You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. Proactive attack surface management begins with total attack surface visibility, but persistent cybersecurity data blind spots leave organizations vulnerable. Ivanti’s 2025 State of Cybersecurity Report finds that siloed and inaccessible data limits visibility into threats and impedes security efforts and response times.

Cybersecurity professionals report widespread data blind spots

Your organization’s attack surface is made up of all potential physical, digital and human entry points that can be used to access an IT environment — typically for the purpose of launching a cyber attack. Modern attack surfaces are dynamic and expanding, consisting of all connected software, hardware, configurations, servers and applications. And as your attack surface grows, so do the potential gaps in your defenses.

Organizational and data silos cause critical attack surface visibility issues for cybersecurity teams. Security professionals report that incomplete and inaccessible data makes it difficult for them to detect what software employees use (45%), determine vulnerabilities exposing their systems (41%) and identify what devices are accessing their networks and corporate resources (38%). Before you can even begin working to minimize and defend against vulnerabilities, it’s essential to understand where and why common attack surface visibility gaps occur and create a strategy to address these blind spots.

Where are your attack surface visibility blind spots?

There are many attack surface visibility blind spots that security teams often miss.

Security and IT silos

The more devices, systems and assets that make up your attack surface, the more data that attack surface is generating. However, you cannot achieve complete visibility when that data is inaccessible. Ivanti’s 2025 research finds that the majority of organizations (55%) struggle with siloed IT and security data, and these silos make it harder to identify, prioritize and respond to potential exposures.

44% of surveyed security professionals report that it is a “struggle” to manage security risks due to a challenging security / IT relationship. Furthermore, 40% report that their IT and security teams use different tools and this lack of integration further exacerbates the issue.

Shadow IT

Shadow IT is a frequent hidden risk in an organization’s attack surface. Employees often leverage unauthorized solutions for convenience and productivity, not realizing that the lack of IT oversight could compromise security protocols or expose company data. For example, employees using common Cloud-based file sharing services like Google Drive without informing the IT department increases the risk of potential data exposure if targeted by hackers. Other popular AI online tools like ChatGPT or Grammarly may also lack proper security configurations or integration with corporate IT infrastructure.

The rise of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) work — when personal device use isn't monitored and managed by the security and IT department — presents another challenging case of Shadow IT. The use of personal devices such as flash drives and smartphones to store and share sensitive information can leave security teams unaware of potential threats.

Abandoned, unused and legacy assets

Tech debt and tech sprawl are widescale concerns that make it more difficult for security and IT teams to manage and secure their assets. Forgotten or abandoned development projects, outdated legacy applications and redundant tools and solutions all contribute to attack surface expansion and make it more complex and time-consuming to identify, monitor and respond to potential exposures.

Among Ivanti’s survey of security and leadership professionals, 1 in 3 report that tech debt is a serious concern at their organization, and 43% feel that this accumulated tech debt makes their systems more susceptible to security breaches. Concerningly, more than half of surveyed organizations (51%) admit to using software that has reached end of life. When assets that no longer receive regular security updates or patches continue to go undiscovered or ignored it opens up more potential points for attackers to exploit.

Third-party risks

A lack of visibility and accountability for securing third-party vendors is another common blind spot for cybersecurity teams. Modern enterprises rely on numerous other external vendors, software applications and dependencies and all of these components should be treated as an extension of the total attack surface.

However, 37% of security and IT professionals in Ivanti’s report say they lack the data to make informed security decisions regarding vendor-risk management. Moreover, the research finds that most cybersecurity teams do not have standardized processes for evaluating the security of third-party vendors.

For example, just 24% of organizations that label themselves as having an "intermediate" level of cybersecurity maturity required vendors to provide evidence of internal pen testing. And even among organizations with the self-reported highest level of cybersecurity maturity, only 43% require evidence of internal pen testing from vendors.

Consequences of poor attack surface visibility

Threat actors are continuing to develop more sophisticated tools and techniques for seeking out potential weaknesses across organizations’ attack surfaces. According to Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, breaches due to vulnerability exploits were up 180% in 2024, nearly triple the rate from 2023. An attacker’s aim is to quickly find and exploit any gap and your unknown and unmonitored assets may be leaving the door open for them.

Cost of a breach

The financial and reputational impact of a large-scale data breach is damaging — particularly the longer the breach goes undetected and unaddressed. IBM research finds that “data breaches that took more than 200 days to identify and contain had the highest average cost of all incident types at nearly $5.5 million.”

Compliance gaps

Compliance gaps are another consequence of poor attack surface visibility and incomplete asset inventory. Unknown, unmanaged assets often may not meet industry and regulatory compliance standards. If compromised, companies may face hefty non-compliance fees and be legally liable for these violations. Organizations can’t afford to have a reactive strategy that prioritizes remediating risks only after they’ve been targeted by threat actors.

Steps to improve attack surface visibility

As modern attack surfaces continue to expand and threat actors continue to evolve and adapt their techniques, cybersecurity teams must embrace a proactive approach to identify, monitor and mitigate potential threats.

1. Address data silo discovery challenges

Security and IT leaders need a comprehensive data management strategy that leverages cyber asset attack surface management (CAASM) solutions and other business intelligence tools that integrate data across your entire external and digital attack surfaces. Leveraging AI and automation capabilities into the data correlation process allows this data to be automatically aggregated, normalized, deduplicated and presented in a single user interface. AI and automation tools are able to process data at a massive scale that human oversight alone can’t match. By reducing these manual IT and security team tasks, organizations cut down on siloed, redundant processes and free up security and IT resources.

2. Audit your asset inventory

Developing a regimented process to identify and categorize any new or existing asset will allow security teams to better determine where the visibility gaps in their attack surface may be lurking. Conducting an attack surface assessment involves a thorough audit of every kind of cyber asset. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Endpoint devices
  • Mobile devices
  • IoT devices
  • Network devices
  • Internet-facing assets
  • Cloud services and SaaS applications
  • Servers / data center devices
  • Third-party vendors

3. Classify each asset to reveal visibility blind spots

After taking scope of all potential elements, the next assessment step is to take stock of what assets can and cannot be accounted for. This typically can be broken down into the following buckets:

  • Known known: Cyber assets that you know are part of your attack surface.
  • Known unknown: Cyber assets that you know are part of your attack surface but which you may not have visibility of and / or don’t have under management.
  • Unknown unknown: Cyber assets that may or may not be part of your attack surface — you don’t know.

Any “unknown unknowns” represent potential vulnerabilities security teams are currently blind to and need to be identified and addressed.

4. Demystify “unknowns” with External Attack Surface Management

One way organizations can work to close visibility gaps and identify unknown-unknown assets is with an External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solution that continuously scans and monitors public-facing assets, such as domain names, IP addresses and other internet-exposed resources and offers real-time insight into exposures. Using an EASM tool empowers security teams to continuously search for new assets, changes in configurations and potential vulnerabilities. This comprehensive visibility allows organizations to more easily identify unauthorized assets on their network and evaluate and prioritize which risks to remediate.

In addition, having total attack surface visibility allows organizations to better tackle their tech complexity challenges by illuminating abandoned, outdated or duplicate assets that should be removed or consolidated.

To learn more about how to assess your attack surface and shed light on any visibility gaps, get Ivanti’s Attack Surface Checklist.