Last updated at Wed, 30 Apr 2025 13:00:00 GMT

Security leaders today face a harsh reality: traditional vulnerability management isn’t enough. Threat actors are evolving, attack surfaces are expanding, and organizations need a more proactive approach to stay ahead of risk. Latest research from Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, highlights the need for security teams to move beyond simply tracking vulnerabilities and embrace a more comprehensive approach to exposure management.

At Rapid7, we are excited to offer complimentary access to this report and share our three key takeaways to help you modernize your security strategy.

Takeaway 1: Vulnerability Lists Aren’t Enough—You Need Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)

Gartner states: "Creating prioritized lists of security vulnerabilities isn’t enough to cover all exposures or find actionable solutions. Security operations managers should go beyond vulnerability management and build a continuous threat exposure management program to more effectively scope and remediate exposures."

CTEM shifts the focus from merely identifying vulnerabilities to understanding the full picture of organizational risk. It integrates asset visibility, business impact analysis, attack surface monitoring, and validation of security controls to help organizations assess and reduce their true exposure to threats.

Takeaway 2: Exposure Management Requires Business Context

One of the biggest challenges in vulnerability management today is that many security teams focus too much on discovering issues without evaluating their impact on the business. Gartner highlights the importance of integrating business context into security operations, stating that "adding a business context, such as asset value and impact of compromise, to exposure management activities can improve senior leadership engagement."

By aligning security initiatives with business priorities, organizations can:

  • Focus on the vulnerabilities that pose the greatest risk to critical operations
  • Improve communication with senior leadership and stakeholders
  • Justify security investments with real business impact

Takeaway 3: Attack Surface Visibility Must Keep Up With Digital Evolution

Modern attack surfaces extend far beyond on-premises IT. The rise of cloud applications, IoT, supply chain dependencies, and remote work environments has dramatically increased the number of potential entry points for attackers. Gartner emphasizes that "current approaches to attack surface visibility are not keeping up with the rapid pace of digital evolution. Organizations must quickly reduce exposure to make their public-facing assets less visible and accessible."

This means security teams need to enhance their discovery processes to:

  • Continuously monitor both their internal and external attack surface
  • Identify misconfigurations, exposed assets, emerging threats, and weak access controls (e.g., credentials, risky users)
  • Implement proactive security measures to reduce overall exposure

How Rapid7 Aligns with Gartner Exposure Management Vision

At Rapid7, we believe in empowering security teams with the tools and insights they need to shift from reactive vulnerability management to proactive exposure management. Our Exposure Management solution helps organizations:

  • Gain real-time visibility into evolving attack surfaces
  • Prioritize threats based on business impact and exploitability
  • Continuously validate security controls through adversarial exposure testing

As threats continue to evolve, organizations must rethink how they approach vulnerability management. Gartner research provides a roadmap for security leaders looking to implement a comprehensive exposure management strategy.

Download the full Gartner report today to learn how you can modernize your security program and stay ahead of threats.

Garter, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, Michell Schneider, Jeremy D’Hoinne, Jonathan Nunez, Craig Lawson, 8 November 2024

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