ASCA vs. VM vs. CTEM: Key Differences Explained

Threat exposure management is a critical component of any corporate cybersecurity program. Without insight into the top threats and an organization’s vulnerability to them, the company can’t effectively allocate resources to reduce its digital attack surface and exposure to cyberattacks.

However, the plethora of threat exposure management tools available can make it difficult for an organization to determine the capabilities that it needs and how to deploy them effectively. This article explores and compares some of the top solutions for threat exposure management: automated security control assessment (ASCA), vulnerability management (VM), and continuous threat exposure management (CTEM).

Quick Definitions

While these tools share the same goals of enhanced visibility and attack surface reduction, they are distinct and have different areas of focus:

• ASCA: ASCA solutions automatically identify control gaps and misconfigurations within an organization’s environment. They use simulated attacks and policy reviews to determine how well an organization’s existing security architecture matches up against real-world threats and regulatory requirements.
• VM: VM tools scan for known vulnerabilities within an organization’s environment. Automated scanners identify and prioritize vulnerabilities before reporting them to security teams for remediation.
• CTEM: CTEM is a holistic solution designed to implement threat exposure management across an organization’s entire environment, including endpoints, cloud, and SaaS. CTEM solutions integrate various solutions and capabilities, including threat intelligence, automated remediation, and continuous monitoring.

Comparison Matrix

	ASCA	VM	CTEM
Scope	Security controls and configurations.	Known vulnerabilities.	Full attack surface.
Data Source	Control and policy documents, risk frameworks.	Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list.	Asset discovery, threat intelligence.
Validation Depth	Alignment with policy and protection against common threats.	Presence of known vulnerabilities on systems.	Realistic attack path analysis and exploit validation.

When to Use Each Approach

ASCA, VM, and CTEM are designed to address threat exposure management in different ways. Each is best suited to different scenarios, including:

• ASCA: ASCA helps to assess how an organization’s existing security controls match up against regulatory and policy requirements. It’s most useful when the business is attempting to ensure compliance with internal or external policies.
• VM: VM is designed to determine whether an organization has software with known vulnerabilities within its IT environment. These tools can be useful as part of a baseline security program intended to ensure that the organization isn’t exposed to known vulnerabilities that are actively being exploited in the wild.
• CTEM: CTEM is a more comprehensive approach to threat exposure management, addressing a range of threats in various environments and providing in-depth validation of any findings. CTEM allows organizations to be proactive about their security, identifying and addressing potential threats before they can be exploited by an attacker. Additionally, it’s best suited to organizations with complex environments, including hybrid or cloud-native infrastructure.

How They Can Work Together

These various solutions have different niches and areas of focus within the overall goal of threat exposure management. Some use cases where the three solutions can work together include:

Application and Workflow Management

When deploying an application, an organization may use ASCA to determine compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies. Periodic vulnerability scans can determine if the application has known vulnerabilities or contains known vulnerable components. CTEM helps to identify unknown and emerging threats to the application based on threat intelligence and an understanding of the role of the app in the business.

Risk Management

Organizations face a variety of different cybersecurity risks, ranging from attacks exploiting mistakes to vulnerability exploits. ASCA and VM provide high-level visibility into control gaps and known vulnerabilities, respectively. CTEM offers more in-depth threat and risk visibility and remediation via simulated attacks and exploit validation.

Continuous Improvement

The effectiveness of ASCA and VM depends heavily on the organization’s defined policies and vulnerability prioritization framework, respectively. CTEM’s insights into an organization’s IT infrastructure and risk exposure can help the business to refine these policies to provide better protection against real-world threats and more accurate prioritization of vulnerabilities based on their anticipated impact on the business.

Decision Checklist

When evaluating whether to deploy or focus on ASCA, VM, or CTEM, some key considerations include:

• Program Focus: If the goal of the security program is to achieve compliance with regulatory requirements or internal policies, ASCA is the logical choice. For protection against real-world threats, VM and CTEM are better choices.
• Vulnerability vs. Risk Management: If the primary metric for success is the number of patched vulnerabilities, then VM is the logical choice. However, if the goal is to reduce risk exposure, then CTEM provides better visibility into real-world threats.
• Infrastructure Complexity: If your organization’s IT infrastructure includes hybrid cloud or cloud-native applications, then CTEM provides holistic visibility and threat management across the entire IT ecosystem.
• Remediation Speed: ASCA and VM primarily identify potential risks and report them to the security team alongside recommended remediations. CTEM automatically takes action to address identified risks to reduce time to resolution.
• False Positive Detections: ASCA and VM solutions can be prone to false positives due to their lack of validation. CTEM performs exploit validation and tracks real-world attack chains to ensure that a potential risk poses a real threat to the organization.

Enhancing Threat Management with IONIX

ASCA, VM, and CTEM play different roles within an organization’s security threat management program. The solutions have various areas of focus and complement one another as part of a comprehensive security risk management program. For example, ASCA handles the compliance side of an organization’s security operations, while VM and CTEM are focused on protecting against real-world threats. VM manages known threats, while CTEM provides broader insight and addresses emerging attack campaigns.

The IONIX CTEM platform offers organizations comprehensive, continuous visibility into their digital attack surface via automated asset discovery and simulated attacks. By constantly looking for potential threats, validating its findings, and prioritizing risks based on real business impacts, IONIX empowers security teams to reduce the organization’s risk exposure and maximize the impact of remediation efforts and strategic investments. To learn more about reducing your organization’s digital attack surface with IONIX, sign up for a free demo.