Digital transformation is accelerating the development of critical infrastructure, creating more cyber-physical connections than ever before. While this connectivity offers immense benefits, it also significantly expands the attack surface for cybercriminals to exploit potential vulnerabilities. Attacks on cyber-physical systems (CPS) can disrupt businesses and broader society. For instance, attacks on SCADA systems used to control power grids, water treatment plants, healthcare services, and even telecommunications networks could have severe consequences for public safety.

To protect against these threats, organizations need to be able to identify vulnerabilities, assess the potential impact on their operations if these vulnerabilities are exploited, and eliminate them as much as possible. They also need to be fully prepared to respond if these vulnerabilities are exploited. In short, they need a high-quality risk management strategy. But what exactly is risk management?

The extent of an organization's exposure depends on the number, severity, and potential impact of vulnerabilities or weaknesses in its environment that are susceptible to exploitation by attackers. As organizations face an increasingly larger attack surface due to digital transformation, tracking the multitude of vulnerabilities in their environment becomes increasingly difficult. Each of these vulnerabilities provides an entry point for attackers to gain unauthorized access, disrupt essential services, or engage in other harmful actions. Therefore, organizations must adopt proactive risk management policies to identify, assess, and mitigate potential vulnerabilities and risks before they are exploited.

The primary purpose of risk management is to reduce an organization's exposure or attack surface by identifying vulnerabilities in critical environments, thereby lowering the risk of exploitation. Without risk management, it is nearly impossible for an organization to maintain a strong cybersecurity posture, protect critical systems, comply with regulations, and mitigate the potential impact of cyber threats.

The main challenges in risk management include assets often relying on proprietary protocols, making them inaccessible to security tools. Due to the lack of asset data, organizations face significant context gaps, hindering prioritization and remediation decisions. Additionally, traditional security solutions developed for this purpose often prioritize vulnerabilities based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (), which ranks vulnerabilities solely based on their severity, not the likelihood of exploitation. Severity is not always correlated with the likelihood of exploitation, so the latter is a better method for determining how to allocate scarce cybersecurity resources.

In addition to these challenges, patching systems is often extremely difficult, as these environments typically have little to no tolerance for downtime, as they support critical production processes. This necessitates squeezing all maintenance activities into rare and very limited pre-allocated time windows. Compliance with various industry regulations and standards adds further complexity to risk management. Adhering to often complex and frequently updated specific requirements can be a daunting task. More challenging still, non-compliance can lead to legal and regulatory consequences, as well as increased risk from cyber threats.

Addressing these issues and successfully implementing risk management strategies require a multifaceted approach. The first step should always be asset discovery: gathering comprehensive details about every asset connected to the network, including brand, model, address, and location. Without full visibility of assets, it is impossible to implement effective cybersecurity controls (including vulnerability management). There are tools available that can automate this process and eliminate the heavy lifting.

Once all assets are identified, vulnerabilities in each asset can be identified by cross-referencing with the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list. This allows organizations to prioritize the mitigation of different vulnerabilities based on the likelihood of their exploitation and the potential impact on operations and business in the event of an attack.

In large-scale installations, the identification and mitigation of vulnerabilities can present significant management challenges. If exposure management can be integrated with existing vulnerability systems, overcoming this challenge becomes much easier. A robust cybersecurity platform can offer this capability, integrating with Configuration Management Databases (CMDB), ticketing, orchestration, and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools. As threat actors continue to increase the scale and complexity of their attacks, integrating risk exposure management into the security toolkit becomes increasingly important for organizations of all sizes.

The proactive strategies mentioned enable organizations to address potential risks and vulnerabilities before they escalate into significant issues, while also enhancing their ability to make informed business decisions and strengthening their resilience against cyber threats.