Vulnerability management grows to exposure management

In today’s threat landscape, attackers don't limit themselves to exploiting known vulnerabilities in traditional IT infrastructure. They probe every possible entry point - misconfigurations, weak credentials, shadow IT, exposed APIs, and human error. This reality demands a shift in how organizations approach cyber defense, moving beyond traditional vulnerability management to a more comprehensive approach, now known as exposure management. At Holm Security, we’ve been doing this for 10 years with what we’ve called Next-Gen Vulnerability Management.

What makes exposure management different? 

Exposure management represents a fundamental evolution in how we protect assets and organizations. Rather than focusing solely on software vulnerabilities, it encompasses the entire attack surface. This continuous cyber security process helps organizations identify, prioritize, and reduce all the ways an attacker could successfully compromise them through an ongoing, intelligence-driven approach to risk reduction. 

The difference is significant. Where traditional approaches might find vulnerabilities in known assets, exposure management asks broader questions: What assets do we actually have? What are all the possible ways they could be exploited? Which exposures pose the most significant real-world risk to our organization? 

Understanding the journey 

The cyber security industry's evolution tells an important story. What began as vulnerability assessment - simply finding and reporting vulnerabilities - grew into vulnerability management as organizations recognized that discovery was only half the battle. Supporting the entire lifecycle, including remediation processes, became essential. 

But even comprehensive vulnerability management struggled to keep pace with modern threats. Organizations needed visibility across their entire attack surface, not just known vulnerabilities. They needed integrated workflows that could handle multiple attack vectors simultaneously. They needed intelligence-driven prioritization that reflected real-world threat conditions. 

This is where exposure management emerges as the natural next step - a progression designed to meet the challenges of today's complex threat landscape. 

A platform built for this evolution 

Ten years ago, when Holm Security was founded, we anticipated this evolution. We observed that the market was fragmented, with vendors offering complex product suites where features weren't properly integrated, making comprehensive security management cumbersome and inefficient. 

Our vision was different: a unified platform supporting the entire process from asset discovery through vulnerability identification to remediation. But we went further. We recognized that true effectiveness meant covering as many attack vectors as possible within one platform, using one workflow and one risk model. We called this Next-Gen Vulnerability Management - what the industry now recognizes as exposure management. 

Our comprehensive approach 

Effective exposure management requires several critical elements working together: 

• Complete attack surface visibility through Attack Surface Management (ASM) and External Attack Surface Management (EASM) ensures organizations understand not just their known infrastructure but also shadow IT and forgotten assets that cybercriminals actively seek out. 
  
  
• Integrated workflow support eliminates the friction of juggling multiple tools and processes, allowing security teams to move seamlessly from discovery to prioritization to remediation. 
  
  
• Threat intelligence integration, powered by AI, provides the context needed to prioritize effectively, allowing teams to understand which vulnerabilities pose the greatest risk to their specific environment and where to focus limited resources for maximum impact. 
  
  
• Human factor consideration recognizes that technical controls alone aren't enough. Users, often described as the weakest link, must be part of any comprehensive exposure management strategy. 

The path forward 

The evolution from vulnerability assessment to vulnerability management to exposure management isn't just semantic - it reflects the cyber security industry’s growing understanding of what effective defense actually requires. As attack surfaces expand (not least with AI) and threat actors become more sophisticated, organizations need solutions that provide comprehensive visibility, intelligent prioritization, and integrated workflows. 

Holm Security delivers on this promise with exposure management, offering a more holistic approach to cyber security that extends beyond finding vulnerabilities to understanding and reducing all forms of organizational exposure. It's not a replacement for vulnerability management but rather its natural evolution - one that meets the demands of the modern threat landscape. 

Reach out to our Sales team today to learn more about exposure management.