EASM—External Attack Surface Management—is the practice of discovering, monitoring, assessing, and reporting on everything your organisation exposes to the internet. Domains, subdomains, IPs, apps, APIs, cloud. The goal is continuous visibility and risk reduction, not a one-off scan.
Discovery vs. scanning
Discovery means finding what's there: enumerating assets attackers can reach, building a verified map. Scanning is one way to assess those assets for vulnerabilities. But if your "EASM" is only scanning a static list you maintain, you're missing drift—what's new, changed, or gone. Real EASM includes continuous discovery and drift detection.
Why verification matters
Findings without proof don't hold up to auditors, insurers, or post-incident reviews. Verification means only reporting what can be reproduced and validated. That's the difference between "we think you're exposed" and "we verified this endpoint and here's the evidence." For compliance and risk transfer, the latter is non-negotiable.
Summary
EASM done right is attacker-grade discovery plus evidence-grade visibility. Verification and audit-ready deliverables are what make it defensible over time.