The possibility of a cyberattack is no longer remote. According to security researchers Billy Rios and Jonathan Butts, who highlighted at the 2018 Black Hat cybersecurity conference, the security flaws in Medtronic’s pacemakers could potentially be exploited by hackers to cause the implantable device to malfunction. It would be extremely terrifying to even consider that such an attack may turn out to be lethal and have severe repercussions.

In their quest to survive and expand their businesses, businesses are considering the risks of cyberattacks and making efforts to prevent and combat such attacks. However, despite the deployment of numerous security solutions and control measures, we have seen enough instances of businesses—even some major ones—falling victim to cyberattacks and suffering significant losses.

Whether the security solutions provide the necessary degree of security is the fundamental question that endures even after the deployment of security solutions costing millions of dollars.

Today’s businesses do security audits, vulnerability assessments, penetration tests, red team tests, or threat hunting to identify system weaknesses and prevent potential data breaches. However, each of these approaches has significant drawbacks that prevent a business from coming up with a conclusive, all-encompassing solution to its security-related problems.

A novel kind of technology called Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) can help in this situation.

Breach and Attack Simulation

Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) allows for the simulation of actual hacker-style attacks in order to assess a network’s cyber defences. These simulated assaults may be used to assess a company’s security systems and their capacity for mitigation, prevention, and detection.

• Security Control Validation- Organizations typically have between 30 and 40 security controls, and they update these controls frequently. Only 22% of respondents to a Ponemon study said they were very confident that the security procedures in their firms were operating as intended. Cymulate automates the validation of security controls and enables ongoing security control improvement. Out-of-the-box assessments use a purple teaming strategy to make it simple for users of all skill levels to understand, manage, and maximise the effectiveness of security policies. The assaults may be launched safely in the production environment and are comprehensive and adaptable.
• External Attack Surface Management- Attack Surface Management strategy focused on risk to automatically find, analyse, and test an organization’s digital footprint.
• Vulnerability Prioritization- Organizations are given extra insight into their vulnerabilities right away by Cymulate’s security control validation process when it incorporates the Attack-Based Vulnerability Management (ABVM) dashboard.

Is BAS something organizations should adopt as well?

Large corporations use technologies from 30 to 70 security suppliers on average, according to Gartner. These security systems require ongoing upgrades to resist new and sophisticated security threats, and these enhanced systems must be periodically evaluated to see whether they can even fend off possible cybersecurity attacks.

Penetration testing and other cybersecurity testing methods require the assistance of human professionals. Even if human specialists are better capable of coming up with breach attack simulations that are comparable to those used by similarly motivated hackers on the other side, they are limited in their ability to test as frequently as automated BAS tools.

BAS tools could be the most economical option to carry out ongoing testing of the new and enhanced cybersecurity systems.

Data exfiltration, an attack on the company’s web application firewall, a phishing attack on an organization’s email systems, a malware attack on an endpoint, or even lateral movement across networks may all be simulated using BAS technologies. This shows that the BAS tools can carry out a wide variety of breach and attack simulations, showing a company’s security system’s weaknesses and assisting it in better preparing to make its defenses impermeable. It’s also important to note that many of these tools can run 24/7, which allows for immediate notifications whenever a network change may result in a vulnerability that could compromise the company’s network.

The BAS industry is still in its infancy. The number of security warnings handled by the already overburdened security staff may expand as a result of BAS tools and their regular tests, which may include simulations of surprise attacks. The produced alarms may overwhelm IT security specialists, and the response measures brought on by the simulated attacks may cause the production systems to go down or cause a delay in operations. It could be challenging for them to distinguish between alarms that should be taken seriously and those that are issued by BAS testing and can be safely disregarded.

However, for businesses to avoid cybersecurity breaches in such a situation, regular, methodical, and consistent testing and monitoring of security controls and systems is vital, and BAS tools are gradually demonstrating their value in this respect.

Cymulate is one of the leaders in Breach and Attack Simulation Technology.

Conclusion

BAS stands out from other security testing products on the market, even if the market for automated breach simulation tools is still developing. As the threat landscape changes, more businesses will use this technology as a result of its capacity to execute continuous testing with no risk and assist businesses in identifying weaknesses in their cybersecurity infrastructure.