Infoblox Exposure Management: Digital Risk Protection Services (DRPS)

OVERVIEW

Q1. What is Digital Risk Protection Services (DRPS)?

DRPS is an integrated solution for discovering, validating and disrupting external threat activity across the open web, social platforms, advertising networks, app stores and underground sources.

The solution continuously identifies malicious content and infrastructure, uses AI-driven analysis to confirm real abuse, correlates related domains and attacker assets into campaigns and automates evidence-backed takedowns. Protective DNS provides immediate containment for managed users while removals are underway, helping organizations reduce exposure during the most critical early stages of an attack.

Q2. Why did Infoblox acquire Axur?

Many of today’s most damaging cyberattacks begin outside the enterprise perimeter, where attackers exploit trusted brands, identities and digital assets long before traditional security controls engage.

Axur’s digital risk protection technology operates across external environments such as the web, social platforms, advertising networks, app stores and the deep and dark web, continuously discovering, validating and disrupting malicious infrastructure.

When combined with Protective DNS, organizations can:

• Detect external threats earlier in the attack lifecycle
• Correlate abuse signals with DNS telemetry to identify additional related domains and expanded attacker infrastructure
• Disrupt malicious infrastructure faster through automation
• Protect users immediately while takedowns are underway
• Reduce financial loss and preserve brand trust

This extends Infoblox’s preemptive security approach from where users connect to where attacks are created.

MARKET CONTEXT AND THREAT TRENDS

Q3. What types of external threats are organizations facing today?

Organizations face a rapidly expanding set of external threats, including:

• Phishing and credential-harvesting infrastructure hosted on lookalike domains and cloned websites
• Brand and executive impersonation across websites, social platforms and messaging channels
• Fraudulent paid search and social ads that redirect users to malicious destinations
• Rogue mobile apps and marketplace listings impersonating legitimate brands
• Credential exposure and sensitive data leakage used to fuel downstream compromise
• Counterfeit sales, scams and content piracy that undermine revenue and trust

These threats operate on infrastructure organizations do not own or control and often move too quickly for manual response models.

Q4. Why are these external threats and attacks accelerating?

Threat actors are increasingly using AI to amplify and scale brand abuse, impersonation and fraud.

AI reduces the effort required to:

• Generate convincing phishing content
• Rotate domains and infrastructure rapidly
• Relaunch campaigns at scale
• Adapt lures faster than human-driven defenses

As a result, the attacker advantage has shifted from stealth to speed and scale, compressing the window defenders have to respond.

Q5. Why is security shifting toward earlier intervention?

Phishing, impersonation and fraud campaigns often move from setup to user interaction in minutes. Manual investigation, ticketing and third-party escalation models cannot reliably keep pace.

Security programs are therefore shifting toward earlier intervention, including:

• Identifying attacker infrastructure as it is being established
• Validating which exposures represent real, active threats
• Disrupting attacks before users or customers are impacted

This is the foundation of a preemptive security approach.

DIGITAL RISK PROTECTION SERVICES (DRPS) AND EXTERNAL ATTACK SURFACE MANAGEMENT (EASM)

Q6. What is external digital risk protection?

External digital risk protection focuses on identifying and disrupting threats and risks outside the enterprise perimeter that exploit trusted brands, identities and digital assets.

Key capabilities include:

• Continuous discovery of phishing, impersonation, fraud and brand abuse across external platforms
• AI-driven validation to confirm real threats and reduce false positives
• Evidence-backed takedowns of malicious infrastructure
• Ongoing monitoring to ensure threats do not return

The objective is not simply to generate alerts, but to remove attacker infrastructure and prevent harm before it spreads.

Q7. What is External Attack Surface Management (EASM)?

EASM provides visibility into an organization’s internet-facing exposure, such as:

• Domains and subdomains
• IP addresses and cloud edges
• Open ports and exposed services
• Certificates and DNS posture
• Externally visible misconfigurations

EASM helps organizations understand what is exposed externally and where attackers may focus their efforts.

Q8. How do digital risk protection and EASM work together?

Digital risk protection and EASM address different but complementary problems:

• EASM identifies what is externally exposed
• Digital risk protection focuses on how attackers actively abuse that exposure through impersonation, phishing and fraud

Together, they help teams move beyond visibility toward validated, actionable risk reduction.

INFOBLOX’S PREEMPTIVE APPROACH

Q9. What does “preemptive security” mean in practice?

Preemptive security refers to security capabilities that anticipate, neutralize or disrupt threats before they successfully execute or cause damage, rather than primarily relying on detection-and-response after the fact.

In practice, this involves:

1. Discovering external threats as they appear
2. Blocking threat actor infrastructure before it is weaponized
3. Blocking attackers’ supply chain
4. Validating threats using AI-driven analysis and supporting evidence
5. Containing risk immediately through DNS blocking and browser warnings
6. Removing malicious infrastructure through automated takedowns
7. Monitoring for recurrence to ensure threats stay down

This approach shortens the attacker window and reduces reliance on post-incident response.

You can learn more about the Infoblox approach to preemptive security with these FAQs posted on the Infoblox Security Blog.

Q10. How does Infoblox differentiate from traditional brand protection or alerting tools?

Traditional approaches often:

• Surface alerts without validation
• Rely on manual investigation and escalation
• Remove assets inconsistently or without verification

Infoblox’s preemptive approach, strengthened by Axur, focuses on speed, scale and sustained disruption.

Key differentiators include:

• AI-driven validation to confirm real threats early
• Correlation of abuse signals and DNS telemetry to identify related domains and expanded attacker infrastructure
• Automated, evidence-backed takedowns at scale
• Immediate containment during takedown operations
• Ongoing monitoring and stay-down guarantees

The emphasis is on measurable outcomes, not alert volume.

Q11. What performance metrics demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach?

Organizations using Axur-powered capabilities typically achieve:

• <4 minutes median time to first enforcement notification
• ~9-hour median time to neutralization after confirmation
• ~98.9% takedown success rate
• 86% of takedowns fully automated end to end
• 15-day stay-down guarantees to ensure threats do not reappear

These metrics reflect consistent, reliable disruption at enterprise scale.

Q12. How does Protective DNS, part of Infoblox Threat Defense, fit into the DRPS approach?

Protective DNS provides immediate containment by blocking access to confirmed malicious destinations for managed users.

When combined with Axur-powered DRPS:

• Users are protected within minutes
• Exposure is limited while takedowns are in process
• DNS context provides attribution linking threats to impacted users, devices or environments

This ensures protection begins immediately and continues throughout the disruption process.

BETTER TOGETHER: WHAT CUSTOMERS GAIN FROM INFOBLOX + AXUR

Q13. What do Infoblox customers gain from Axur?

For existing Infoblox customers, Axur expands protection beyond DNS and lookalike domains into the various external environments where attacks originate.

Customers gain:

• Early discovery of phishing, impersonation, fraud and credential exposure
• Automated, evidence-backed takedowns across web, social, ads, apps and marketplaces
• Ongoing monitoring and stay-down guarantees to prevent threats from returning
• Clear proof that attacker infrastructure has been removed

Infoblox customers move from blocking destinations to removing the infrastructure that creates them.

Q14. What do Axur customers gain from Infoblox?

For organizations that start with Axur, Infoblox adds additional threat infrastructure discovery, immediate containment, attribution and enforcement capabilities.

This includes:

• Identifying additional related domains and the full underlying threat infrastructure
• DNS-level blocking to protect managed users while takedowns are underway
• Attribution linking external threats to users, devices and business units
• Integration with existing security and IT workflows
• Scalable enforcement at the point where users connect to the internet

Axur customers gain faster containment, clearer accountability and broader enterprise integration.

Q15. What is the combined outcome of Infoblox and Axur together?

Together, Infoblox and Axur connect:

• External threat discovery and disruption
• Immediate user protection
• Verification that threats were removed and stayed down

This shifts security programs from alerting and response to prevention and measurable risk reduction.

USE CASES AND OUTCOMES

Q16. How does this help prevent phishing and credential theft?

The platform continuously identifies phishing infrastructure and credential-harvesting sites as they are launched. Automated validation confirms real threats, while takedowns remove malicious sites quickly.

At the same time, Protective DNS blocks access for managed users, reducing click-through and credential theft while removals are underway.

Q17. How does this protect brands and customers from impersonation?

The solution identifies fake websites, social profiles, ads and apps impersonating legitimate brands. AI-driven validation produces defensible evidence, enabling rapid removal across platforms and marketplaces.

This reduces customer confusion, fraud and reputational damage.

Q18. How does this address executive and VIP impersonation?

High-profile individuals are frequent targets for impersonation-driven fraud. The platform detects impersonation assets early, validates abuse and removes malicious infrastructure before campaigns reach employees, partners or customers.

Q19. How does this help with credential exposure and data leakage?

The platform monitors the open, deep and dark web for exposed credentials and sensitive data. Early detection allows organizations to intervene before exposed data is weaponized for account takeover or fraud.

Q20. How does this help stop fraudulent ads and rogue apps?

Attackers increasingly use paid search ads and app stores to impersonate trusted brands and redirect users to malicious destinations.

DRPS identifies unauthorized ads and rogue applications, validates abuse and automates takedowns across advertising networks and app marketplaces to prevent users from being misdirected.

Q21. How does this help reduce online piracy and counterfeit activity?

The solution detects counterfeit listings, irregular sales and pirated content across marketplaces and platforms.

Automated takedown workflows help organizations protect revenue streams and brand integrity by removing abusive content at scale and monitoring for recurrence.

SECURITY TRENDS AND EXPOSURE MANAGEMENT

Q22. How does DRPS relate to Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)?

CTEM is an industry operating model that describes how security programs evolve toward continuously identifying, validating and reducing risk across an expanding attack surface.

In this context:

• DRPS focuses on disrupting external threats such as phishing, impersonation, fraud and credential abuse.
• External Attack Surface Management (EASM) adds visibility into internet-facing assets and exposures that attackers may target.
• Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) correlates findings to internal assets, identities and ownership to drive accountability.

The Axur acquisition enables Infoblox to deliver DRPS today, while Infoblox’s broader strategy is to progressively expand exposure visibility and correlation over time.

In that way, DRPS reflects how CTEM principles can be applied immediately to high-impact external threats. DRPS is the first step in a broader Infoblox Exposure Management strategy that will expand to address additional dimensions of external and internal risk over time.

ADOPTION AND VALUE

Q23. What benefits do organizations typically see from DRPS?

Organizations using Axur-powered capabilities commonly achieve:

• Threat detection within minutes of attacker setup
• Same-day removal of phishing and impersonation infrastructure
• Reduced fraud and credential theft
• Lower analyst workload through automation
• Clear evidence demonstrating that threats were neutralized

The focus is on preventing impact, not reacting after harm occurs.

Q24. Who is DRPS designed for?

DRPS supports organizations with large or high-risk digital footprints, including:

• Enterprises facing persistent phishing and fraud
• Brands vulnerable to impersonation and customer trust abuse
• Organizations concerned about credential exposure and data leakage

Primary users include security, threat intelligence, fraud and brand protection teams.