Incredible new technological leaps in the areas of AI, cloud networking, and connectivity are opportunities for businesses to create new tools and expand their potential. Unfortunately, they also create new opportunities for malicious parties targeting your systems.
Online threats are becoming more sophisticated at an increasing pace and in unpredictable ways that can sometimes surprise even the most advanced security programs. Even if a company adopts cutting-edge technology and implements it to the best of its ability, how can it be confident that some new or unexpected threat cannot circumvent all its hard work?
One great way to be sure is to hire professionals to conduct a breach and attack simulation, a highly sophisticated security event that imitates a real-world scenario. A company that can imitate the most ingenious and insidious tactics of cybercriminals will be able to find the holes in your security and teach you how to close them.
Validate and Optimize Security Operations
Realistic testing of your security systems will help test your security architecture and ensure that its risk exposure is as low as possible. This means that not only will it resist any potential attacks, but it will also demonstrate clear strength and sophistication. Cybercriminals are often opportunists. If your systems don’t present a target, cybercriminals will look elsewhere.
A thorough understanding of how your security infrastructure behaves in response to a realistic attack will also help to optimize its performance. The efficiency and speed of processes are important in security, and having too many unnecessary or overly redundant systems may slow responses to more vulnerable processes. Identifying these opportunities for improvement will help create a more secure system.
Benchmark Security Performance and Rationalize Investments
Setting a benchmark for resistance against certain kinds of cyberattacks will give you an idea of your overall threat exposure. This benchmark is useful for rationalizing the investment you’ve made in your cybersecurity or for making the case for further investment. Any coverage gaps that exist in your security could present a concern for your budget. This could include having to repair damage or recouping losses from a cyberattack that wasn’t covered. Instead, consider investing in better security ahead of time to make sure that such an attack does not take place.
What to Expect From a Cyberattack Simulator
Professionals who conduct a breach and attack simulation should provide several services in addition to a basic report. Even the most basic service should offer offensive testing in a safe simulation environment and recommend steps to remediate flaws and reduce threat exposure.
A comprehensive service should go on to repeat assessments to validate the steps you’ve taken. Often, they will also schedule automated, repeated testing to ensure that your system remains strong over time and track its performance against larger cybersecurity trends.
When selecting a simulation company, make sure to find one that is clear and transparent about your security outcomes. Ideally, they will provide a secure and intuitive interface that allows you to review that data yourself and lets you review the simulation scenarios and how they played out. If properly conducted, a breach and attack simulation should be an educational experience. It should confirm your security posture, and also help improve the cybersecurity skills of your business.
