In the context of escalating cybersecurity threats, companies are increasingly recognizing the urgent need for “real-world” defense measures. Given today’s threat landscape, these demands are not only reasonable but necessary. This is where cybersecurity validation comes in—a combination of technologies, processes, and tools aimed at verifying potential attacker tactics and techniques, and assessing how well a company’s defense systems respond to these attacks.
Through extensive market research, we’ve found that while some companies are indeed conducting cybersecurity validations, the outcomes are often underwhelming. This renders the process little more than a superficial exercise with minimal real-world impact.
The issue isn’t that cybersecurity validation is ineffective, but rather that it’s often executed incorrectly. Ineffective validation is no better than no validation at all. How many of these common pitfalls are you falling into?
1. Scratching the Surface: Using Low-Quality Attack Samples
Just as practicing with actual test questions is the best way to prepare for an exam, using realistic attack scenarios is crucial for effective cybersecurity validation. At first glance, you might think that as long as an attack sample fits the validation needs, it’s good enough. But that’s where the problem lies: low-quality samples don’t truly test your security defenses.
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Many low-quality samples only simulate basic phishing attacks, such as malicious attachments, and lack realistic malicious URLs or convincing fraudulent messages. As a result, they fail to test how well email protection systems respond to real-world phishing threats.
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These samples often involve simple domain name lookups without simulating actual command-and-control (C2) callback processes. Real attacks involve multiple random C2 callbacks, which trigger DNS security alarms, while these simplistic samples rarely do.
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Some samples merely simulate file drops without executing the malicious code, which skews the defense evaluation. Advanced attackers’ samples evade detection while retaining behaviors that still bypass security defenses. Without real execution, you can’t assess how well your defenses resist destructive, irreversible attacks.
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Lastly, low-quality, homemade samples (e.g., demo programs) don’t provide reliable validation results. Even if a company takes steps to address the gaps identified by these samples, there’s no guarantee that their defenses will withstand actual attacks.
Using low-quality attack samples leads to a false sense of security, leaving real vulnerabilities unaddressed. To accurately assess an enterprise’s defense capabilities, it’s essential to use high-quality, realistic attack samples. digiDations’ Security Validation Platform collects real-world tactics from active threat groups and converts them into validation scenarios, enabling companies to thoroughly evaluate their defenses and identify weak points in need of reinforcement.
2. Playing it Safe: Avoiding Realistic Attacks Due to Concerns About Production Impact
While realistic attack samples are essential, some companies hesitate to use them, fearing that they might overload or compromise their security infrastructure. Instead, they opt for non-realistic simulations. Though this caution is understandable, it results in critical gaps in the validation process:
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Blind spots in security policies: Without testing real vulnerabilities, companies can’t identify or address actual weaknesses in their security policies.
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Lack of incident response training: Employees miss the chance to practice responding to genuine threats, leaving them ill-prepared to manage real attacks effectively.
To alleviate these concerns, digiDations offers protected sandbox environments. These isolated environments allow realistic attack samples to be safely executed without compromising production systems. With network isolation, disk isolation, and rollback mechanisms in place, harmful sample behavior is contained within the sandbox. Meanwhile, researchers in the security lab analyze the execution environment to understand the necessary conditions for attack samples to function, ensuring accurate validation.
digiDations’ scenario-based simulations recreate the full attack lifecycle, allowing teams to test their defenses in a realistic context, while automatic attack path analysis and simulations identify weaknesses across the system. Importantly, no actual production systems are at risk, ensuring business continuity while still revealing areas for improvement.
3. Stuck in a Rut: Relying on Static Samples, Leaving Companies Vulnerable to Evolving Threats
Attackers aren’t mindless drones, but they’re also not endlessly cranking out brand-new zero-days. From an attacker’s perspective, successful techniques are often reused and slightly altered to evade detection. Many low-quality attack samples focus solely on initial compromise, such as malicious file drops, while ignoring the full scope of post-compromise activities. This presents several risks:
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“Assuming it’s blocked”: A company’s security product might automatically block known malware, but attackers can easily evade these defenses with minor modifications. Simply validating based on file drops doesn’t provide an accurate measure of defense effectiveness.
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“Assuming the issue is solved”: Even if a sample triggers detection successfully, fixing the issue for that specific file doesn’t guarantee protection against future attacks. Continuously validating static samples can create a false sense of achievement.
digiDations’ research team actively tracks Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups, analyzing their tactics to recreate realistic attack patterns. We believe in empowering defense systems by equipping companies with the tools to handle evolving threats. Our security lab regularly updates the attack library, helping organizations test their defenses against the latest techniques and variants, ensuring they can withstand ever-evolving threats.
4. Focusing on the Wrong Metrics: Overemphasis on Single-Point Products, Neglecting Holistic Defense Systems
Cybersecurity is a comprehensive, layered system, and attacks often occur across a long chain of events. Validating the performance of one specific product or system component can be useful in certain stages, but it doesn’t capture the bigger picture. Over-focusing on individual product performance can lead to:
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Limited validation: Too much attention on single-product capabilities detracts from assessing the overall security system’s coordination and effectiveness.
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Lack of systemic defense: Failing to evaluate how various products and strategies work together leads to incomplete assessments of an organization’s security posture.
Effective attacks usually involve a multi-step process, requiring coordination across multiple layers of defense. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Operations Centers (SOC) play a crucial role in overseeing these defense layers. Combined with threat intelligence from Secunia, companies can continuously validate their defense systems, simulating full attack chains and helping defenders build more effective correlation rules. This approach enhances the detection of pre-exploitation stages and increases response speeds, ensuring comprehensive protection across networks, hosts, emails, cloud environments, and business systems.
digiDations: Effective Security Testing Starts Here
In conclusion, the problem isn’t that cybersecurity validation is ineffective; rather, poor execution has left its potential untapped, wasting valuable resources. digiDations provides a comprehensive platform that ensures key aspects of security testing are properly addressed, empowering companies to continuously improve their security posture.
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High-quality, realistic samples: Utilize realistic attack samples that move beyond static defenses to accurately evaluate your organization’s defenses.
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Safe attack execution: Run real-world attacks within a protected sandbox environment to avoid compromising production systems.
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Multi-stage attack validation: Test across the entire attack chain, ensuring defenses are effective at every stage.
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Attacker’s perspective: Identify critical actions that would lead to a successful compromise, using automated path analysis tools to uncover hidden vulnerabilities.
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Comprehensive defense assessment: Evaluate and enhance the coordination of defense systems across all layers, not just individual products.
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Regularly updated attack library: Keep your validation process current with the latest threats by leveraging a constantly refreshed attack library.
With digiDations, companies can finally unlock the full potential of cybersecurity validation, turning it into a powerful tool for defending against today’s most advanced threats.
