Threats & Attack Surfaces: Components & Representation

Cybersecurity begins by identifying assets, threats, vulnerabilities, exposure, and consequences.

Security failures occur when an actor can reach a vulnerable condition and convert it into an impact such as unauthorized access, data disclosure, corruption, disruption, or privilege expansion.

Asset inventories, architecture diagrams, vulnerability scans, dependency analysis, code review, threat models, penetration tests performed with authorization, and incident data reveal where exposure actually exists.