Who better to talk about the value of a solution than the folks who actually use it?
As part of the recent Total Economic Impact of Censys External Attack Surface Management study, Forrester Consulting independently interviewed Censys customers to learn more about the business value they achieve with our Censys EASM solution. The big takeaway: the composite Censys customer unlocks $3.19 million in total business savings and a 444% return on investment.
(You can read up on the specific quantified benefits that Forrester calculated in their full report.)
Importantly, Forrester features direct quotes from customer interviews when describing each quantified business benefit. These customer voices, along with the customer stories our own team encounter every day, help round out an understanding of the full impact that Censys EASM delivers, and adds color to why security teams across industries choose Censys.
Why did customers need an EASM solution?
We know that security teams are increasingly challenged to identify, understand, and effectively protect all of their organization’s digital assets. Forrester finds that though 77% of organizations surveyed say they have a strong and clear inventory of systems, 53% say they don’t understand the purpose or value of those assets. Multi-cloud environments and rapidly expanding attack surfaces make it challenging to keep tabs on all that a company owns – and attackers are exploiting these poorly-managed assets in all sorts of new and sophisticated ways.
Censys External Attack Surface Management’s automated, continuous attack surface discovery, management, and prioritization of both known and unknown assets on the attack surface gives teams the full visibility they need to protect against threats.
In speaking with customers, Forrester found that common challenges prior to EASM included:
Challenge: Manual processes that were point-in-time and required greater employee effort
“We’d go out individually and query [the same sources as Censys], but the issue we were having was [that] we might do that once a year.” – Technical director for security architecture insurance, aerospace and defense
Challenge: Lack of visibility and comprehensiveness mapping external assets
“Having the ability to see [our attack surface] and the changes in our posture…provides a unique sense of confidence. [Censys is] flexible and well-documented, which makes a huge difference.” – Director, cyber command center, technology insurance
Challenge: Merger and acquisition activity exposing the company to shadow IT vulnerabilities
“I think anybody that says shadow IT is not an issue at their organization maybe has their head in the sand a little bit.” – Director, cyber command center, technology insurance
How do customers say they benefit from EASM?
Interviews with Censys customers led Forrester to identify six different quantified benefits of Censys EASM. Customer sentiment about some of these benefits are captured below. You can learn more about all six of the quantified benefits (along with a number of unquantified benefits) and the customer perspectives Forrester captured in the full report.
More efficient asset discovery & assessment:
Forrester found that the composite Censys customer benefitted from a 30% increase in asset discovery and assessment efficiency. That translates to greater visibility, more efficient use of resources, and a total three-year, risk-adjusted present value of $269,000.
“I can now get [data] in 30 minutes where I wouldn’t have been able to get it at all. I would have had to create a program to list every IP address owned, which is enormous.” – Senior security engineer, cloud communications
“[Censys] is doing all sorts of scans every day, so the data is updated everyday. [This is] something less for the [analyst] team to do.” – Director of vulnerability management, market research and consulting
Savings on security assessments for mergers and acquisitions:
Customers said they gained confidence in their M&A activity as a result of Censys EASM’s ability to quickly find and categorize information around assets and vulnerabilities, resulting in a three-year, risk-adjusted present value of $267,000.
“We have a much better understanding of the assets associated with us out there – with our subsidiaries, with our joint ventures.” – Technical director for security architecture insurance, aerospace, and defense
“[Censys] definitely gives you a bit more comfort when you’re acquiring [a company and know] what you’re stepping into and what you’re absorbing.” – Senior security engineer, cloud communications
Less time spent investigating false positives:
Outdated, inaccurate data about potential risks sends analysts chasing dead-ends, when they could be focused on addressing the risks that actually pose a threat to the organization. The data that powers Censys EASM reduced false positives for the composite customer by 70%, resulting in a three-year, risk adjusted present value of $763,000.
“Every time I wanted to report on anything [before Censys], I’d have to double- and triple-check that it was really us. Because you lose a lot of credibility when you go out to someone and say, ‘Look, I found this. It’s insecure. It’s ours.’ And [then] it is not. Today, I can trust the data.” – Senior security engineer, cloud communications
“Since we have more confidence in the tool, we can actually respond more quickly because we’re not reaching out about [false] alerts nearly as much.” – Director, cyber command center, technology insurance
“[Censys] had much less false positives for us. Censys was able to keep a lot of noise out of our attack surface and made my life easier because of that.” -Senior security engineer, cloud communications
Explore more customer stories in our on-demand TEI webinar
Stream the Total Economic Impact™ of Censys EASM: Analyst Deep Dive webinar to learn more about our customers’ stories and sentiments, including insights about:
- The Censys customer in software who saves up to 45 hours a month thanks to EASM’s automation
- The Censys customer in business services who reduced the size of their attack surface by 71%
- The Censys customer in healthcare tech that drastically reduced their number of false positives
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