Cybersecurity Simulations to Reduce the Risk of a Painful Data Breach.

Cybersecurity simulations and trying to hack your own organisation can provide interesting insights ~

Strange as it might seem at first sight, Hacking your own business is one of the best ways organisations can uncover hidden vulnerabilities and evaluate whether you have an effective defence and security strategy in place and fully operational.

With each passing year, cyber attacks and data breaches increase in volume, variety, and severity. Cybersecurity teams can no longer afford to be reactive. This means they must proactively dedicate effort and resources to understand all of the top risks, threats, plus weaknesses, then try closing those security gaps before attackers exploit them. One of the most sure-fire ways of learning about one’s own security posture and testing whether the current security strategies are working (or not) is by hacking yourself or simulating a cyberattack.

There are a number of different approaches that businesses can use to simulate a breach or cyberattack. Straightforward routes can include:

 1. Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing (or “pen test”) is a type of security test that helps test a specific security scenario or identify vulnerabilities associated with networks, systems, applications or websites. A pen test is not a simple vulnerability scan (where an automated tool searches for known vulnerabilities) but a more in-depth, manual security assessment where ethical hackers use a combination of: machine; human-led or physical approaches; to identify hidden vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, weak security controls and processes.

Pen-test exercises are usually defined within a specific scope, and the organisation being tested is fully aware of what is being tested and how it is being tested.

2. Phishing Simulations

Phishing and social engineering are the top root causes of all breaches worldwide. In fact, nearly 80% of security breaches can be prevented if employees have the knowledge, practice, intent and trainable-muscle memory to identify and report suspicious activities to security teams. The best way one can train users/employees to develop these skills is by subjecting them to regular, white-hat simulated phishing attacks (because knowledge alone does not equal secure behaviour).

Since manually running phishing attacks is difficult and not scalable, it is advisable to use automated phishing and security awareness platforms that specialize in this domain. Such simulation tools are similar to military drills, which constantly keep soldiers on their toes during war games. Via a ‘smart’ questionnaire, organisations can use these tools to test how “PhishProne” they are relative to different kinds of attack vectors like smishing, vishing, whaling, etc. Such exercises can help identify users who lack security maturity and need more in-person coaching and regular testing.

3. Red Team Exercises

While standard pen-tests are focused on demonstrating the exploitability of vulnerabilities in networks, websites, software, hardware, applications or equipment, Red Teaming exercises evaluate the effectiveness of security controls and the ability of the organisation to detect, block and contain an actual breach. The benefit of having a Red Team engagement is that it can provide a better understanding of how well an organisation detects and responds to real-world cyberattacks. 

Unlike pen-tests that are focused on testing a scenario using an agreed set of techniques, red team exercises tend to be more creative + outcome-oriented. This means that red teams will act like real adversaries and use any means necessary to gain access to a folder, a data set, or an agreed set of objectives. Red team exercises also tend to be longer than pen tests. Penetration tests might last 2-3 weeks, while red team engagements will typically last 2 to 3 months at random times. 

4. Blue Team Exercises

Blue Team exercises are designed to test the effectiveness of security monitoring and incident response capabilities of the organisation. In contrast to red teams that take an offensive approach to test security defenses, Blue Teams take a defensive approach to determine if the current security and monitoring technologies, controls and processes are sufficient enough to detect and contain the attack scenario. Red teams usually comprise security experts that are brought in from outside. However, Blue Teams usually consist of existing IT, security staff and incident responders.

During a blue team exercise, a red team will simulate a cyber attack on the organisation and the blue team will be required to detect and defend, respond and isolate the infected assets. Whilst Blue team exercises typically don’t involve detailed coordination with Red teams (except basic rules of engagement and agreed targets), there are certain exercises that can be designed where both teams can coordinate and communicate with each other.

This can be termed as “Purple” team exercises.

5. Breach and Attack Simulation Tools

A breach and attack simulation (BAS) is an emerging category of security software that organisations can deploy to simulate breaches and cyberattacks. In contrast to pen tests and red team exercises where some manual attackers are involved, BAS solutions challenge the security infrastructure using [semi-]automated tools. BAS solutions identify the most likely path an attacker would take to compromise the environment and generate detailed reports about security gaps and the best practices needed to remediate those risks. 

According to Gartner, BAS complements red teaming and penetration testing but does not replace them. The one benefit that BAS solutions offer over red teams and pen tests is that BAS testing is automated and therefore continuous, while pen tests and red teams offer only a snapshot of the organisation’s vulnerabilities at a particular point in time. 

Breaches are obviously a consequence of weaknesses in people, processes, and technology, and have been a feature since computing and software began. And because threats are constantly evolving, organisations must formulate a habit of simulating cyber attacks and breaches at regular intervals. This will not only give them a better handle on evolving and emerging threats and gauge the organisation’s preparedness against these threats; but also over time build a stronger culture of cybersecurity and a more resilient organisation.