eBay is generally safe to buy from; however, it’s important to take security precautions because people are often scammed on the platform. If you’ve never shopped
The main difference between an attack vector and an attack surface is that an attack vector is the specific way a cybercriminal can take advantage of an entry point, whereas an attack surface is the total number of entry points that a cybercriminal could potentially exploit. Imagine you’re attending a sporting event at a large stadium – an attack surface is every possible entrance that allows you to enter the stadium, while the attack vector is how you choose to go into the stadium (i.e., walking up a set of stairs or taking an escalator).
Continue reading to learn more about attack vectors and attack surfaces, and how your organization can reduce them both to protect your data from cybercriminals.
What is an attack vector?
An attack vector is every potential way a cybercriminal can access your organization’s network or systems. This is the specific method that a cybercriminal uses to gain unauthorized access. When there are many attack vectors, it means there is a larger attack surface for a cybercriminal to decide how they want to enter your organization’s network.
Common attack vector examples
Some of the most common attack vectors are cracking weak or compromised passwords and infecting devices with malware. An easy way for cybercriminals to gain access to an organization’s network is by cracking an employee’s weak password. They may do this through several types of password-based attacks, such as brute force or credential stuffing. Once they’ve successfully cracked an employee’s password, they can use it to gain unauthorized access to your organization’s systems.
Another method cybercriminals use to access your organization’s data is by infecting employees’ devices with malware, a type of software that can damage or steal data. If an employee clicks on an unsolicited link or downloads any suspicious content, malware can install on their device without their knowledge and a cybercriminal can gain access to their device and data.
What is an attack surface?
An attack surface refers to all the possible entry points where cybercriminals can access your organization’s systems to steal data. The smaller the attack surface, the easier it is to protect your private information. This is why it’s essential to reduce your attack surface by implementing the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP), relying on a zero-trust security framework and regularly updating your software to patch security vulnerabilities.
Types of attack surfaces
The three main types of attack surfaces are digital, physical and social engineering. A digital attack surface involves any online aspect of your organization’s system that can be targeted, such as websites or network protocols. For example, if your organization has a web application and a cybercriminal compromises it, the cybercriminal can gain unauthorized access to your network and steal private data.
A physical attack surface refers to any information accessed through physical means, such as a stolen device or a piece of paper containing passwords. Since a cybercriminal would need to be physically present in an office to compromise this attack surface, it is more common for the perpetrators to be malicious insiders. Perhaps an employee is resentful about a situation and uses their privileged access to compromise internal systems with malware, steal private information or jeopardize the security of your organization.
Lastly, a social engineering attack surface focuses primarily on manipulation to trick people into revealing sensitive information. Social engineering tactics exploit human emotional vulnerabilities, influencing people to share private information, download malicious software or even give money to cybercriminals. This is especially dangerous because cybercriminals can psychologically manipulate your employees by impersonating someone they know to appear trustworthy, resulting in confidential information being shared deceptively.
The key differences between an attack vector and an attack surface
Although attack vectors and attack surfaces are related, they have more differences than similarities. Let’s take a closer look at some of the main differences between the two.
An attack vector is a method of attack; an attack surface is the total number of vulnerabilities
Both attack vectors and attack surfaces concern security weaknesses; however, an attack vector is how a cybercriminal attacks, while an attack surface refers to the potential weaknesses they can exploit. An attack vector is the specific way a cybercriminal could exploit your organization’s systems, such as by sending phishing emails or tricking employees into downloading malware. An attack surface is the range of options a cybercriminal has available to target with these attack vectors. For example, the attack surface may be employees who can be easily deceived into sharing information, but the attack vector is a phishing message sent to one employee that results in a cybercriminal gaining access to organizational data.
An attack vector is focused; an attack surface is broad
Think of an attack surface as a house with many different doors and entry points; an attack vector is the specific method a burglar uses to sneak into an unlocked window. While an attack surface is broad due to it being the total number of weaknesses and entry points, an attack vector is focused on one way to gain unauthorized access and steal data. Knowing that a cybercriminal will use a specific method to target a security vulnerability should guide you in reducing your attack surface by evaluating any weaknesses in your system before a potential cyber attack.
An attack vector evolves quickly; an attack surface is more stable
Since software updates and security standards frequently evolve to patch vulnerabilities, an attack vector can change based on how cybercriminals adapt to more effective techniques. Meanwhile, an attack surface does not shift as dramatically because changes to an organization’s security usually happen more gradually. Therefore, an attack surface changes less often and is more stable compared to an attack vector, which needs to adapt to new vulnerabilities as they appear.
How organizations can reduce their attack surface and vectors
Your organization can reduce its vulnerability to different attack vectors and minimize its attack surfaces by keeping software updated, implementing least-privilege access controls and enforcing strong password practices.
Keep software and Operating Systems (OS) up to date
By ensuring the latest software and Operating Systems (OS) are installed on your organization’s devices, you can reduce your attack surface. New software updates patch security flaws and fix known bugs, so your devices will be much less likely to become compromised in a potential cyber attack. If your employees do not update their devices’ software, your attack surface will grow larger, giving cybercriminals more attack vectors, such as malware infections, to steal important data.
Implement least-privilege access
You should implement least-privilege access within your organization to protect sensitive data from unauthorized users. Least-privilege access gives authorized users only the necessary access to do their jobs, especially for privileged accounts. By implementing this principle, you will reduce your attack surface because there will be fewer entry points for a cybercriminal to gain access to exploit and steal data. The easiest way to implement least-privilege access is by using a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution, which will secure and control accounts that access sensitive data, such as IT teams or HR staff.
If your organization does not implement least-privilege access, a cybercriminal can target any employee with a phishing attack and, if they fall for it, gain access to the most sensitive data in your organization. However, with least-privilege access, cybercriminals will be more restricted in what data they can access because they will only have limited access based on the employee’s specific permissions, which are designated through Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC).
Enforce the use of strong, unique passwords and MFA
Your organization needs to enforce strong password hygiene practices on all accounts to reduce attack vectors and attack surfaces. Since exploiting weak, compromised or reused passwords is a common attack vector for cybercriminals, it’s important that employees use strong, unique passwords consisting of at least 16 characters and a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. With strong and unique passwords, your organization will minimize the chances of a cybercriminal gaining unauthorized access and reduce the size of your attack surface. Many PAM solutions feature password management, so after employees have updated their passwords to stronger ones, they can secure and manage them with ease.
In addition to using strong passwords, your employees should also enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on all online accounts to provide an extra layer of security. MFA requires more than one form of authentication to verify identity when accessing a service or account. Some examples of MFA include a PIN, an answer to a security question, a code from an authenticator app or biometric information. If an employee has MFA enabled but their password becomes compromised, a cybercriminal will be unable to access their account because they will still need the additional method to verify they are who they claim to be.
Segment networks
A great strategy to reduce attack vectors and attack surfaces is segmenting networks, which limits how many devices are exposed to a cybercriminal if they hack your systems. It will also be easier to implement RBAC with network segmentation because certain employees may not have access to sensitive parts of a network, so if their passwords are compromised, a cybercriminal cannot gain unauthorized access to highly private information. Segmenting networks also helps prevent cybercriminals from moving laterally across your organization’s network to gain access to more data, thereby minimizing your attack vectors and attack surfaces.
Conduct regular penetration testing and security audits
By regularly conducting penetration testing, your organization can reduce its attack surface by identifying security weaknesses before they can be exploited by cybercriminals. Penetration testing is a simulation of a cyber attack that organizations run to determine any security vulnerabilities they need to patch before a potential real attack. Since it’s a simulation, this is a crucial way to reduce its attack surface because your organization can understand how secure it truly is against data breaches and other cyber attacks that could damage or steal important data without consequences.
Conducting frequent security audits will give your organization insight into how to improve any weaknesses, which will reduce the number of attack vectors cybercriminals could use to gain unauthorized access to your network. By knowing where your organization is lacking in security through audits, you can mitigate any security vulnerabilities and create stronger security procedures to minimize attack vectors and reduce your attack surface.
Provide employees with monthly security awareness training
Ensuring your employees participate in monthly security awareness training will reduce your attack vectors and attack surface because they will learn how to spot phishing attempts and other cyber threats. Cybercriminals often target employees with phishing emails, impersonating coworkers or even your organization’s CEO to gain their trust and trick them into sending private information. However, by providing monthly security training, your employees can be better prepared to spot any phishing attempts before falling for scams and endangering your organization’s data privacy. Preparing your employees to spot phishing attempts will reduce attack vectors and your attack surface because cybercriminals will not be able to deceive employees into revealing sensitive information if employees know not to interact with any suspicious emails.
One way to prepare your employees is by running a phishing test, which sends realistic simulations of phishing emails to your employees and notifies you if they interacted with the messages. If your employees believe these messages are trustworthy and fall for the simulated scam, this shows you where to improve security training and provide additional training to those who need it.
Keep your organization protected against vulnerabilities
Any security vulnerability in your organization’s networks or systems could have a detrimental impact on your data, security and reputation. Defend yourself by reducing attack vectors and your attack surface with the help of a PAM solution like KeeperPAM®, which secures your organization’s passwords and privileged accounts on a unified platform.
Request a demo of KeeperPAM today to start managing and controlling privileged users on every device, conveniently minimizing attack vectors and your attack surface.