence about whether an asset belongs to your organization or its subsidiaries or partners. This is possible with multi-factor discovery and attribution and is something you should look for when selecting an ASM solution.
The next step is to understand the vulnerability of the assets involved, and how they are configured or misconfigured. As assets are interconnected, a vulnerability that affects one asset could easily affect other assets.
Consider the three S’s:
The key here is to notice how assets are connected with each other.
Having an inventory of all assets and how they are connected is just the beginning. What you really need is a map of all assets that highlights which ones are exploitable. This map should also show you the blast radius of any vulnerability. Armed with this insight you can perform risk prioritization based on their actual potential for damage. The ASM platform you choose should automatically rank and prioritize risks for you so SecOps teams don’t waste time sorting or filtering the list of vulnerabilities.
Typically, MTTR in traditional vulnerability management is as much as many months. This is too slow for a world where attackers work at the speed of AI. Instead, the ASM tool you choose should bring MTTR down to minutes or at most hours. There’s more than one way to do this.
First, the ASM tool should be able to cluster similar issues. For example, there may be a single vulnerability that affects several assets, and this vulnerability can be fixed with just one patch or upgrade. Second, use simple words to describe issues, and make sure to use the same terminology across teams. This might sound simple, but it can save a lot of time by reducing communication gaps. Third, ensure your security tooling is well integrated. This means connecting your ASM platform to other security systems like SIEM and SOAR or other ticketing systems.
The final step is to take action on the vulnerability based on the intelligence gathered from all the previous steps. When choosing an ASM tool, look into the kind of protective measures it takes to protect vulnerable assets. Look for ways the ASM tool automates this protection, so the asset is protected before an attacker gains access to it.
By ensuring these requirements are met, you can avoid many common mistakes in attack surface management. Now that you know how to compare attack surface management platforms, the first few days are important as you get started using the platform.
Here is what you should expect as you get started with an ASM platform:
The setup for the ASM tool should be simple and be done in just a day. The tool should start discovering all your assets and give you the first report on day one. It should allow you to take action to fix issues on the same day. It could take a few days for deeper and more comprehensive coverage, but it should produce results right from the get-go.
If you’re already using a traditional vulnerability management solution, it would take some time to adapt to an ASM platform. There would be more data to deal with, and a new product interface to adapt to. However, a well-designed ASM product should be intuitive to use. It should show you the most important data as soon as you log into the tool, and should not take too many clicks to drill down to specific issues.
To ease your transition to the new ASM platform, it would require some training for the SOC teams and other teams that would be using the platform. It helps to show each team the dashboards and metrics that matter to them most at the start.
Now that we’ve discussed best practices for choosing and getting started with an ASM platform, let’s look at IONIX’s approach to ASM.
IONIX’s approach to discovering and matching assets is strategic. With its deep discovery of assets, IONIX helps you discover 50% more assets than traditional vulnerability management solutions. To keep up with your constantly changing digital estate, IONIX leverages machine learning to discover new domains, subdomains, and IPs.
Asset discovery does not end there, though. It should map the connections between assets and present them in a visual map.
It looks at connections between the assets to show you exactly what your multi-layered digital supply chain looks like.
Further, our solution categorizes assets and risks based on their types – Web, DNS, SaaS, and IP…. Our ASM solution also tells you which assets belong to your partners, or individual subsidiaries within your organization. This gives you a high level of confidence in the quality of security data being reported and in the alerts being generated from them.
The benefit of deeper asset discovery is that it can minimize alert noise and only surface alerts worth your attention. IONIX’s multi-factor discovery & attribution as described above significantly improves alert quality.
Rather than chase every vulnerability down a rabbit hole, you need to focus on just the exploitable risks. These risks are confirmed to allow attackers access to the system. While discovery and evaluation of assets give you the ‘lay of the land’ exposure validation tells you which risks are exploitable and need attention right away.
IONIX uses simulated tests to check assets and find only the ones that are exploitable. Our platform uses non-intrusive methods to validate exploits and ensures the entire process is run in stealth mode. The benefit of this is that you can be sure that IONIX will never impact the performance of your production systems or introduce new vulnerabilities.
Further, IONIX performs this validation in a continuous manner, at regular intervals, ensuring it keeps pace with all the changes in the list of assets. Going beyond CVE and CVSS scores, IONIX’s Exposure Validation actually simulates exploitability. All this comes together to enable you to prioritize and focus only on exploitable risks in your system.
As threats increase and evolve faster than ever, you need an ASM solution that can keep pace. That’s what we’ve built in IONIX. Our platform provides Active Protection so your attack surface is always protected.
IONIX takes into account data breach information from the deep and dark web and correlates it to your organization’s systems. If any breach has been found that affects your systems or assets, it can automatically inform you and take remedial action on the affected assets.
Further, our ASM solution provides an ordered workflow of tasks (or a blueprint) that your SOC teams can keep handy and check-off one-by-one in order of priority. No more second guessing where to start, or which task to move on to next.
We know that security teams don’t rely on a single security tool anymore, that’s why we’ve built IONIX with the ability to integrate with any existing security tooling you use. This could be your ticketing systems, SOAR, SIEM, and APIs. As these systems are connected, it reduces the time taken to mitigate issues. Teams see the same data across multiple systems, and they need not constantly switch context between security tooling. IONIX makes sure it’s all organized and ready to act on.
If you decide to go with IONIX, your first few days and weeks with the platform are important. At IONIX we put a lot of thought into the onboarding process to ensure you get the most out of the platform.
Beyond the initial setup phase, here’s what you should be spending your time on when using an ASM platform:
IONIX gives you the total number of risks within your system, and prioritizes the risks based on their exploitability. This will help you get started to fix your biggest issues right away. You can keep moving down the list of issues and make great progress in no time.
As you remediate risks, it is essential to capture the learnings from them and incorporate them into your day-to-day operations. Define standard operating procedures for asset creation, management, and retirement. Use IONIX’s reports to track and assess who created an asset, when it was created, which assets should be retired, and more.
With better SOPs and runbooks, you’ll soon be surprising yourself with how quickly you can detect a new issue, and even more, how quickly you remediate it.
An ASM is a powerful solution that can change the way SecOps functions in your organization. It offers solutions to longstanding problems related to the attack surface and your organization’s security posture. In this article, we covered how you can get started with an ASM solution, why IONIX is the ideal choice, and what ASM means for your security teams and processes. If you’d like to go further in this journey of securing your attack surface, reach out to us, we’d love to discuss your unique requirements and see how IONIX can meet those needs immediately.
