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Each Monday, the Tenable Exposure Management Academy provides the practical, real-world guidance you need to shift from vulnerability management to exposure management. This week, Tenable experts discuss best practices for communicating cyber risk. You can read the entire Exposure Management Academy series here.Despite headline-grabbing incidents and keen interest from C-suites and boardrooms, many security leaders still struggle to gain executive buy-in or rally cross-departmental support. The challenge isn't the data itself. On the contrary, it’s often how you deliver the message. Many security teams are buried in mounds of information from an array of disconnected security solutions. This makes it tough to present a consolidated, understandable overview of cyber risk.That brings up a couple of questions. First, what can you do to fix this communication challenge and improve how technical teams convey risk to non-technical decision-makers? Second, how can security teams give context to their IT counterparts to effectively prioritize remediation efforts? One way is to move to exposure management. Exposure management gives security leaders the processes and technologies they need to continuously assess the accessibility, exploitability and criticality of digital assets across all systems, applications, devices, resources and identities. As a result, security leaders can proactively answer questions about their organization’s exposure risk. A well-executed exposure management program can help you distill complex issues and vast stores of data into clear, digestible metrics. You’ll also be able to avoid overly technical language, which will help engage with leadership and board members. And you’ll avoid burning out your IT teams with endless tasks by giving them real-world guidance about what to fix first and why.Speak in a language the board and C-suite understandSecurity professionals understand technical jargon. But most others don’t. Board members focus on business disruption, liability and cost. C-level executives worry about the overall strategic direction of the business, along with any risks that might imperil the future of the organization. Other executives, especially those who run a line of business, are laser-focused on their respective areas. They appreciate security but likely don’t know the lingo and lack the context needed to understand cyber risk.Exposure management helps translate technical complexity into clear, concise business language. This translation is vital for winning executive support and for shifting security from a reactive posture to a strategic mindset Jorge Orchilles, Senior Director of Readiness and Proactive Security at Verizon, summed it up well in his contribution to the Exposure Management Academy: “Instead of delivering long lists of vulnerabilities that mean little to non-technical leaders, we can present a clear picture in a few key points.”Cut through the noise and focus on what mattersA primary stumbling block that stands in the way of clear communication in cybersecurity is information overload, with teams often buried in alerts and data, much of which is just noise.As Robert Huber, Tenable’s Chief Security Officer and Head of Research, wrote recently, “Not all risks are created equal.” He says that, if you think of everything as a top priority, then nothing is. An exposure management program can help organizations focus on the issues that pose a true disruption to the business. That clarity, which distinguishes between meaningful signals and background noise, is invaluable for making better, more explainable decisions. Huber says that this approach has enabled his team to zero in on critical issues so they can focus on what really matters and drive the right outcomes.Communicate to drive collaborationEffective cyber risk management can be hindered when IT and security operate in separate spheres, speaking different languages, which can create friction and missed opportunities.An exposure management platform can offer a common framework and a shared view of risk for both security and IT. Tenable’s CIO, Patricia Grant, sees securing the enterprise as a joint responsibility. “The security team sets the posture,” she says. “But IT owns the infrastructure. Exposure management gives us a common language to operate in.” Grant adds that, when you can put an issue in the context of the risk it poses, rather than just thinking about it as another patch, you’ll see much better engagement. The lesson here is that clear communication is more than a nicety. It can create action. Moreover, when technical teams and business stakeholders align, they agree on priorities and make progress.Move from blind spots to insightsSuccessful exposure management extends beyond prioritizing known vulnerabilities. It provides a full picture of deficiencies across all your environments. “As security professionals, we’ve had to move away from thinking of cybersecurity as just ‘scan-patch-rescan,’” says Arnie Cabral, Senior Staff Security Engineer at Tenable, echoing Grant. “Exposure management has been the catalyst for that shift and gives us a much broader lens with the ability to narrow the scope.”This fresh perspective can yield surprising benefits. “Our exposure management platform became our de facto inventory tool,” Cabral says. “There were times people would ask, ‘What’s this asset doing here?’ We didn’t have an easy answer. Now, we do. We’re able to transform the data into actual usable information with real insight.” That visibility, combined with clear communication about the risk implications of these findings, helps his team connect with wider stakeholders. “We’re doing more than just fixing exposures,” he says. “We’re helping the business as a whole understand its risk and take actions where necessary.”TakeawaysBy enabling a centralized perspective, exposure management can foster more straightforward communication throughout an organization with consistent metrics and easily understandable visuals. Of course, technical specialists can access the detailed data that’s essential for their work. But, at the same time, executives and board members will gain a clear understanding of the organization's overall security status. They’ll see the areas that need attention without needing to decipher complex technical details. All members of an organization — technical and non-technical — can compare performance against industry counterparts and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) over time. This benchmarking helps provide invaluable context and addresses the common question that plagues us all: "How is the organization performing?" These valuable perspectives enable more targeted resource deployment and build cooperation across different business units by furnishing the metrics they care about.Ultimately, exposure management helps organizations transcend the limitations of isolated data and inscrutable terminology. It creates a comprehensive awareness of the entire attack surface, which lets security leaders clearly define risk, demonstrate progress and helps everyone understand their role in an organization's cyber readiness.Learn moreCheck out the Tenable exposure management resource center to discover the value of exposure management and explore resources to help you stand up a continuous threat exposure management program.
Analysis Summary
# Best Practices: Communicating Cyber Risk Using Exposure Management
## Overview
These practices focus on leveraging an Exposure Management platform to gain comprehensive visibility across the entire attack surface, standardize risk communication using consistent metrics, and ensure that both technical staff and executive stakeholders understand, prioritize, and act upon cybersecurity risks effectively.
## Key Recommendations
### Immediate Actions
1. **Establish Foundational Asset Inventory:** Immediately deploy or promote your Exposure Management platform as the "de facto inventory tool" to centralize visibility across all assets (including IT, Cloud, OT, and Identities).
2. **Integrate Security Data Sources:** Utilize platform connectors to seamlessly combine native sensor data with data from existing third-party security tools to achieve a unified view of the attack surface.
3. **Define Consistent Risk Metrics:** Determine the core Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) necessary for communicating security posture and performance across different organizational levels (technical vs. executive).
### Short-term Improvements (1-3 months)
1. **Prioritize Exposures Based on Business Context:** Shift from siloed vulnerability fixing to risk-based prioritization by linking technical vulnerabilities to real-world exposure pathways and potential business impacts.
2. **Develop Tiered Reporting Dashboards:** Create distinct sets of visuals and metrics tailored for different audiences (e.g., detailed telemetry for technical teams; aggregated risk scores/trends for executives).
3. **Initiate Cross-Functional Metric Reviews:** Begin holding regular meetings where security progress is reviewed using the consistent exposure metrics defined, inviting leaders from relevant business units alongside security staff.
### Long-term Strategy (3+ months)
1. **Implement Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM):** Establish a perpetual cycle of discovery, assessment, prioritization, and remediation driven by the platform’s analytics capability.
2. **Benchmark Performance:** Integrate industry data or historical organizational metrics within the platform to contextualize current security status and demonstrate year-over-year progress ("How is the organization performing?").
3. **Formalize Role-Based Action Assignments:** Ensure that every critical exposure identified is clearly linked to the responsible team or individual (technical or business unit owner) necessary to mitigate the risk, fostering shared responsibility.
## Implementation Guidance
### For Small Organizations
- **Focus on Consolidation:** Prioritize using the exposure management tool primarily for asset discovery and vulnerability scanning integration to immediately gain a clear, centralized view, reducing dependency on disparate spreadsheets.
- **Use Standardized Visuals:** Adopt the platform's simplest visual risk indicators to communicate status during leadership updates, avoiding technical jargon entirely.
### For Medium Organizations
- **Integrate Core Systems:** Focus on integrating data from cloud environments and core patching systems to ensure cloud exposure and significant vulnerability gaps are visible in the unified platform.
- **Establish Basic Benchmarking:** Start tracking two to three crucial KPIs (e.g., Mean Time to Remediate critical items, overall external exposure score) to provide initial context for performance discussions.
### For Large Enterprises
- **Deploy Comprehensive Connectors:** Ensure connectivity across all critical domains: Cloud Security (CNAPP/CIEM), Vulnerability Management, OT/IoT, and Identity Exposure.
- **Automate Risk Communication:** Leverage generative AI or platform analytics capabilities to automate the creation of executive summaries and tailored reports based on predefined risk tolerance thresholds.
- **Define Governance:** Establish formal processes for asset lifecycle management discovered through the exposure platform to ensure ongoing accuracy and accountability across numerous business units.
## Configuration Examples
*(Note: Specific product configurations are not detailed in the source text, but the focus should be on configuring the platform to achieve the following outcomes):*
1. **Risk Prioritization Engine Configuration:** Configure the prioritization algorithm to weigh discovered vulnerabilities by:
* Asset Criticality (Business Value).
* Exposure Pathway (Is it externally facing?).
* Exploitability (Is there an active exploit in the wild?).
2. **Dashboard Setup for Executives:** Configure a main executive dashboard focusing *only* on:
* Overall Attack Surface Trend (increase/decrease).
* Risk Score vs. Previous Period (KPI Trend).
* Top 3 Remediation Focus Areas (Business Impact view).
## Compliance Alignment
Exposure management inherently supports broad compliance goals by enforcing visibility and measurement.
- **NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF):** Directly supports the **Identify** (Asset Inventory, Risk Assessment) and **Respond** (Prioritization, Investigation) functions.
- **ISO/IEC 27001:** Facilitates continuous monitoring required by A.12 and provides quantifiable evidence for ongoing risk assessment (Clause 6.1.2).
- **CIS Controls:** Enhances controls related to **Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets** (Control 1) and **Vulnerability Management** (Control 7).
## Common Pitfalls to Avoid
1. **Treating Exposure Management as Just Another Scanner:** Avoid using the platform purely for technical findings; its primary value is holistic risk communication and business alignment.
2. **Allowing Data Silos to Persist:** Do not rely solely on native data; failing to connect third-party tool data renders the "comprehensive awareness" goal unachievable.
3. **Using Overly Technical Language for Executives:** Presenting raw vulnerability counts or CVSS scores to non-technical stakeholders prevents comprehension and action; always translate exposure into business impact.
4. **Failing to Assign Ownership:** An unidentified asset or an unassigned high-risk exposure will inevitably be ignored; ensure every item has a clear owner for remediation.
## Resources
- **Tenable Exposure Management Resource Center:** Explore resources to help stand up a continuous threat exposure management program.
- **Tenable One Platform:** The foundational toolset for achieving centralized visibility, risk communication, and prioritization capabilities mentioned.