Full Report
Each Monday, the Tenable Exposure Management Academy provides the practical, real-world guidance you need to shift from vulnerability management to exposure management. In this post, Tenable CIO Patricia Grant looks at how the CIO/CSO relationship is key to a successful exposure management program. You can read the entire Exposure Management Academy series here. When I first joined Tenable, one of the first things I did was sit down with our CSO, Robert Huber, to align on how we were going to work together. In 2024, I was even featured in a WSJ article titled CIOs and CISOs Are ‘Better Together because that’s what it comes down to. We can’t operate in silos. If you’re serious about securing your organization, your IT and security teams have to be tightly linked philosophically and operationally. Exposure management is a great example of where that partnership plays out every day.Risk is shared — and so is the responsibility Let me start with a simple truth: securing the enterprise is a shared responsibility between IT and security. While the CSO defines the strategy and risk posture, IT plays a critical role in execution — from patching systems and deploying controls to maintaining uptime and interpreting security signals.That’s why tight alignment between our teams isn’t optional — it’s essential. We have regular interlocks to ensure we’re making decisions with the same context and urgency. Annual planning isn’t enough anymore. The threat landscape shifts by the quarter — sometimes by the month — so our collaboration has to be constant, responsive and agile.Ultimately, you can’t do exposure management the right way without a strong relationship between the CIO and the CSO. We’re both accountable and responsible for protecting our employees, customers, partners and the company. And we both bring something essential to the table. A single pane of glass beats swivel-chair securityExposure management is a great tool to keep us on track. It gives us a unified view across all our assets, including cloud, on-prem and hybrid. I’m not a fan of “swivel-chair security.” I don’t want my team jumping between tools trying to figure out what to fix first. Exposure management moves us toward a single pane of glass. We can see what matters, what’s critical, what needs to be patched now and what can wait. That kind of visibility is essential when your infrastructure spans everything from data centers and headquarters to home offices and digital nomads working from just about anywhere.Endpoints are the new front lineUnlike data centers or cloud infrastructure, endpoints move with your workforce — and that makes them harder to secure. At Tenable, we’ve taken a firm stance: when a zero-day emerges, patch your device within 24 hours or it’ll be automatically locked.But security doesn’t stop at the office door. No matter where employees are, they’re part of the defense. That’s why we focus on education — not to slow people down, but to empower them to keep the business safe.Exposure management uncovers what you don’t knowWe’ve also learned that managing systems is only part of the battle. You’ve got to worry about identities, access and misconfigurations. And it’s not just about what you know. Exposure management helps you uncover what you don’t know. Things like systems you forgot were running or ports you didn’t realize were open are now visible.The “Oh, no, I didn’t know that port was live” moment happens more often than you’d think. Exposure management finds and closes that down. Prioritizing the right problems is a strategic advantageRisk prioritization is always a looming challenge. The goal isn’t to fix everything. It’s to fix what matters most. Chasing thousands of vulnerabilities without context wastes time and energy. Exposure management helps us shift the conversation from volume to impact.That’s what exposure management solves. Instead of bragging that “we closed 3,000 vulnerabilities,” we can say, “we addressed the 50 that posed real risk.” That’s a fundamental mindset shift for IT teams. And, yes, it comes down to change management.Change management isn’t optional anymoreChange management is underrated, especially in cybersecurity. I’ve always said going live on day one with technology is easy. It’s day two and beyond that’s hard. And in this hybrid, distracted world, traditional methods just don’t cut it. People aren’t reading emails. And they’re half-listening in meetings. So we need new approaches. We go for quick hits, with clear messaging, along with different formats to cater to different learning styles. Cybersecurity is everyone’s job, and reaching everyone means rethinking how we communicate.Speaking the board’s language means translating riskWe need to elevate the conversation. I regularly participate in board-level discussions about cybersecurity, and the key is translating cyber risk into business language. It’s not just about technical debt or patch status anymore. It’s about quantifying risk the same way the CFO quantifies financial exposure. Boards don’t want tech jargon. They want to know: Are we covered? Where are we vulnerable? What’s the worst-case scenario? An exposure management solution helps translate technical complexity into strategic insight.Helping our customers protect what they can’t seeAt Tenable, we take that same philosophy to our customers. Exposure management isn’t just about visibility. It’s about enabling action. I see our job as helping customers answer those questions. Threat exposure management gives our customers clarity into what they need to know. That means knowing the threats that matter, the systems that are exposed and the actions that will make a difference. You can’t protect what you are not aware of as a risk. And in a world where the attack surface is constantly expanding and evolving — whether it’s AI, autonomous vehicles or just more remote workers — you need to see everything. You need a single pane of glass.TakeawaysUltimately, you can’t do exposure management the right way without a strong relationship between the CIO and the CSO. We’re both accountable and responsible for protecting our employees, customers, partners and the company. And we both bring something essential to the table. So, my advice to fellow CIOs: Stay close to your CSO. Build trust. Share responsibility. And make sure your teams are operating from the same playbook. Because in cybersecurity, the stakes are too high to go it alone.Have a question about exposure management you’d like us to tackle?We’re all ears. Share your question and maybe we’ll feature it in a future post. MktoForms2.loadForm("//info.tenable.com", "934-XQB-568", 14070);
Analysis Summary
# Best Practices: Executive Alignment and Actionable Exposure Management
## Overview
These practices focus on integrating the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Security Officer (CSO) roles to establish a unified, proactive, and measurable approach to cybersecurity, specifically through holistic Exposure Management. The goal is to move beyond siloed vulnerability management to actively prevent likely attacks using shared responsibility and clear communication.
## Key Recommendations
### Immediate Actions
1. **Establish Joint Executive Ownership:** The CIO and CSO must agree to share responsibility for cyber risk outcomes, moving away from siloed reporting structures for security posture.
2. **Standardize Critical Metrics:** Immediately align on a single, common set of metrics (e.g., Exposure Score, Attack Path Visibility) that both executives will use to evaluate security effectiveness and report to the board.
3. **Mandate Common Tooling/Playbook:** Ensure that security and IT operational teams are using the same foundational platform and adhering to a shared escalation and remediation playbook.
### Short-term Improvements (1-3 months)
1. **Implement Attack Path Analysis:** Deploy tools capable of analyzing complex attack paths across the extended digital footprint (Cloud, Vulnerabilities, Identities, OT/IoT).
2. **Prioritize Remediation Based on Business Impact:** Shift vulnerability remediation prioritization away from CVSS scores in isolation toward risk that directly impacts critical business processes identified through attack path mapping.
3. **Integrate Cloud Security Posture:** Integrate Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) with traditional vulnerability scanning tools to gain unified visibility across hybrid environments.
### Long-term Strategy (3+ months)
1. **Mature Exposure Management Program:** Formalize the Exposure Management program to continuously anticipate attacks, reduce measurable risk, and communicate cyber risk in financial or operational terms acceptable to business leadership.
2. **Drive Digital Transformation via Security Integration:** Ensure security initiatives (led by the CSO’s team) are tightly integrated into the CIO’s digital transformation and modernization projects from the design phase (Security by Design).
3. **Cultivate Cross-Functional Mentorship:** Institute shared training or mentorship programs where IT operations staff gain cybersecurity context and security staff gain operational understanding, fostering empathy and shared goals.
## Implementation Guidance
### For Small Organizations
- **Focus on Foundational Visibility:** Prioritize implementing a unified scanner that can cover core assets (endpoints, network devices) and essential cloud environments to establish a baseline exposure view.
- **Maximize Automation:** Leverage automated processes for basic patching and configuration management to free up limited personnel resources for higher-value risk analysis.
- **Leverage Existing Relationships:** Since the CIO/CSO roles might be combined or the team small, mandate weekly check-ins focused solely on risk review rather than operational status.
### For Medium Organizations
- **Adopt an Exposure Management Platform:** Begin the evaluation and deployment process for a platform that consolidates data from vulnerability, cloud, identity, and attack surface management efforts into a single risk view.
- **Establish Service Level Objectives (SLOs) for Risk Reduction:** Define clear, measurable SLOs that bridge the gap between identified exposure and remediation time, agreed upon by both IT and Security leadership.
- **Implement Just-in-Time (JIT) Access Controls:** For cloud environments, deploy JIT access solutions to minimize standing privileges, which broadens the scope of identity exposure risk.
### For Large Enterprises
- **Implement Comprehensive Attack Path Modeling:** Roll out advanced capabilities to map multi-stage attack paths across IT, OT/IoT environments, and interconnected cloud assets.
- **Formalize Governance Structure:** Create a formal governing body, chaired jointly by the CIO and CSO, responsible for quarterly reviews of organizational risk posture, investment justification, and policy enforcement across IT domains.
- **Integrate Open Source Security Scanning:** Integrate tooling for scanning open-source components (Software Composition Analysis - SCA) into the development pipeline to manage supply chain exposure proactively.
## Configuration Examples
*While the text did not provide specific command-line configurations, the concepts point toward platform capabilities:*
| Area | Configuration Goal | Relevant Tool Category |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **Vulnerability Management** | Prioritize remediation based on the existence of an active, exploitable attack path against high-value assets, rather than just CVSS score. | Vulnerability Management (TVM) with Attack Path Analysis |
| **Cloud Security** | Automate the discovery and remediation/right-sizing of excessive cloud infrastructure entitlements. | Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) |
| **Access Control** | Ensure standing administrative access to critical resources is replaced with time-bound, justification-required access. | Just in Time (JIT) Access Solutions |
## Compliance Alignment
The move toward formalized Exposure Management inherently supports compliance frameworks by focusing remediation on real, measurable risk:
- **NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF):** Directly addresses the Identify, Protect, and Respond functions by requiring comprehensive asset inventory, risk assessment, and proactive defense planning.
- **ISO/IEC 27001:** Supports the requirement for defining procedures to manage technology risks systematically, especially operational technology (OT) and cloud environments.
- **CIS Controls:** Aligns with Controls focusing on Continuous Vulnerability Management and Controlled Access to Systems.
## Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- **Siloed Measurement:** Allowing IT and Security teams to report on separate, conflicting sets of metrics (e.g., IT focusing on patch compliance percentage while Security focuses on critical exploitable gaps).
- **Focusing Only on Known Vulnerabilities:** Ignoring exposure introduced via misconfigurations, excessive cloud permissions, or unmanaged shadow IT/OT assets.
- **Treating Security as purely a CSO Problem:** The CIO must own the remediation execution timeline and resource allocation, as security fixes often require core IT changes.
- **Lack of Trust:** Failing to build trust between the CIO and CSO, leading to hidden technical debt or incomplete data sharing.
## Resources
- **Exposure Management Platform:** Tools offering unified visibility across Vulnerability, Cloud, OT/IoT, and Identity exposures (e.g., Tenable One).
- **Attack Path Analysis Tools:** Capabilities designed to connect dots between vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and exposed identities to simulate exploits.
- **Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM):** Solutions for maintaining security baselines in cloud environments.
- **Tenable's Subscription Center:** (Used for context, not required for action) A resource for managing communications preferences.