2021 Cortex Xpanse Attack Surface Threat Report

Malicious actors are opportunistic predators, constantly searching for vulnerable targets. Unfortunately, adversaries are much faster at finding vulnerable assets to attack than defenders are at finding those same assets to secure. It’s not just an arms race in terms of conducting cyberattacks and protecting against them. There’s also a sprint to detect systems vulnerable to cyberthreats.

To help enterprises gain ground, the Palo Alto Networks Cortex® Xpanse™ research team studied the public-facing internet attack surface of some of the world’s largest businesses. From January to March 2021, Xpanse monitored scans of 50 million IP addresses associated with 50 global enterprises, including a subset of the Fortune 500, to understand how quickly adversaries can identify vulnerable systems for exploitation.

In this report, Xpanse shares their key findings, information on the top threats in attack surface management, and insights on how to ensure your organization is secure.