What Is External Risk Management?

External risk management is a cybersecurity strategy that protects organizations from cyber threats beyond their internal networks. It identifies and mitigates risks like impersonation attacks, data leaks, third-party risks, and deep web threats. External risk management protects the customer’s infrastructure and brand reputation, and supports regulatory compliance.

External Attack Surface Assessment 2025 Cyber Security Report

Importance of Managing External Risks

Organizations must manage both internal risks and external ones, as neglecting to do so can lead to severe consequences beyond technical issues.

Protecting Brand Reputation: Unmanaged external attacks can damage organizational reputation and erode customer trust. For instance, impersonation attacks can trick customers into sharing sensitive information on phishing sites, which may damage both parties.
Ensuring Compliance with Cybersecurity Frameworks: Identifying and patching external vulnerabilities, combating fraud, and leveraging IoC feeds in security tools like firewalls, SIEM, and SOAR are required by many cyber regulations globally. Achieving and following frameworks like NIST CSF 2.0, ISO 27001, or Gartner’s CTEM model is central to effectively managing risk and staying secure.
Minimizing Financial Losses: The financial impact of security breaches can be catastrophic, even posing a threat to continued business operations. Effective external cybersecurity risk management helps to reduce these losses by preventing or minimizing the potential impact of external attacks.

Types of External Risks

Recognizing external threats enables your organisation to use the price mitigation strategy and stay safe. That said, here are the most common types of external risks:

Impersonation Attacks: These attacks involve exploiting trust through phishing sites, fake social media profiles, or malicious apps, leading to unauthorized data disclosure and account takeovers.
Data Leaks & Exposed Credentials: Inadequate security measures result in compromised databases or exposed credentials. Inadequate security can result in unauthorized access to sensitive information, leading to fraud and other negative consequences.
Third-Party Risks: These risks, including supply chain vulnerabilities, arise when organizations depend on third-party vendors for critical functions like data processing, customer engagement, or security. Relationships or integrations with careless third-party vendors can lead to supply chain attacks and other security issues.
Deep & Dark Web Threats: Criminal marketplaces operating in deep web and dark web websites often trade in stolen data, tools, and exploits. These dark web markets offer a range of illicit goods and services, including exploit kits, which can be used to compromise company assets.
Misconfigurations & Unpatched CVEs: Unsecured or outdated internet-facing systems expose organizations to severe cybersecurity risks. Mistakes or inadequate configurations can leave vulnerabilities open to exploitation by attackers, who can then use these vulnerabilities to launch attacks.

Strategies for Mitigating External Risks

Maintaining a comprehensive inventory of all digital assets is essential for effective risk management. This includes identifying the type, criticality, owner, and location of each system.

Use automation wherever possible to more efficiently identify and catalog them.

Continuous external attack surface management can help prioritize patching efforts based on risk level and exploit availability. Implement a dedicated patch management process for timely updates to minimize the impact of identified vulnerabilities.

Next, continuously monitor and analyze cyber threats by integrating threat intelligence from diverse sources to enhance detection and response capabilities. This involves:

Integrating it into existing security tools like security information and event management (SIEM) systems
Monitoring the deep/dark web for malicious activity

Collaborate with domain registrars, hosting providers, and social media platforms to remove infringing material, and report attempted social engineering attacks to relevant platforms. Also, thoroughly assess the security practices of third-party vendors to minimize potential risks. This includes measuring and monitoring the:

Breach history
Targeting level
Adherence to security hygiene best practices
Cybersecurity posture of each third-party

Implementing these strategies lets you effectively reduce risk exposure to external threats and secure assets.

5 Best Practices for External Risk Management

Adopt these best practices to effectively manage external risks:

Attack Surface Reduction: Automate regular scans for potential exposure. Disable unnecessary services and ports, and restrict network access with security controls like firewalls and intrusion protection systems (IPS). Zero-trust architecture is recommended to strengthen internal access control. Secure exposed assets promptly to minimize risk.
Continuous Risk Assessment: Conduct regular, comprehensive risk assessments using both automated and manual methods. Consider using third-party risk management services. Continuously monitor threat intelligence feeds for emerging threats, malware reports, and vulnerabilities.
Integration in Security Infrastructure: Integrate external risk management into existing security tools like SIEMs, intrusion detection systems (IDS), web application firewalls (WAFs), and vulnerability scanners to enhance overall threat visibility and response capabilities. Ensure the incident response plan includes both internal and external threats, and encourage staff development by conducting regular training on external risk management within security awareness programs.
Stakeholder Communication: Establish clear communication channels between IT, cybersecurity teams, and business units. Facilitate input from business units during system deployments and upgrades to ensure collaborative incident response. Encourage security awareness throughout the organization.
Incident Response (IR) Planning: Develop an IR plan for both internal and external threats that details roles, responsibilities, communication protocols, and resources, and establish a dedicated team to manage incidents effectively. Maintain up-to-date contact information for key personnel involved in incident response and ensure readily available tools, documentation, and resources for swift mitigation of attacks.

Implementing these practices allows organizations to build a strong external risk management program to identify, mitigate, and respond to threats targeting relevant systems.

External Risk Management with Check Point

Understanding the interplay between internal and external risks, along with implementing best practices such as asset management, vulnerability patching, threat intelligence, and third-party risk assessments, enables organizations to strengthen defenses against external threats and protect key assets.

Infinity External Risk Management provides a comprehensive defense against external threats targeting internet-facing assets.

The solution combines attack surface management, threat intelligence, supply chain monitoring, and deep/dark web surveillance to significantly reduce the attack surface, minimize data breaches, and safeguard assets. Experience the capabilities of External Risk Management for yourself.

Request a demo today to see how Check Point can strengthen your organization’s defenses.