Dictionary · Cybersecurity Fundamentals
Attack Surface
Design · Intermediate
The set of points where an unauthorized person could try to enter, influence, or extract data. It includes exposed services, accounts, applications, and physical access.
The more services, accounts, and open doors you expose, the more places you must defend. Reducing it means turning off what you do not need.
Example: Closing an unused remote-desktop port and removing old admin accounts both shrink the attack surface.
Common misconception
- It is not a single firewall setting. It is the whole collection of ways in.