Exposure Rating: A New Way To Proactively Boost Web Defenses

Reflectiz has recently unveiled Exposure Rating – a new way to manage website exposure to risks. This article delves into the Reflectiz web security solution, introducing the new Exposure Rating assessment tool and its merits.

Modern websites rely on numerous third-party web apps, trackers, and open-source tools such as tracking pixels, tag managers, and JavaScript frameworks. They offer a convenient and cost-effective way of providing essential functionality without the need for developers to write everything in-house. 

Some of these components are hosted on public Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) while others may originate from unfamiliar third-party servers. The fact that so many of the elements that make up the modern web supply chain are hosted in external locations can introduce additional risks that conventional security measures will sometimes struggle to identify. 

So, if your website ends up leaking customer data because your software was unable to detect a rogue pixel, for instance, the chances of attracting non-compliance penalties under security and privacy legislation (like GDPR, the Cyber Resilience Act, DORA regulations, and CCPA) go up significantly, along with the reputational harm it can bring.

Web Risk Factors

Understanding web risk factors is paramount in today’s digital landscape. With the proliferation of cyber threats and evolving regulatory requirements, identifying and mitigating security and privacy risks has become a pressing concern for organizations worldwide. Web risk factors are abundant, but the most common ones include third-party web app misconfigurations, scripts loaded from public CDNs, unlawful pixel tracking, unauthorized data access to sensitive inputs and supply chain risk. 

The challenge with some of these web risk factors lies in their invisibility to standard security controls, posing significant security and privacy risks with potential devastating consequences for your organization, such as a data breach.

The Reflectiz Solution

The Reflectiz solution helps to eliminate security blind spots through continuous monitoring of all first-, third-, and fourth-party web apps, external domains, and data items. It identifies vulnerabilities and risks within your online infrastructure and gives detailed and comprehensive insights into each threat.

For instance, it can reveal forgotten tracking pixels that may still be collecting user data long after they should have stopped, or malicious e-skimmers hiding within iFrames that are silently siphoning your customers’ credit card information. When the platform identifies these and other risks, it intelligently prioritizes them so that security teams can review and deal with the most important threats first.

Exposure Rating

Building on the platform’s already impressive easy-to-use UI, Reflectiz has introduced a new tool that offers a straightforward risk exposure rating, together with a list of flagged concerns which you can resolve to improve your score. This alone would be valuable enough, but the security assessment tool also lets you compare your score against competitors – leading websites in your industry. By monitoring thousands of top-performing websites across the globe, Reflectiz has amassed a substantial amount of data which has enabled Reflectiz to offer the unique insights shared here. 

Description

Reflectiz conducts continuous monitoring of thousands of websites every day, and by analyzing this comprehensive and dynamically changing dataset, Reflectiz can accurately calculate the web risk exposure rating of any website in context, by converting various risk element scores into a simple metric, and show you how you’re doing compared to your competitors.

The areas considered include web apps (1st-, 3rd-, and 4th-party), external domains, and website security structure.

The rating for each website is expressed as a letter from A (lowest risk) to F (highest risk), based on context, and benchmarked against industry leaders.

Let’s look closer at how the Exposure Rating works. 

How it Works

Reflectiz’s Exposure Rating is calculated by assessing numerous web risk factors in three key categories: Applications, Domains, and Website Security Structure.

Overview

• Applications: You may see different scores for the same web apps on different websites. This is because risk levels can vary between pages. For instance, checkout and login pages are deemed high-risk, whereas standard informational pages are safer. Furthermore, the domains the application communicates with and its executed actions also influence its risk exposure scores.

• Domains: Loading scripts heightens the risk level associated with a domain.

• Website Security Structure: The exposure level fluctuates based on the types of pages involved, with checkout and login pages presenting higher risks than regular pages.

Proactive Improvement Simulator

Reflectiz has developed an improvement simulator to help enhance exposure rating level score. This proactive tool prioritizes actionable items that, once you resolve them, will improve your exposure rating. 

Users can select each suggested action item and the tool shows you the potential score improvement. This tool aids in determining which issues to address first, pointing out those with the greatest potential for improving your score, and highlighting quick wins (if applicable).

Conclusion

Reflectiz’s proactive approach to web security offers a comprehensive solution to the ever-evolving risks present in today’s digital landscape. By continuously monitoring and leveraging innovative technologies, Reflectiz provides unparalleled visibility into web environments, identifying vulnerabilities and risks with precision. 

The introduction of the Exposure Rating system marks a significant milestone, offering organizations a powerful new metric to gauge their susceptibility to web risks and guide their improvement efforts. 

Through ongoing refinement and enhancement of this exposure rating mechanism, Reflectiz ensures that organizations stay ahead of evolving threats, empowering them to navigate the digital landscape with confidence and resilience.