Threat Simulation Buyers’ Guide 2024

Any successful cyber security program should carry out threat modelling and simulation, allowing you to understand what it is possible for an adversary to do. By thinking as an attacker might, you can identify and eliminate weak points before they can be leveraged. In this guide, we’ll cover:

• Why threat simulation matters
• How threat simulation works
• The best threat simulation solution providers
• Benefits of using a threat simulation solution
• A features checklist
• Our recommendations
• Upcoming trends in the threat simulation market

Why Threat Simulation Matters: By proactively simulating attacks, organizations can better prepare themselves for real incidents and ensure their response strategies are the most effective for improving their cybersecurity measures. This is important as failing to prepare for today’s common threats can lead to significant financial and reputational loss.

• Cyberattacks using stolen or compromised credentials increased 71% year-over-year. (IBM)
• In 2022, 85% of organizations that conducted threat simulation exercises found that they had at least one security gap. This is up from 75% in 2021 (WeSecureApp)
• The global automated breach and attack simulation market is predicted to reach USD 3.2 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 33% (Market Data Forecast)

How Threat Simulation Works: Whether you are testing an organization’s cybersecurity defense against threats or assessing the security team’s skill level and talents, simulated attacks can provide valuable information. Red, blue, and purple teams are designated security sub teams for the simulating cyber-attacks and responses.

• Red Team Testing: This involves security professionals (the Red team) simulating real-world attacks to spot vulnerabilities and test defense effectiveness.
• Blue Team Testing: This consists of defenders (the Blue team) monitoring, detecting, and responding to simulated attacks.
• Purple Team Testing: This is a collaborative approach where Red and Blue teams come together to share their insights, combining offensive and defensive tactics for improved overall security.

These testing approaches are useful for providing comprehensive assessments of the organization’s security posture, which enables continuous improvements in threat detection, response, and prevention. Red, blue, and purple testing are not always a part of threat simulation solutions, but they are often integrated into comprehensive cybersecurity strategies.

Best Threat Simulation Solution Providers:

• The Top 10 Threat Simulation Platforms
  • AttackIQ Security Optimization Platform
  • CALDERA
  • Cymulate
  • Fortinet FortiTester
  • Fortra Cobalt Strike

Related Top 10 Guides:

• The Top 9 Breach And Attack Simulation Solutions
• The Top 10 Phishing Simulation And Testing Solutions

Benefits Of Using A Threat Simulation Solution: Some practical applications of using one of these tools include the following:

• Cost Saving: Proactively detecting weaknesses within the system, network, and workflows before they can be exploited by threat actors can lead to significant savings by avoiding compliance penalties and reputational damage.
• Enhanced Incident Response: Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of incident response plans through regular testing and refinements via simulated attacks is beneficial for better attack-readiness.
• Continuous Security Improvement: Receiving ongoing insights and feedback into the organizations security posture is important for enabling the contiguous enhancement of security measures and policies to adapt to evolving threats.

Features Checklist: When choosing a threat simulation solution, Expert Insights recommends looking for the following key capabilities:

1. Vulnerability Assessment: The ability to identify and evaluate weak points within the systems, networks, and applications is important to mitigate the risk of exploitation by attackers. This is typically done by scanning the IT environment, then prioritizing vulnerabilities based on risk level.
2. Attack Simulations: This involves emulating various real-world attack scenarios – including phishing, malware, and ransomware, etc., – in a controlled environment to test the effectiveness of security measures, thereby highlighting any areas where improvement is needed.
3. Sandboxing: By conducting threat simulations in a controlled environment (sandbox), organizations can keep their keep their simulations separate from their production systems and ensure there are no accidental disruptions or legitimate harm done.
4. Automation: Being able to automatically run simulations without manual intervention based on predefined attack scenario helps organizations to better identify vulnerabilities, asses their security measures, and improve their defenses. 
5. User Behavior Analysis: This involves monitoring and assessing how users react to attack simulation. Tracking user actions during simulations and collecting the data for analysis makes it easier to identify patterns, vulnerabilities, and areas where additional training would he beneficial.
6. Reporting: The ability to generate reports after running a threat simulation is important as this provides a way to analyze and gain insight into areas in need of improvement, including vulnerabilities and gaps in the security posture.

Our Recommendation: Not all organizations will have the exact same requirements for a threat simulation solution, as their individual needs may vary. The following are just some of the recommendations we have for various common needs, including:

• For larger enterprises, choosing a solution that is highly scalable and capable of providing customizable scenarios and comprehensive reporting ensures that the organization is better prepared to face increasingly complex attacks across expanding IT environments.
• For continuous improvement, features like automated attack simulations and real-time feedback makes it possible to keep security measures continually updated and accurate.
• For seamless integration, look for a solution capable of integrating smoothly with your organization’s existing security infrastructure and SIEM systems.
• For less advanced security teams, consider selecting a threat simulation solution based on the quality of its training materials and educational content, as this will provide better support for security personal and make their job easier. In addition to this, ease of use should be prioritized.

Further Reading: Some additional relevant resources include:

• The Top 10 Phishing Awareness Training Solutions
• The Top 10 Security Awareness Training Solutions For Business
• The Top 6 Digital Forensics And Incident Response (DFIR) Solutions