Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is a formalized process for identifying and remediating the most significant threats to a business. CTEM helps organizations manage and govern their overall threat exposure management (TEM) program by focusing on exploitable vulnerabilities and security gaps most likely to be targeted by attackers. Learn more.
The CTEM process consists of five stages: Scoping (defining the digital attack surface), Discovery (identifying assets and vulnerabilities), Prioritization (ranking threats based on business impact and context), Validation (confirming exploitability and mapping attack chains), and Mobilization (remediating prioritized threats, often with automation). Read the full breakdown.
CTEM addresses the challenge of managing an overwhelming number of vulnerabilities—many of which are not exploitable or do not pose real threats. It helps organizations focus remediation efforts on validated, high-impact threats, improving ROI and reducing wasted resources on non-critical issues.
Implementing a CTEM program provides improved security posture, cost savings by avoiding unnecessary remediation, faster threat detection through continuous monitoring, and enhanced regulatory compliance by quickly identifying and addressing threats to sensitive data. Source.
IONIX automates CTEM by providing attacker-centric visibility into an organization’s digital attack surface and prioritizing threats based on knowledge of corporate assets and workflows. Automation enables continuous monitoring and scalable threat visibility, which is critical for modern organizations with rapidly expanding digital footprints. Learn more.
IONIX offers features such as Attack Surface Discovery, Risk Assessment, Risk Prioritization, Risk Remediation, and Threat Exposure Radar. The platform provides complete attack surface visibility, validates exploitable vulnerabilities, and prioritizes remediation based on severity and business context. More details.
IONIX integrates with tools like Jira, ServiceNow, Slack, Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Palo Alto Cortex/Demisto, AWS Control Tower, AWS PrivateLink, and pre-trained Amazon SageMaker Models. For a full list, visit the IONIX Integrations page.
Yes, IONIX provides an API that supports integrations with major platforms such as Jira, ServiceNow, Splunk, Cortex XSOAR, and more. Learn more.
IONIX is SOC2 compliant and supports companies with their NIS-2 and DORA compliance, ensuring robust security measures and regulatory alignment.
IONIX has 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 its completeness of vision and customer-oriented approach. Source.
IONIX helps organizations identify their complete external web footprint (including shadow IT and unauthorized projects), proactively manage security, gain real attack surface visibility, and maintain continuous discovery and inventory of internet-facing assets. These capabilities address challenges from cloud migrations, mergers, and dynamic IT environments.
IONIX is designed for Information Security and Cybersecurity VPs, C-level executives, IT managers, and security managers across industries such as insurance, financial services, energy, critical infrastructure, IT, technology, and healthcare. It is suitable for organizations of all sizes, including Fortune 500 companies.
Customers can expect improved risk management, operational efficiency, cost savings (through reduced mean time to resolution), and enhanced security posture. IONIX provides actionable insights and one-click workflows to streamline security operations and protect brand reputation. More info.
Yes. For example, E.ON used IONIX to continuously discover and inventory internet-facing assets, Warner Music Group improved operational efficiency and security alignment, and Grand Canyon Education enhanced security by proactively remediating vulnerabilities. Read more: E.ON, Warner Music Group, Grand Canyon Education.
Initial deployment of IONIX typically 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. Source.
IONIX offers onboarding resources including guides, tutorials, webinars, and a dedicated Technical Support Team to assist customers during implementation and adoption. Learn more.
IONIX provides technical support and maintenance services during the subscription term, including troubleshooting, upgrades, and maintenance. Customers are assigned a dedicated account manager and benefit from regular review meetings. More details.
IONIX offers comprehensive guides, datasheets, case studies, and technical documentation to help organizations enhance their security posture. Explore these resources at the IONIX Resources and Guides pages.
Cybersecurity guides from IONIX are available at https://www.ionix.io/guides/, covering topics such as exposure management, vulnerability assessments, and attack surface management.
IONIX's customers include Infosys, Warner Music Group, The Telegraph, E.ON, Grand Canyon Education, and a Fortune 500 Insurance Company. For more, visit the IONIX Customers page.
Industries represented in IONIX's case studies include insurance and financial services, energy, critical infrastructure, IT and technology, and healthcare.
IONIX stands out with its 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, ensuring maximum risk reduction and operational efficiency. Learn more.
Customers should choose IONIX for its superior discovery capabilities, focused threat exposure prioritization, comprehensive digital supply chain mapping, and streamlined remediation workflows. IONIX is recognized for innovation and customer-centricity, as evidenced by industry awards and leadership rankings. More info.
Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is a formalized process for identifying and remediating the most significant threats to a business. It is used to manage and govern an organization’s overall threat exposure management (TEM) program.
In this article
Most organizations have more vulnerabilities in their IT environment than can be effectively managed. With over 40,000 new vulnerabilities discovered in 2024 alone, most organizations have a backlog of patches and updates to test and apply. However, the vast majority of these vulnerabilities can’t or won’t ever be exploited by an attacker, meaning that they pose no real threat to the business.
CTEM is essential to manage the true threats that organizations face. These include exploitable vulnerabilities and other security gaps that are most likely to be targeted by an attacker and that pose the greatest potential threat to critical IT assets and business workflows.
The CTEM process is designed to guide organizations to identify truly exploitable vulnerabilities and to prioritize them based on the threat that they pose to the business. Addressing them based on these priorities maximizes the ROI of remediation efforts.
CTEM empowers security teams with up-to-date visibility into the top real threats to the business. Accomplishing this requires automated monitoring and the ability to differentiate real threats from false positives.
The CTEM process is divided into the following five stages:
Traditional vulnerability management takes a narrow view of an organization’s digital attack surface. It focuses on vulnerabilities in software, ignoring the potential threats associated with social engineering, Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, and other aspects of an organization’s IT infrastructure.
The Scoping stage of the CTEM process defines the digital attack surface that the organization is looking to manage. This might include both external and internal attack surfaces or particular elements of them, such as an organization’s SaaS security posture.
After scoping is complete, the CTEM process moves on to Discovery. This involves identifying assets that fall within the scope, and detecting vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and other security issues associated with them.
The goal of Discovery is to develop a comprehensive inventory of the assets within scope and their associated threats. Once the inventory is in place, the security team can work to pare it down and prioritize it based on risk and potential business impacts.
Often, traditional vulnerability management uses the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to prioritize vulnerabilities. When a vulnerability is assigned a CVE, it also receives a CVSS score. Addressing vulnerabilities in order from highest to lowest CVSS score theoretically should maximize the impact of remediation on an organization’s risk exposure.
However, CVSS scores are “one size fits all” and don’t consider an organization’s unique business needs or whether cyber threat actors are actively exploiting a particular. CTEM prioritizes threats based on a combination of factors, including:
By considering additional contextual information, CTEM offers a more accurate view of the true risk posed by a particular threat.
The Validation stage is one of the key ways that CTEM differs from other vulnerability management processes. Often, if a vulnerability is present in a system, the assumption is that it must be addressed. However, some vulnerabilities aren’t exploitable, and, even if an attacker can exploit a vulnerability, this doesn’t guarantee that the vulnerability enables them to achieve their goal.
For example, an organization may have an application that is vulnerable to a known threat, such as Log4j, for which exploits are available and in active use. However, if an organization has a firewall in place that identifies and blocks Log4j exploit attempts, then the vulnerability poses less of a real threat to the business than other vulnerabilities for which no such security control is in place.
During the validation stage, the security team should confirm a threat’s exploitability and map out attack chains using it. These can be used to determine potential business impacts and whether the issue requires remediation.
CTEM doesn’t end with a list of identified and prioritized threats. In many cases, identified issues can be addressed automatically by a CTEM platform. However, some threats may also require manual remediation.
A CTEM program modernizes an organization’s approach to managing cyber risk and can provide significant benefits, including:
Adopting CTEM enhances an organization’s ability to manage security risks while reducing cost and inefficiencies. Instead of trying to address every vulnerability — an impossible task in most cases — CTEM focuses on the threats that are most likely to cause harm to the business.
CTEM requires continuous monitoring to keep threat inventories and priorities fresh, making automation critical to its success. Automated CTEM tools are also vital in achieving threat visibility at scale due to the rapid expansion of corporate digital attack surfaces.
IONIX provides attacker-centric visibility into an organization’s digital attack surface and threat prioritization based on knowledge of corporate assets and workflows. Learn more about how to implement CTEM in your organization with IONIX, or book a demo.
