Controlled Attack Surface with Network Detection and Response

Controlling your attack surface is essential to reducing risk and Network Detection and Response (NDR) plays a critical role in managing and shrinking that surface in real time.Network Detection and Responsecan help control and reduce your organizations attack surface.

Heres howNetwork Detection and Response contributes to a controlled Attack Surface strategy:

Controlled Attack Surface with NDR

What Is an "Attack Surface"?

An attack surface includes all network-connected assets, services, endpoints, and applications that could be exploited by a threat actor.

Controlling it means:

• Minimizing exposure

• Monitoring access

• Detecting unauthorized activity

How NDR Helps Control the Attack Surface

1. Continuous Asset Discovery & Monitoring

• NDR solutions Detects all devices (managed and unmanaged) connecting to the network.

• Identifies shadow IT, rogue assets, and unexpected cloud workloads.

Benefit: Shrinks unknown attack vectors.

2. Behavioral Monitoring of Exposed Services

• Tracks usage of external-facing services (e.g., RDP, SSH, web apps).

• Flags unusual or unauthorized access attempts.

Benefit: Highlights misconfigured or exposed services.

3. Real-Time Threat Detection for Vulnerable Assets

• Monitors network interactions with known-vulnerable systems.

• Correlates CVEs with observed asset behavior.

Benefit: Detects when vulnerabilities are actively being exploited.

4. East-West Traffic Visibility

• Provides deep visibility into internal lateral movement and communication patterns.

• Detects misuse of internal services or trust relationships.

Benefit: Prevents attackers from expanding after initial compromise.

5. Dynamic Risk Scoring & Prioritization

• Scores assets based on exposure, behavior, and vulnerability context.

• Helps prioritize which systems need to be patched, segmented, or monitored.

Benefit: NDR platforms enables targeted attack surface reduction.

6. Policy Violation Detection

• Detects assets that:

  • Communicate outside of their defined role

  • Use unapproved protocols/ports

  • Bypass segmentation controls

Benefit: Enforces network hygiene and access control.

7. Threat Intelligence-Driven Detection

• Correlates traffic with known bad IPs/domains/indicators.

• Detects external interactions that expand the effective attack surface.

Benefit: Identifies live threats targeting exposed assets.

8. Cloud & Remote Work Visibility

• Monitors cloud-native traffic and remote user connections (VPN, SD-WAN, ZTNA).

• Detects risky or non-compliant behavior outside the traditional perimeter.

Benefit: NDR solutions controls the modern, elastic attack surface.

9.Monitoring Cloud and Remote Activity

• Tracks user and workload activity in cloud environments and remote access platforms.

• Identifies misconfigured or exposed cloud assets.

Benefit: Controls sprawl and surface expansion due to hybrid/remote operations.

Summary: NDRs Role in Attack Surface Control

Would you like:

• A visual attack surface reduction model with Network Detection and Response

• Or an NDR implementation checklist for your environment?

Reach out to NetWitness to get an unmatched NDR solutions to get your organizations network secured frm cyber threats and attacks.