Unlocking the full potential of Breach and Attack Simulation

Today’s continuously evolving cybersecurity landscape runs security teams thin and can keep organizational leaders up at night.

Every organization faces increasingly complex challenges every day. As cybercriminals evolve their tactics and techniques, security measures that may work today may be inefficient next week. This is where breach and attack simulation technology–otherwise known as “BAS”–comes in to help alleviate those concerns. 

What is “BAS” technology, and how can it benefit my organization?

BAS is a form of automated security testing that simulates real-world attack scenarios by leveraging threat intelligence and utilizing real exploits, tools, and scripts to mimic the tactics and techniques employed by real-world adversaries. At a high level, these solutions arm organizations with the ability to continuously and autonomously assess their existing security controls, processes, and procedures. 

As to how BAS can be leveraged by your organization and bolster your cybersecurity program, some of the key benefits are:

•  Proactive Security Validation: Staying ahead of the adversaries means constantly assessing the security controls and procedures your organization currently has in place, and ensuring that the security products you’ve purchased, implemented, and configured are effectively doing what you expect them to.

•  Realistic, Targeted Threat Emulation: BAS tools leverage real-world threat intelligence to emulate adversaries that are targeting your industry. By simulating the tactics and techniques these adversaries are actively employing, you can identify your weaknesses and strengthen and validate your defenses before it’s too late.

• Compliance: Industry compliance is a critical concern for organizations across various sectors. BAS provides the capability to perform regular security testing, identify potential security gaps, measure the overall security posture of the organization, and ensure organizations are meeting regulatory requirements.

• Cost and Resource Efficiency: BAS tools drive cost savings and operational efficiency by automating security testing, reducing man-hours, and optimizing resource allocation.

Where does BAS fit in your security program?

Breach and Attack Simulation technology does not directly compare with Pentesting, but rather complements it. Both have a part to play in assessing and strengthening an organization’s security posture. To reference a quote from Gartner, “Penetration testing helps answer the question ‘can they get in?’; BAS tools answer the question ‘does my security work?”

Many organizations pursuing a more “threat-informed” defensive strategy are currently, and have been for some time, looking toward incorporating BAS technology as part of that initiative. However, for almost every organization, the same challenges remain with implementing any new technology—time, resources, and experience.

While security teams may acquire the funding to onboard a BAS solution, there remains the time and resources required to implement the solution, the experience to effectively strategize and execute simulations and ultimately process the results into digestible deliverables that can be shared with the key stakeholders. Unfortunately, this is a common scenario for many security teams that are already stretched thin and working hard to balance it all.

If you want to know more about how GuidePoint Security can help your organization, visit our Penetration Testing page to learn more and reach out to speak to one of our experts.