Attack surface reduction is a proactive cybersecurity strategy focused on minimizing the total number of potential entry points that unauthorized actors could exploit to compromise an organization's systems, data, or networks. This essential security practice involves systematically identifying, assessing, and eliminating or hardening vulnerabilities across all aspects of an enterprise's infrastructure, including network perimeters, endpoints, applications, cloud services, APIs, and databases.

Implementation of attack surface reduction requires continuous effort through applying strict security configurations, regularly patching software, removing unnecessary services and features, restricting user privileges to the minimum necessary, and deploying robust access controls. By significantly narrowing the pathways available for malicious exploitation, organizations can effectively lower their overall risk of successful cyberattacks, including data breaches, malware infections, and denial-of-service incidents, thereby strengthening their security posture against evolving threats.