The persistent surge in cyberattacks demands a transformative approach to security operations. While traditional Security Operations Centers (SOCs) excel at detecting active threats, a critical piece of the puzzle is often missing: understanding the organization’s full risk exposure. By 2028, it’s ambitious but achievable to significantly reduce the volume and impact of successful breaches, potentially cutting them in half, by fundamentally changing how the SOC operates.
The key lies in enriching SOC data with comprehensive exposure intelligence. This means integrating data not just on detected threats, but also on vulnerabilities, asset criticality, configuration weaknesses, and potential attack paths within the environment. When analysts see an alert, they don’t just see a malicious IP; they instantly see which vulnerable systems it might target, the potential business impact, and whether existing security controls are misconfigured.
This fusion of threat data and exposure data provides unparalleled context. It allows security teams to move beyond reactive firefighting and prioritize alerts based on true business risk. Instead of chasing every notification, they can focus resources on the threats that pose the greatest danger to the most critical assets. Furthermore, this insight enables a shift towards proactive security, allowing teams to identify and remediate exposure gaps before they are exploited by attackers.
Transforming the SOC into an exposure-aware operation enhances detection accuracy, reduces alert fatigue, and most importantly, shrinks the attacker’s window of opportunity. By understanding and actively reducing the organization’s attack surface, security teams can dramatically improve their defenses. Achieving a substantial reduction in successful cyberattacks by 2028 is within reach for organizations that embrace this essential evolution in cybersecurity strategy.
Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/06/30/plextrac-data-exposure-management/
