According to Gartner, “By 2026, organizations prioritizing their security investments based on a continuous exposure management program will be three times less likely to suffer from a breach.” But what exactly is CTEM?

Authors: Shmuel Cohen, Sr. Security Researcher | Or Yair, Security Research Team Lead Google’s Quick Share is a peer–to-peer data-transfer utility for Android, Windows, and Chrome operating systems. It uses a variety of communication protocols—including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Web real-time communication (WebRTC), and near-field communication (NFC)—to send files between compatible devices that are in close proximity to each other.

On August 7th, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued an update to an existing advisory (AA23-061A) highlighting new TTPs being leveraged by the recently rebranded “Royal” ransomware gang – now known as BlackSuit. Detailed information about this threat and the associated IOCs and TTPs can be seen on #StopRansomware: Blacksuit (Royal) Ransomware.

Downgrade attacks—also known as version-rollback attacks—are a type of attack designed to revert an immune, fully up-to-date software back to an older version. They allow malicious actors to expose and exploit previously fixed/patched vulnerabilities to compromise systems and gain unauthorized access.

In this version of the Hacker’s Playbook Threat Coverage round-up, we are highlighting attack coverage for newly discovered or analyzed threats by the SafeBreach Labs team. SafeBreach customers can select and run these attacks and more from the SafeBreach Hacker’s Playbook to ensure coverage against these advanced threats. Additional details about the threats and our coverage can be seen below.

The continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) model offers tremendous benefits to any organization implementing it.

On July 8th, the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC), the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the United States National Security Agency (NSA), the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) along with several international partners issued an urgent advisory outlining a People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber group targeting Australian and U.S. enterprises.

In this version of the Hacker’s Playbook Threat Coverage round-up, we are highlighting attack coverage for newly discovered or analyzed threats by the SafeBreach Labs team. SafeBreach customers can select and run these attacks and more from the SafeBreach Hacker’s Playbook to ensure coverage against these advanced threats.

Many acronyms and security concepts come and go without much traction, but the term continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) seems to be taking hold for the foreseeable future. CTEM, a term originally coined by Gartner, offers a cyclical approach to finding and mitigating threat exposure—which is the accessibility and exploitability of digital and physical assets—in an ongoing, proactive, and prioritized way.

Given the high level of complexity in securing enterprise IT systems, it can be extremely difficult to keep track of changes in the organization’s overall security posture. It’s even more complicated to ensure that the dozens of security controls in place to protect the organization’s IT (and OT) assets are functioning properly and configured securely.