What is CAASM?

Cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM) helps security teams identify, manage, and reduce the exposure of an organization's cyber assets to potential threats. Essentially, it provides internal and external visibility into the entire attack surface of an organization's IT environment — everything from devices and software to cloud assets and services — by compiling and analyzing data from various tools and systems. 

CAASM bridges the gap between security operations and traditional IT asset management. By integrating asset discovery, vulnerability management, and attack surface monitoring into a single, cohesive system, CAASM enables security teams to act proactively to manage risk exposures. This means staying ahead of threats by knowing what’s in the environment and improving visibility and oversight for proper security — whether it’s a legacy system, a new software as a service (SaaS) platform, or a remote employee’s device.

The reality is that modern IT environments are more dynamic than ever, and organizations’ attack surfaces are expanding faster than traditional security approaches can handle. CAASM addresses this vulnerability challenge head-on by giving security teams the full visibility they need to manage risks in their increasingly complex and distributed ecosystems.

Core CAASM components

To understand how CAASM strengthens an organization’s security strategy, it’s helpful to break down its core components. These include:

Asset discovery

Asset discovery is an important foundation for managing an organization’s attack surface. This process involves identifying and taking an inventory of every cyber asset, whether those assets are managed or unmanaged, on-premises, in the cloud, or part of a remote network. Asset discovery techniques range from network scanning and agent-based monitoring to API integrations with cloud platforms and endpoint management systems.

CAASM is unique in its ability to track both traditional IT assets and more elusive unmanaged assets, such as shadow IT systems or assets brought online without the direct oversight of the IT team. This thorough approach helps to ensure that no asset goes unnoticed, which is critical for identifying and mitigating security risks.

Vulnerability management

Once all assets are discovered, CAASM moves into the next phase: vulnerability management. This component focuses on identifying and addressing security weaknesses within the organization’s assets. Vulnerability assessments are conducted to scan for misconfigurations, outdated software, missing security controls, and other vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.

What makes CAASM's approach to vulnerability management powerful is its integration with asset discovery. Vulnerability data is directly tied to the discovered assets, enabling security teams to see where vulnerabilities exist and understand the context of each asset, such as its importance to the business, its exposure to the internet, and how it interacts with other systems.

Risk assessment

Risk assessment in CAASM actively evaluates each asset's risk based on critical factors like vulnerability severity, exploitability, and exposure to potential threats. By tracking exposed assets and correlating them with threat intelligence, risk factors, and data from exploit prediction models such as the Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) or ExPRT.AI, CAASM delivers comprehensive risk and exposure intelligence.

One of the key strengths of CAASM is its ability to prioritize remediation efforts based on an asset’s risk profile, which helps security teams focus their efforts on the most critical areas first. By prioritizing remediation — whether the risk stems from a high-value asset being exposed to the internet or a vulnerable system being connected to sensitive data — CAASM helps security teams efficiently direct their time, resources, and attention to minimize the overall attack surface.

CAASM benefits

When it comes to modern cybersecurity practices, implementing CAASM delivers strategic benefits that go far beyond traditional asset and vulnerability management. By offering a unified view of an organization’s entire attack surface, CAASM empowers security teams to be more proactive, reduce risk, and stay ahead of both compliance demands and evolving threats. Here are some of the key benefits that CAASM brings to modern cybersecurity practices:

Enhanced visibility

CAASM gives security teams comprehensive visibility into every asset — whether it's a server, application, or internet of things (IoT) device — regardless of its location or management status. This real-time monitoring promptly detects any asset changes or updates, enabling security practitioners to immediately respond to new vulnerabilities or configuration changes. This holistic view eliminates blind spots, enabling more effective risk management to protect the organization’s attack surface.

Proactive security posture

CAASM enhances an organization’s ability to adopt a proactive security posture by identifying and addressing potential threats before they can be exploited. Continuously monitoring and analyzing the attack surface helps in early detection of emerging vulnerabilities and risk exposures. This proactive approach strengthens defenses and ensures that an organization’s security measures can quickly adapt to new threats.

Compliance and reporting

Implementing CAASM can help organizations maintain compliance with some industry standards and regulations — such as PCI DSS — by providing clear, comprehensive visibility into the organization’s security posture. It simplifies the process of tracking and documenting compliance efforts, which streamlines the process for demonstrating that the organization is adhering to regulatory requirements. Additionally, CAASM makes reporting for audits and security assessments more efficient and accurate, saving time and resources while helping maintain a strong compliance position.

CAASM compared to other technologies

Making a well-informed decision often requires comparing different solutions side by side, and CAASM is no exception. Below, we have compared CAASM with its cybersecurity predecessors to provide some clarity on their functional scope. 

CAASM vs. AASM

API attack surface management (AASM) focuses primarily on API discovery and API vulnerability management. Though this is crucial for protecting API endpoints, CAASM offers a broader scope. It encompasses the entire attack surface, including APIs. CAASM provides a unified view of all internal and external digital assets and their vulnerabilities, allowing for comprehensive threat management beyond just API-specific concerns.

CAASM vs. EASM

External attack surface management (EASM) concentrates on identifying and mitigating risks from external exposures, such as web applications, IP addresses, and cloud services. EASM excels at identifying vulnerabilities originating from external sources and offers a clear view of the organization's external attack surface from an attacker's perspective. CAASM extends beyond EASM capabilities by integrating both internal and external attack surface visibility. It not only addresses external risks but provides deep insights into internal assets, offering a more complete picture of the organization’s attack surface.

CAASM vs. DRP

Digital risk protection (DRP) focuses on identifying and mitigating risks associated with an organization’s sensitive digital assets and their exposure to potential attacks, such as brand abuse, phishing threats, and data leakage. Though DRP is essential for managing digital risks, CAASM takes a more comprehensive approach. It combines asset discovery, vulnerability management, and risk assessment into one solution, giving security teams a unified platform to manage all aspects of their attack surface — both internal and external.

CAASM vs. RBVM

Risk-based vulnerability management (RBVM) is a security process where teams prioritize vulnerabilities based on the risk they pose to the organization, considering factors such as severity, exploitability, and asset importance. CAASM often incorporates RBVM principles by applying risk-based prioritization to an organization’s vulnerabilities. This approach enhances the efficiency of vulnerability management, enabling teams to focus their time and resources on the most critical and high-impact risks.

Best practices for an effective CAASM implementation

To get the most out of CAASM, organizations should adopt best practices that promote comprehensive attack surface management and drive continuous improvement in security processes. These practices should include:

Identifying the organizational asset landscape

Start by identifying every potential attack vector within the organization — network devices, endpoints, applications, and data repositories. Developing a thorough asset inventory helps ensure that all relevant data is properly integrated into the CAASM solution. By capturing every asset, security teams can continuously monitor and manage the entire attack surface, providing  comprehensive visibility across assets.

Cross-department collaboration

Effective CAASM requires more than just IT and security teams — it involves engaging various departments across the organization. Foster strong communication and collaboration between IT, security, and other key stakeholders to ensure that asset management efforts are aligned. Clear roles and responsibilities should be established early on to ensure that each team knows their part in maintaining a secure and accurate view of the attack surface.

Developing remediation workflows

Effective CAASM implementation hinges on well-defined remediation workflows that streamline the response process. The CAASM solution should readily integrate with the organization’s existing IT and security operations tools — like IT service management (ITSM), patch management, security information and event management (SIEM), and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions — to help drive remediation steps. By building a strong, adaptable procedure for responding to threats, organizations can minimize risk and enhance their overall security posture.

Continuously monitoring and reviewing

Cybersecurity is never static, so periodic assessments are essential to maintaining an effective CAASM implementation. Regularly review the attack surface to verify that new assets are being properly incorporated into the solution and that vulnerability assessments reflect the current state of the enterprise environment.

CrowdStrike’s approach

CAASM plays a crucial role in modern cybersecurity by offering a comprehensive view of an organization’s entire attack surface, enabling proactive threat detection and risk management. By integrating asset visibility, vulnerability management, and continuous monitoring, CAASM helps security teams stay ahead of evolving threats and identify compliance gaps, ultimately strengthening the organization's overall security posture.

CrowdStrike Falcon® Exposure Management helps security teams fully operationalize their CAASM and vulnerability management programs throughout the entire life cycle, from asset discovery and assessment and prioritization of vulnerabilities and exposures to effective remediation.

Falcon Exposure Management offers unparalleled real-time asset discovery and understanding, extensive exposure assessment, and consolidated visibility across the entire attack surface. This comprehensive suite of capabilities assists organizations by effectively staying on top of their internal and external asset exposures, reducing the external attack surface, mitigating risks, and fostering effective collaboration within the security team.

By combining Falcon Exposure Management with CrowdStrike’s cutting-edge real-time security solutions, organizations can safeguard their systems against potential attackers and maintain a strong proactive security posture.