The Ultimate CTEM Guide: The DevOcean Method to CTEM Excellence

In the rapidly evolving world of cybersecurity, organizations are increasingly recognizing the need for proactive frameworks to manage and mitigate threats. Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), coined by Gartner, represents a modern approach to addressing these challenges. Unlike ASPM, CNAPP, and CASM, which are defined markets, CTEM is a comprehensive program that is gaining traction as the next-generation practice for managing vulnerabilities and exposure.

This approach not only focuses on identifying potential threats but also on building a resilient security infrastructure that can withstand and adapt to new threats. By focusing on the root causes of vulnerabilities and taking an offensive security perspective, CTEM provides deeper insights into the "why" and "how" behind vulnerabilities.

This enables organizations to preemptively identify and address potential threats before they can be exploited. For organizations that are stretched thin—overwhelmed by the sheer number of issues they need to address—CTEM offers a way to manage exposure effectively even with limited manpower, ensuring a comprehensive and proactive defense strategy.

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Why CTEM Matters

CTEM addresses several key challenges faced by organizations today, particularly in complex, multi-asset IT environments managed by diverse teams of security professionals, engineers, DevOps, and developers. Traditional manual processes often struggle to keep pace with the dynamic nature of modern cyber threats. CTEM offers comprehensive visibility, allowing organizations to understand the full scope of their attack surface.

By focusing on the root causes of vulnerabilities and taking an offensive security perspective, CTEM helps organizations preemptively identify and address potential threats before they can be exploited. This approach is particularly valuable for organizations that are stretched thin, providing a way to manage exposure effectively even with limited resources.

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The Five Stages of CTEM

CTEM is built on a comprehensive five-stage framework that provides a holistic view of an organization’s vulnerabilities and exposure points. This structured approach allows for a thorough examination of potential threats and the development of robust defense mechanisms. The five stages of CTEM include:

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1. Scoping

Identify critical assets and systems essential to business operations

DevOcean's Unified Asset Inventory instantly discovers every asset across code, cloud, on-prem, CI/CD, development, production, and legacy environments. This approach helps to identify coverage gaps and overlaps within your security stack. Additionally, DevOcean enriches asset inventory data with crucial context, such as exploitability, business criticality, and ownership. By automatically mapping each asset to its owner, DevOcean empowers security teams to quickly and accurately direct fix requests to the appropriate person, saving time and reducing administrative burdens.

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2. Discovery

Continuously identify vulnerabilities across the scoped environment.

DevOcean simplifies this stage by automatically collecting and consolidating all relevant data, effectively filtering out duplications and false positives. The platform then groups the remaining issues based on context, such as the asset, fix owner, or required fix, reducing the number of issues that need to be prioritized by up to 90%.

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3. Prioritization

Rank vulnerabilities based on their risk level, considering factors such as exploitability, potential impact, and business criticality.  

DevOcean enhances the Prioritization stage of CTEM with its "Fix First" approach, which focuses on identifying not only the most impactful issues but also the most impactful fixes.

Devocean uniquely combines conventional prioritization methods—focusing on assets with the greatest business risk or highest likelihood of exposure—with an innovative Bottom-Up approach that leverages our Automatic Root Cause Identification. This method allows you to prioritize high-impact fixes where a single remediation can eliminate hundreds of sub-issues, maximizing the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of your remediation efforts.

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4. Validation

Confirm your improved security posture after remediation.

Once a fix has been implemented, DevOcean proactively triggers scans to ensure the issue has been permanently resolved across all environments, preventing previously resolved issues from re-emerging.

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5. Mobilization

Coordinate and execute remediation efforts, ensuring timely and efficient vulnerability management and fast response to identified threats.

‍DevOcean speeds up mobilization by removing the manual effort involved in identifying ownership for each fix, making it easy to find the right person responsible. Additionally, DevOcean streamlines the entire remediation process by seamlessly integrating with the existing workflows and tools used by your Dev, IT, and DevOps teams. This ensures that the remediation process fits naturally into your current operations, allowing your teams to work more efficiently without the need to build new systems or disrupt established workflows.

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DevOcean's Role in Implementing and Enhancing CTEM

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DevOcean’s Unified Remediation Platform™️ is uniquely positioned to support each stage of the CTEM framework, offering advanced features that enhance visibility, optimize resource allocation, and significantly reduce remediation cycles from weeks to days.

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‍Enhanced Asset Management

DevOcean provides comprehensive visibility across all assets, including cloud, on-prem, and legacy systems. This unified view ensures that no vulnerability goes unnoticed, helping to identify coverage gaps and overlaps. By enriching asset data with critical context—such as exploitability, business criticality, and asset ownership—DevOcean empowers security teams to quickly make informed decisions and direct remediation efforts to the right people without delay.

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Effective Vulnerability Management

‍DevOcean streamlines vulnerability management by automatically deduplicating and consolidating alerts, alleviating the burden of manually analyzing thousands of issues that cause alert fatigue and overload. With a context-enriched prioritization process, DevOcean creates a focused action plan that not only targets the most critical vulnerabilities but also highlights quick wins and low-hanging fruit, ensuring that every action taken has the greatest possible impact.‍

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Automated Root Cause Analysis & Ownership

‍DevOcean leverages its comprehensive visibility and contextual awareness to pinpoint root causes, allowing security teams to address multiple exposure risks with a single, well-targeted fix. Beyond identifying where and what to remediate, DevOcean also automates the process of matching each fix to its appropriate owner, reducing the time and effort spent on finding the right person to execute the remediation.‍

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‍Streamlined, Automated Remediation Workflows

‍DevOcean’s AI-Powered Remediation accelerates the response to threat exposures by automating root cause identification, mapping fixes to the appropriate individuals, and delivering clear, actionable remediation steps. These automations reduce the time and effort required to resolve vulnerabilities, ensuring that the remediation process flows more efficiently and effectively than ever before.‍

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Best Practices for CTEM Implementation

‍DevOcean supports best practices by offering practical tips and tools that help organizations start with critical assets and gradually expand their scope. The platform’s customizable tagging and policy features allow organizations to tailor their security efforts to their specific needs, ensuring a consistent and effective approach to threat and vulnerability management.

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Getting Started

The adoption of CTEM is not just a strategic advantage; it's a necessity in the face of evolving cybersecurity threats. DevOcean provides the tools and capabilities needed to implement CTEM effectively, ensuring a proactive and resilient security posture. By embracing this advanced framework, organizations can better protect their assets and build a robust defense against future threats.

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DevOcean stands ready to support this transition, offering comprehensive solutions that align with the principles of CTEM and enhance an organization's overall cybersecurity strategy.
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