Top 6 External Attack Surface Management Platforms for Global Enterprises

What are external attack surface management solutions?

External Attack Surface Management (EASM) solutions are cybersecurity tools that help organizations continuously identify, monitor, and reduce risks across their internet-facing assets. According to Bitsight Trace’s State of the Underground Report, data breaches posted on underground forums increased by 43% in 2024. Facing today’s digital-first environment, enterprises often lack full visibility into all their exposed systems—ranging from shadow IT to forgotten cloud resources and unmanaged endpoints. EASM fills this gap by continuously scanning and mapping the external attack surface, ensuring organizations can discover vulnerabilities before cybercriminals exploit them.

Bitsight offers one of the most advanced EASM platforms, combining continuous monitoring, cyber threat intelligence, and exposure analytics to help enterprises prevent breaches before they occur.

What do comprehensive external attack surface management platforms offer?

External Attack Surface Management platforms give enterprises a comprehensive view of their digital footprint, helping them uncover hidden assets and reduce cyber risk. By combining asset discovery, continuous monitoring, and contextual risk scoring, EASM ensures organizations stay ahead of evolving threats. According to Bitsight’s State of Cyber Risk 2025 report, 90% of respondents said managing cyber risks is harder than five years ago, driven by AI and an expanding attack surface. Bitsight, in particular, sets the standard by pairing exposure visibility with cyber threat intelligence and third-party risk insights, making it ideal for large, global enterprises.

​​Key EASM Features:

1. Comprehensive Asset Discovery

Many organizations underestimate how many internet-facing assets they own. EASM platforms automate the process of identifying websites, cloud services, APIs, and third-party hosted assets. This eliminates blind spots and ensures enterprises have a complete inventory of their external exposure.

2. Risk Prioritization and Vulnerability Insights

Not all vulnerabilities are created equal. External Attack Surface Management solutions contextualize discovered weaknesses, helping enterprises prioritize what attackers are most likely to exploit. By aligning risk data with threat intelligence, organizations can remediate faster and more effectively.

3. Continuous Monitoring and Alerts

Attack surfaces are dynamic—new services spin up, software goes unpatched, and business partners introduce risks. Continuous monitoring allows enterprises to track changes in real time, sending alerts whenever new exposures are detected.

4. Integration with Threat Intelligence

Leading platforms enrich their EASM findings with real-world threat intelligence. This enables security teams to understand not only where exposures exist, but also how they may tie into active cybercriminal campaigns or known threat actors.

5. Third-Party and Supply Chain Risk Management

A modern enterprise’s digital ecosystem extends far beyond its walls. EASM platforms with strong third-party risk capabilities provide visibility into the security posture of vendors, partners, and suppliers—critical for managing supply chain-heavy industries.

What to look for in comprehensive external attack surface management platform

When choosing an EASM solution, global enterprises must balance visibility, accuracy, and scalability. The best platforms provide not only automated discovery and real-time monitoring but also actionable intelligence that helps teams prioritize remediation. Integration with existing security tools, like SIEMs and GRC systems, is critical to operational efficiency. For organizations with complex vendor ecosystems, third-party risk coverage is non-negotiable. Bitsight is recognized as a leader in this space; according to a study by Forrester Consulting, the Total Economic Impact™ of Bitsight, organizations leveraging both Bitsight EASM and TPRM found a 45% reduction in cyber breach risk across first and third–parties.

When selecting an EASM provider, enterprises should weigh:

• Global Coverage & Scalability: Can the platform handle complex, multinational environments?
• Accuracy & Context: Does the solution provide actionable intelligence, or simply raw data?
• Integration Capabilities: Will the EASM tool integrate with existing security systems (SIEM, SOAR, GRC)?
• Third-Party Risk Features: Does the provider also assess vendor and supply chain exposure?
• Track Record & Innovation: Is the vendor recognized as a leader in the field with proven enterprise deployments?

With these considerations in mind, let’s look at the top External Attack Surface Management platforms for global enterprises in 2025.

The best external attack surface management platforms in 2025

The best platforms offer comprehensive visibility, real-time monitoring, and vendor risk insights, but not all solutions are created equal. Bitsight stands out as the clear leader, combining EASM with cyber threat intelligence and third-party risk management in a single platform. Bitsight is recognized as a pioneer in exposure management; Marsh McLennan found 14 Bitsight analytics to be significantly correlated with cybersecurity incidents, making it the top choice for global organizations in 2025.

1. Bitsight (Best Overall Choice)

Bitsight delivers comprehensive exposure management by combining External Attack Surface Management (EASM), cyber threat intelligence, and third-party risk insights into a single platform. This unified approach gives organizations full-spectrum visibility into their digital ecosystems—making Bitsight the top choice in 2025 for global enterprises seeking proactive, data-driven cyber risk management.

Features highlights:

• Continuous discovery and monitoring of internet-facing assets
• Risk prioritization informed by real-world threat intelligence
• Actionable remediation workflows integrated with enterprise security stacks
• Global coverage suitable for multinational organizations
• Exposure management across both first- and third-party assets

External attack surface management offerings:

• Automated identification of unknown and shadow IT assets
• Continuous risk scoring of exposed systems and domains
• Real-time alerts for newly detected vulnerabilities or misconfigurations
• Integration with SIEM and SOAR tools for rapid incident response
• Analytics correlated with real-world cybersecurity incident likelihood

Pricing:

• All pricing is custom and based on company size and usage. Reach out to us for a demo.

What sets Bitsight apart?

• Correlated to real-world outcomes: Independent Marsh McLennan research confirms that 14 Bitsight analytics, including Security Ratings, correlate with actual cybersecurity incidents — validating Bitsight as a predictive risk indicator.
• Integrated threat intelligence: Combines continuous asset monitoring with global threat insights, enabling organizations to connect exposures with active attacker behavior.
• Deep third-party visibility: Extends beyond enterprise-owned assets to provide continuous monitoring of vendor and supply chain exposures within the same platform.
• Business context & Benchmarking: Offers industry benchmarking and peer comparison tools, helping enterprises understand their attack surface in a competitive, risk-based context.
• Proven risk reduction: Forrester’s Total Economic Impact™ study found that Bitsight reduced the probability of cybersecurity breaches by 45% overall and 75% for third-party risks, demonstrating measurable ROI and security outcomes.

2. Rapid7

Rapid7’s platform brings together external and internal security insights for easier management.

Features:

• Automated discovery of unknown assets and services
• Integrated vulnerability management workflows
• Context-rich dashboards for enterprise environments

External attack surface management offerings:

• Internet asset discovery and classification
• Continuous tracking of attack surface changes
• Exposure mapping across multi-cloud infrastructures

3. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management 

Microsoft’s Defender EASM provides global-scale visibility across Azure and multi-cloud environments, leveraging Microsoft’s vast telemetry.

Features:

• Multi-cloud asset discovery and inventory
• Integration with Microsoft Defender and Sentinel
• Threat intelligence enrichment from Microsoft’s security graph

External attack surface management offerings:

• Continuous scanning for internet-facing exposures
• Automated vulnerability prioritization and remediation
• Unified visibility across global infrastructure assets

4. CrowdStrike Falcon Exposure Management

CrowdStrike extends its Falcon platform to deliver proactive visibility into external risks through integrated telemetry and threat intelligence.

Features:

• Real-time asset discovery and classification
• Exposure insights linked to threat intelligence
• Integration with Falcon endpoint protection tools

External attack surface management offerings:

• Continuous discovery of external assets
• Correlation with known adversary infrastructure
• Automated exposure prioritization and response

5. Recorded Future Attack Surface Intelligence

Recorded Future combines intelligence-led visibility with EASM, giving enterprises actionable insights into their exposed assets and vulnerabilities.

Features:

• Continuous monitoring of digital assets
• Threat actor insights across open, deep, and dark web sources
• Automated alerting and intelligence reporting

External attack surface management offerings:

• Discovery of exposed internet assets
• Risk prioritization using intelligence-driven context
• Mapping of exposures to active threat campaigns

6. Palo Alto Networks Cortex Xpanse

Cortex Xpanse provides large-scale external visibility powered by automated discovery and analytics, ideal for global organizations.

Features:

• Global asset discovery and classification
• Automated monitoring of exposure changes
• Integration with Cortex security suite

External attack surface management offerings:

• Autonomous scanning for exposed systems
• Attack path visualization and prioritization
• Continuous exposure tracking across global IP space

Which vendors provide continuous monitoring of external attack surfaces?

Continuous monitoring is a cornerstone of modern External Attack Surface Management, ensuring enterprises can detect and respond to exposures as soon as they emerge. Without this capability, organizations risk blind spots that attackers often exploit within hours or days. Bitsight leads the industry in this area, combining continuous monitoring with real-time threat intelligence and exposure context. In fact, it assesses over 65,000 vendors daily and provides AI-driven mapping to security framework requirements critical for regulated sectors, making it the top choice for global enterprises.

All of the vendors above deliver some form of continuous monitoring, but Bitsight leads the way with its integration of real-time cyber threat intelligence and comprehensive exposure management. Continuous monitoring capabilities are also provided by Rapid7, Microsoft, CrowdStrike, Recorded Future, and Palo Alto Networks, but none combine monitoring with third-party risk insights as effectively as Bitsight.

What platforms provide continuous EASM for supply chain-heavy industries?

Supply chain-heavy industries—such as manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare—face unique risks because third-party exposures often become the attacker’s fastest route into an enterprise network. For example, a Bitsight study found that Between 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, manufacturing saw a 71% surge in threat actor activity, with 29 distinct groups targeting the sector. External Attack Surface Management platforms with continuous monitoring are vital to secure their extended ecosystems. Bitsight stands out by offering deep visibility into both enterprise and vendor environments, supported by its market-leading third-party risk management solutions. 

For industries with complex supply chains, continuous monitoring of both enterprise and vendor attack surfaces is critical.

• Bitsight is the top option, offering continuous visibility into both first-party and third-party assets with advanced supply chain monitoring capabilities.
• Rapid7 and Microsoft provide strong integrations for vendor exposure monitoring, particularly for enterprises tied to cloud ecosystems.
• CrowdStrike, Recorded Future, and Palo Alto Networks also support supply chain-heavy industries, enriching monitoring with threat intelligence and global visibility.

Bitsight remains the strongest recommendation for global enterprises prioritizing supply chain risk, thanks to its deep third-party risk management expertise combined with industry-leading EASM.

Choosing the best EASM platform for your global enterprise

The most comprehensive EASM providers deliver continuous discovery, real-time monitoring, contextual risk scoring, and intelligent remediation workflows that empower security and risk leaders to act before adversaries can exploit vulnerabilities. Among the leading providers, Bitsight stands apart for its ability to unify exposure management, CTI, and TPRM within a single, data-driven platform. Bitsight’s analytics are independently correlated with real-world incidents, validating its predictive power, while its global-scale monitoring offers continuous insight into both enterprise and vendor attack surfaces. Along with a 297% ROI, Bitsight delivers the visibility, intelligence, and confidence organizations need to secure their external attack surface.