Due to the increasing risks brought about by cyberattack threats, cybersecurity has risen to the top of the agenda of most organizations. Companies are investing heavily in IT and cybersecurity solutions are expected to account a significant portion of overall spending. Gartner projects that over $124 billion will be spent on information security this year.
However, there is more to cybersecurity than simply adopting and integrating security solutions. One major pitfall for many organizations is trusting that their adopted tools actually work. This can be a very dangerous attitude to take given the prevalence of advanced persistent threats. While enterprise security solutions provide ample protection for the most part, each organization‘s situation is unique. There can still be gaps in integration, endpoints and applications may contain vulnerabilities, or even end-users can make mistakes.
This is why companies are still encouraged to test their defenses. Traditionally, this is done through penetration testing where IT teams or security experts probe the organization’s infrastructure using tools like Nmap and Metasploit to check for vulnerabilities. However, performing such tests typically requires expertise that not all organizations may have, especially today when there’s a shortage of security skills in the job market.
Fortunately, breach and attack simulation (BAS) solutions are emerging to become convenient alternatives to penetration tests. These services allow IT teams to test various attack vectors in order to expose their vulnerabilities to threats such as remote access, malware, and even social engineering attacks. Platforms like Cymulate can even automate testing to ensure security measures are working to protect against persistent threats.
Through simulations and testing, organizations could get better insights into how well their security actually works.
Getting Lulled into Complacency
It’s easy for organizations to get lulled into complacency especially when they’ve already made significant investments acquiring security solutions. Most simply expect these solutions to work as advertised.
For example, a report published by LexisNexis revealed that healthcare organizations are confident with their implemented cybersecurity measures. However, the survey also found that these measures actually fall short of what is considered ideal practices in security. Only 65 percent use multi-factor authentication to protect access to patient portals.
Given the widespread availability of data dumps containing username and password combinations obtained from previous breaches, hackers can now also easily compromise systems that only use basic authentication especially when users reuse their passwords.
Even security solutions themselves can be fallible. Conventional antiviruses have been known to have vulnerabilities. Back in 2015, enSilo found a vulnerability that allowed malicious actors to bypass AVG antivirus’ protection features. They later found that same flaw also affected similar solutions from other popular antivirus providers like Kaspersky and McAfee.
Simulating Breach Attempts and Attacks
To ensure that solutions are working as intended, organizations must test them habitually. Threats, solutions, and computing environments change and it only takes one vulnerability or gap for attacks to be successful. Testing, however, is often overlooked by many organizations since the technical know-how to properly probe infrastructures for vulnerabilities is typically scarce. Fiddling around with security settings without the proper training can be catastrophic.
As such, there is now a need for convenient and safe means for organizations to test their defenses. Rather than toying with actual threats, security solutions can be tested through simulated attacks.
Fortunately, the availability of BAS solutions is now growing. BAS platforms take away the technical barriers for IT teams to perform effective testing. These solutions feature the necessary scripts and processes necessary to quickly and easily probe various potential attack vectors with just a few clicks of a button and without directly causing harm or downtime.
For instance, BAS can attempt to deploy malware-like payload onto an endpoint to test if an anti-malware solution works. The payload, however, is just a dummy and won’t actually cause the system or the network any harm. All it does is help the platform evaluate whether the defenses can mitigate the threat.
Aside from ease-of-use, BAS platforms also provide automation. IT teams can simply configure tests to run on schedule, taking away the need for a dedicated security “red teams” to perform continuous testing. If exposures and vulnerabilities are found, at least they can be fixed before an actual attack happens.
BAS test results provide insights for IT and security teams so that they can work on improving security. Should a solution perform poorly, organizations even have the option to replace them.
No Room to Slack Off
Falling victim to cyberattacks can be disastrous to organizations. Given that cybersecurity threats are ever-present and persistent, there simply isn’t room for IT teams to slack off. To ensure that they enjoy constant protection, their security solutions must always be tested and checked. Fortunately, BAS solutions now provide them with the means to do so. With such capabilities, organizations can now continuously perform corrective actions and make the necessary adjustments to harden their defenses.
