The Challenge

Visibility Gaps and Remediation Priorities

Securing a large Italian Public Sector organization is a challenging task. The primary obstacles were rooted in a fundamental lack of clarity regarding the true threat landscape and how to effectively allocate limited resources. As Matteo C., the Head of Security Operations, stated, “Our main challenges were visibility gaps in attack paths and difficulty prioritizing weaknesses amid resource constraints.”

These critical gaps meant the security team struggled to identify and understand the most dangerous routes an attacker could take, making it nearly impossible to determine which exposures genuinely mattered. The traditional approach was no longer sustainable; the team urgently required a solution that could provide continuous risk assessment and establish clear, data-driven priorities to efficiently and effectively shrink the attack surface. They needed to move beyond simply identifying vulnerabilities and towards understanding and mitigating actual cyber risk.

The Solution: 

From Reactive to Proactive Security

Recognizing the urgency of their visibility gaps, the organization initially explored several traditional vulnerability management and security assessment tools before ultimately selecting XM Cyber. “The light bulb moment came when we realized that we could shift our approach from reactive to proactive security posture management,” Matteo explained. They did a POC with XM Cyber and found that it complemented the organization’s existing vulnerability scanners by exposing risks that others missed. “This is made possible by identifying any vulnerabilities related to misconfiguration and how these, chained together, can lead to a potential compromise,” he said.

Deployment was simple and delivered immediate results. “Our initial deployment focused on on-premises assets, servers and workstations, and was quite straightforward. The dedicated customer success manager provided invaluable guidance, quickly helping us define scenarios based on other customer experience. I was particularly surprised by the immediate and ongoing identification of weaknesses and misconfigurations that violate security and company best practices.”

Benefits and Outcomes

Quantified Risk and Continuous Insight

XM Cyber gave the organization measurable advantages:

• Risk quantification – “The main advantage we are gaining is a clear and initial quantification of IT risk, its trends over time, and which assets are critical to monitor.”
• Exposure clarity – Misconfigurations are revealed in ways that show how they could be chained into compromise paths.
  
• Faster findings – “I was particularly surprised by the immediate and ongoing identification of weaknesses and misconfigurations.”
• Collaboration support – “Breaking down silos between teams is challenging, primarily due to human behavior and the need for mutual trust. XM Cyber gives us a shared view to work from, which makes addressing these challenges easier.”
  

Recommendation and Future Outlook

Actionable Guidance for Security Leaders

The experience of using XM Cyber clearly demonstrates its value as a strategic solution for managing organizational cyber risk. As Matteo advises, XM Cyber is “a very useful tool because it provides continuous actionable insights that drive efficient and effective vulnerability remediation.”

This focus on continuous, prioritized action is what distinguishes the platform. XM Cyber fundamentally changes how organizations approach cyber risk. It achieves this by constantly monitoring the security posture and exposures across the entire environment, transforming overwhelming data into a concise, manageable to-do list. Looking ahead, for Matteo and his team, this capability positions them not only to react quickly to current threats but also to build a resilient, proactive security culture—one where resources are consistently directed toward the most impactful fixes, ensuring long-term security health and operational stability.