Have you ever left your home without checking if all the windows were closed? And have you ever sat in the office wondering whether you turned off the stove? When it comes to our own homes, most of us care a lot about safety.

But what about corporate IT? Have you turned off the virtual stove and secured all doors and windows against unauthorized access? Do you even know how many doors and windows exist in your IT environment? In other words, can you trust that the data in your CMDB (Configuration Management Database) is accurate and reliable?

What CMDB accuracy has to do with windows and stoves

Leaving your home with peace of mind means knowing that nothing has been overlooked. Open doors and windows create opportunities for burglars. A stove left on can cause serious damage. Cheap electronics left plugged in waste energy and may even introduce fire risks. Even small things matter, whether it’s the smart socket under the couch or the tiny basement window.

Just like your home, all IT assets exposed to the internet require continuous and consistent attention. Making sure all windows and doors are closed means ensuring that your IT systems, including the entire multi-cloud environment, have no open access points for unauthorized users. Turning off your virtual stove means uninstalling unused applications and orphaned services that consume resources unnecessarily while expanding the attack surface.

However, the comparison quickly reaches its limits. Unlike doors, windows, and kitchen appliances at home, which rarely change, corporate IT environments evolve constantly. New applications are added, workloads move to the cloud, development teams spin up test systems, and DevOps engineers create temporary endpoints. It’s almost as if you came home in the evening to discover that your living room and kitchen suddenly had a few extra windows.

You might think, “That’s why we have a CMDB, and it’s regularly maintained.” That is a good point. But do you really have an inventory of every window, door, and appliance? Can you see whether a stove is now behind one of the new windows and whether a draft could turn a curtain into a fire hazard?

How reliable is your CMDB?

It’s unlikely that your CMDB fully covers all used and unused local and cloud applications. Maintaining a truly accurate CMDB in a highly dynamic IT environment takes a lot of effort. Cloud components follow different update and deployment processes than traditional IT systems.

Another important factor affecting CMDB accuracy and quality is shadow IT. Many employees use applications without IT being aware of them. Gartner predicts that by 2027, three out of four employees will acquire, modify, or create technology outside IT visibility. In 2022, it was only four out of ten employees. Shadow IT is growing rapidly and entirely bypassing the CMDB.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating this trend. Employees often use generative AI tools to summarize documents quickly or draft emails. According to Microsoft research, 71% of UK employees have used unapproved AI tools at work, with 51% using them weekly.

The unknown blind spot

All of this happens outside the view of your CMDB and security team. Shadow IT, shadow AI, and other unknowns form a blind spot, a part of your IT environment that is not only unseen but whose exact location and scope are unknown.

This blind spot matters because security measures and tools like endpoint protection, penetration tests, or vulnerability management rely on knowing which doors, windows, and appliances exist and might pose a risk.

For attackers, that blind spot is a gift and an entry point into your network. Cybercriminals who find a previously unnoticed open door can gain initial access, move undetected, escalate privileges, steal sensitive data, disrupt operations, or introduce malware. They know what to look for, such as outdated or unpatched software.

Getting employees on board

If your CMDB is a blunt tool for cybersecurity, what are the more effective foundations for protecting your IT environment? On one hand, it’s crucial to minimize shadow IT. On the other hand, you need a current overview of your actual IT landscape and all internet-exposed local and cloud resources.

Employees must be regularly trained to limit unauthorized use of applications, devices, and services. User-friendly IT solutions and practical training reduce the tendency to adopt “alternative solutions.” Policies must clearly define which applications, devices, and services are allowed. This is particularly important for AI usage. According to the IBM Cost of Data Breach Report, 97% of companies that experienced AI-related incidents had no proper AI access controls.

Getting a complete view of all exposed assets

You can get a constantly up-to-date view of your entire external attack surface using External Attack Surface Management (EASM) tools. These tools automatically inventory all internet-accessible resources, including those previously overlooked or forgotten. This includes:

• IP addresses
• Domains and subdomains
• Cloud instances
• Shadow IT resources
• Third-party services
• Forgotten development servers, staging environments, and cloud buckets

This allows your security team to discover exposed assets not yet recorded in the CMDB. EASM tools also provide risk assessments and help you prioritize remediation based on severity. Not all vulnerabilities carry the same risk. Critical vulnerabilities can be addressed immediately, while less urgent ones can be scheduled later. External web servers hosting customer data have high priority, while old subdomains are less critical.

Install a virtual alarm system

Mapping all windows, doors, and devices with EASM is only half the story. Equally important is knowing who is around your house and what tools they have. In other words, it’s essential to know the current threats.

Digital Risk Protection (DRP) monitors external threats to your IT environment by continuously scanning the dark web, social media, and data leak sites for mentions of your organization. DRP platforms can detect if stolen credentials are offered for sale, attacks against your infrastructure are discussed, or impersonation of your brand occurs. Instant alerts ensure immediately, so you can respond rapidly to mitigate risk.

Strengthening your cyber defenses with integrated EASM and DRP

EASM and DRP tools automate the essential measures for proactive monitoring of your external attack surface and potential cyber threats, helping you pre-empt costly incidents. Outpost24’s Compass DRP solution combines EASM with comprehensive DRP in a single, fully integrated solution. By also incorporating Threat Intelligence, it assesses the actual risk to your assets and identifies whether vulnerabilities are being exploited elsewhere.

CompassDRP provides continuous visibility across your digital footprint and related risks, while clear dashboards offer your team a focused overview of all security-relevant data. This intelligence-based risk prioritization ensures your team can focus on the most critical vulnerabilities first.

Learn how CompassDRP from Outpost24 can help protect your exposed assets by booking a live demo today.