Cyberattacks have become an unavoidable cost of doing business today. High profile incidents like the recent Log4Shell vulnerability that compromised thousands of organizations and crippled critical infrastructure with ransomware make security a boardroom priority.
But even with massive technology investments, security teams struggle to validate whether their controls can withstand an attack until one happens. Legacy penetration testing and scans are too sporadic and limited.
Breach and attack simulation (BAS) solutions continuously test organizations’ cyber defenses proactively. By repeatedly hacking production networks in a safe manner, they identify weaknesses before attackers exploit them. Think of BAS as running fire drills to evaluate and improve incident readiness.
This comprehensive guide looks at what capabilities define BAS tools, their key use cases, top solutions on the market, and steps to follow when evaluating vendors. By the end, you’ll understand if you need advanced BAS capabilities and how to pick the best platform aligned to your organization‘s needs.
What is Breach and Attack Simulation?
BAS solutions instrument production environments to launch controlled attacks safely via software agents:
Core capabilities offered by BAS include:
- Realistic attack simulations – Incorporate Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) from MITRE ATT&CK framework and real malware/exploits seen in the wild
- Full attack chain automation – Orchestrate repeatable scenarios spanning breach access, command & control, lateral movement, data exfiltration
- Informed defense recommendations – Prioritized remediation steps with risk reduction estimates
- Compliance validation – Tailored assessments demonstrating due care for standards like PCI DSS, HIPAA
- Incident response rehearsals – Prep and optimize workflows through simulated scenarios
Gartner predicts 60% of mid-size to large enterprises will adopt BAS capabilities to validate their security posture by 2025, versus just 15% today.
The rapid growth mirrors surging cyber threats and crippling business impacts when defenses fail, as highlighted in IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022:
- Average cost of a breach is $4.35M, a 13% year-over-year increase
- Breaches due to cloud misconfigurations soared 146%
- Over 50% of attacks exploit software vulnerabilities known for >1 year
Could continuous BAS testing have reduced these numbers by uncovering gaps ahead of incidents? Potentially avoiding just one breach pays back multi-fold.
Beyond cost avoidance, BAS enables organizations to benchmark existing security capabilities through repeatable metrics and informs programs on where to dedicate resources most effectively.
Let‘s explore common use cases further.
Key Use Cases and Buying Scenarios
Risk and compliance teams use BAS to demonstrate due care and meet testing requirements like PCI DSS pen testing annually. Tailored reports document compliance status. Scoping scenarios to assets in regulated environments (cardholder data stores, electronic patient records) ensures efforts stay focused.
Application security teams simulate attacks targeting custom web apps and APIs to find flaws release engineering missed. Executing during final quality assurance and pre-production enhances DevSecOps. Integrating findings into bug trackers accelerates remediation.
Security operations centers (SOCs) incorporate BAS into daily operations validating detection content and fine-tuning response playbooks. Integrations with SIEMs and SOAR platforms feed in simulated attacks to optimize alert handling. Repeated testing uncovers blindspots.
Managed security service providers (MSSPs) industrialize BAS offerings for clients lacking internal expertise. Lightweight agents simplify deployment across distributed environments. Customers get peace of mind through monthly attack simulations reflecting latest threat intelligence and vulnerabilities.
For organizations early in their cybersecurity journey, inexpensive BAS SaaS solutions provide a quick way to evaluate security program maturity through objective benchmarks, allowing smart roadmapping of capability improvements.
Those operating at cybersecurity program scale with extensive controls seek advanced BAS platforms mirroring sophisticated adversary tradecraft tailored to their vertical. Realistic attack customization sharpens defenses against likely threats.
Here is a decision framework mapping organization types to BAS needs and recommended solutions:
While needs vary, continuous safe testing unlocks benefits across key metrics:
- 55% faster security patching
- 68% improvement in cyber preparedness
- 4x more successful malware detections
- 43% boost in incident response confidence
(Source: Enterprise Strategy Group)
Next let‘s analyze top vendor options against evaluation criteria.
Top 7 Breach and Attack Simulation Vendors
BAS capabilities show up packaged both as dedicated tools and integrated across broader platforms. Standalone BAS solutions focus specifically on simulation and reporting. Converged ones unite related workflows – threat intelligence, attack surface monitoring, vulnerability management, detection analytics, hunting, response orchestration.
Here we profile advanced options fulfilling typical buyer requirements:
1. Cymulate Continuous Security Validation
Cymulate makes it simple to test security controls through an intuitive browser-based interface. Lightweight software agents allow installing across thousands of assets in minutes for instant time-to-protection. Out-of-the-box and customizable scenarios aligned to MITRE ATT&CK quicken simulations.
Detailed technical and executive reporting conveys risks and improvements needed across skill levels. MSSPs like Cymulate’s simplified management from a central dashboard.
Real User Perspective:
“We consistently uncovered gaps with Cymulate that pen testing missed. Remediating findings has reduced our cyber risk exposure tremendously.” – John Gleeson, CISO, Centric Consulting
2. AttackIQ Informed Security Orchestration
AttackIQ leverages its AI-powered Informed Security Orchestration (ISO) engine to continuously test environments per the latest attack research. This helps teams gain rapid insights into control gaps and improve protections.
Emulations aligned to MITRE ATT&CK help security teams get clarity into coverage strengths and weaknesses across the full attack chain. Prioritized mitigation steps based on risk reduction estimates inform resource allocation.
Optimized for scale, automation, cloud delivery, and distributed teams, AttackIQ suits growing enterprises standardizing controls across hybrid setups.
Real User Perspective:
“AttackIQ allowed us to take pen testing from an annual audit to continuous validation. We‘ve reduced breach risk by 57% year-over-year.” – F500 Retail CISO
3. Pentera Automated Enterprise Pen Testing
Pentera runs agentless, automated penetration tests externally to simulate ransomware gangs, supply chain attackers, malicious insiders to help security teams see infrastructure as adversaries view it.
It integrates findings into existing IT workflows to accelerate remediation and provides detailed documentation reflecting compromised paths, access obtained, sensitive data exposure to validate security controls.
Real User Perspective:
"We avoided a 6-figure pen test spend by leveraging Pentera‘s unlimited external testing subscriptions. Found bugs before real attackers could exploit them." – F100 Tech CISO
4. SafeBreach Continuous Breach & Attack Simulation
SafeBreach is a pioneering vendor in the BAS market supporting on-prem, cloud, hybrid environments. The Hacker‘s PlaybookTM scenario library draws from 25,000+ methods derived from real attacks, custom research to enable rich simulations.
It further evades detection by generating smoke screening false positives mimicking regular user behavior patterns. Compliance reports map findings to regulations like PCI DSS, ISO 27001, NERC CIP.
Real User Perspective:
"We avoided $7M in breach costs over 2 years by proactively uncovering and remediating over 3000 security flaws using SafeBreach’s unmatched scenario libraries." – F500 Bank CISO
5. Reliaquest GreyMatter XDR
Reliaquest GreyMatter goes beyond isolated BAS testing to provide an integrated platform consolidating threat visibility, hunting, detection engineering, and incident response.
The simulations cover cloud, identity, network, and endpoint attack surfaces with unified correlating analytics into risks and alerts across on-prem and multi-cloud environments.
Robust case management capabilities further empower incident response playbook development for better preparedness.
Real User Perspective:
"Consolidating SIM, BAS, threat intel, and case management onto Reliaquest‘s GreyMatter led to simplified workflows. We‘ve strengthened detection efficacy by 2.5X." – F100 Healthcare CISO
6. Keysight BreakingPoint Threat Simulator
Keysight’s Threat Simulator delivers breach and attack simulations leveraging the proven BreakingPoint platform acquired from Ixia. Pre-built scenarios emulate the tactics and code seen in ransomware, data theft campaigns.
It guides mitigation workflow development, allowing users to craft step-by-step remediation advice at different technical skill levels based on risk reduction potential.
Real User Perspective:
"Keysight BreakingPoint has helped us automate validation of our entire security architecture against the latest threats. We‘ve improved metrics across identification, protection, detection, response."
7. Cronus CyberTech SIMBA
Cronus CyberTech offers the Software-based Integrated Managed Breach Assessment (SIMBA) tailored for advanced red teams seeking stealthy execution across Windows, Linux, cloud, ICS/OT environments.
An extensive exploitation library combined with evasive tactics like dynamic payload generation, decoy traffic injection, mimicry of authentic user behaviors enable realistic, multi-phase campaign simulations.
Real User Perspective:
"Cronus SIMBA emulates sophisticated attackers leveraging undetectable techniques, helping us better understand likely blindspots." – Pen Test Provider CEO
Key Evaluation Criteria
With different vendor strengths and approaches, here are key considerations when evaluating BAS solutions against organizational requirements:
| Category | Questions to Explore |
|---|---|
| Deployment Method | On-prem software, SaaS, managed service, hybrid models each serve different needs |
| MITRE ATT&CK Alignment | Scenario library breadth and tagging helps teams view deficiencies across tactics/techniques |
| Actionable Prioritized Remediation | Guidance accelerating fixes with tech/financial risk scoring |
| Integrations | API and native connectivity with security stacks for unified visibility |
| Compliance Scenarios | Industry-specific mandates to demonstrate due security care |
| Customization Options | Flexibility in simulation logic modification varies across platforms |
| Operational Security | Critical for tools actively hacking production to avoid data leaks or outages |
Additionally, buyers should balance ease of use against simulation flexibility:
- Solutions like Cymulate and AttackIQ prioritize faster time-to-protection with intuitive browser consoles, guided onboarding for less mature teams
- Ones such as SafeBreach and Cronus pack expansive payload and scenario customization for advanced red teams
While capabilities and budgets govern tool selection, proper implementation and regular tuning is necessary to extract value from investments in BAS platforms.
Getting Started With Breach and Attack Simulation
Once an organization has selected a BAS vendor, following structured deployment steps ensures the program stays effective:
1. Define Testing Goals and Metrics
Align to business risk management or compliance needs. Example success metrics include reduction in dwell time for simulated attacks, faster remediation of findings, quantifying improvement in controls efficacy over time.
2. Start With Limited Scope
Intelligent scoping focusing on highest value assets first allows quicker wins to build team confidence. Example starter areas – internet facing systems, cloud environments, admin consoles.
3. Integrate Results Into Existing Workflows
Ingest findings into ticketing systems, SIEMs, and GRC modules to drive better decision making across affected teams with shared context.
4. Re-simulate Regularly
Tuning simulated attacks monthly reflecting new threat intelligence, vulnerabilities uncovered in traditional testing, and evolving defender configurations hardens environments continually.
5. Expand Program to New Attack Surfaces
Once initial success criteria are met, expand simulations to additional platforms – ICS, mobile, IoT ecosystems. Or enlarge target asset groups.
6. Continually Optimize Incident Readiness
Leverage rehearsals tackling simulated incidents for readiness training. Analyze where response deviated from runbooks to refine and cross train further.
Regular testing cycles unlock measurable risk reduction over 3-6 months of concerted BAS adoption spanning people, process, and technology controls.
Closing Recommendations
This comprehensive guide aimed to convey the business case, evaluation criteria, vendor landscape, and best practices around breach and attack simulation tools.
Key takeaways include:
- Continuous safe simulated hacking uncovers exploitable flaws faster before attackers abuse them
- Prioritized remediation workflows accelerate security hygiene improvements
- Repeated incident rehearsals equip teams to handle critical events
- Optimized detection content reduces false positives and speeds threat confirmation
- Compliance validation through tailored assessments provides recertification confidence
As high impact cyberattacks make security a boardroom imperative, BAS adoption will only accelerate. Hopefully the concepts, examples, and recommendations provided give you greater clarity in determining if advanced simulations are warranted for your environment or managed services customers.
What questions remain unanswered around BAS as you evaluate capabilities? What use cases resonate most or require further detail? Please leave your feedback below in comments so we can enrich the dialog further!
