6 Tips for Conducting Effective Cyber Attack Simulations

Cyber threats are around every corner. For personal use, having unique passwords saved on a password manager is a simple yet effective way of limiting the damage that a cyber attack could cause.

If you own a company, however, you need to be more proactive by testing your defenses with cyber attack simulations.

Cyber Security: The Need to Be Proactive

To avoid becoming the victim of any cyber attacks, you must be proactive. This could mean implementing runtime container security to define the acceptable actions for any one program and if something’s amiss, rejecting unauthorized activity quickly.

Being proactive means knowing how an attack could happen and setting up systems to stop it in advance.

Of course, having a general idea of how a cyber security attack could happen isn’t as useful as knowing exactly how an attack would work against your unique security system. That’s where cyber attack simulations come in.

What Are Cyber Attack Simulations?

Cyber attack simulations are planned attacks conducted by a cyber security expert who highlights weak points in your cyber security. You can then use that information to strengthen your defenses.

How to Conduct Effective Cyber Attack Simulations

To get the most out of your cyber attack simulations, follow these tips:

1. Work With a Trusted Team

   Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is part of any cyber attack simulation. CTI involves identifying any potential threats to your business.

   Outsourcing your needs to a trusted security team means gaining access to a larger CTI database, which can be used to create a bespoke simulation that’s relevant to your industry.

2. Improve Training Ahead of Time

   Humans are one of the biggest weak points when it comes to a business’s cyber security. So, before investing in simulations, train your staff on how to spot suspicious behavior.

   Your staff should know how to verify the validity of a link, a phone number, and a person’s identity — no matter how “secure” it seems.

   How do you verify a phone number? How do you verify someone’s identity? You and all of your staff need to know the answer to these questions and, most importantly, build the verification steps into every element of your business, from back-of-house to customer-facing security.

3. Limit User Access

   Limit user access if you haven’t already done so. This means staff members can only access the information they need to do their job and nothing else. Their accounts need to be limited, and everyone needs to have unique credentials, including a unique user ID and password.

   This way, when conducting cyber attack simulations, you can test how far a single-user breach could affect your business.

4. Keep Goals Clear

   It’s better to run multiple attack simulations that each have a clearly defined goal than it is to set up a single all-encompassing attack.

   This will give you more specific details and actionable recommendations, allowing you to make immediate fixes to your network.



5. Make Sure Your Security Experts Are Using the Latest Tools

   Your security analyst needs to be using the latest techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTPs). This means they need to use TTPs like malware injection or system reconnaissance. By using the latest tools, you can work to stop hacking attempts in their tracks.

6. Conduct Tests Regularly

   The technology and techniques hackers use often change, so you need to regularly test your defenses with the latest TTPs. For the best results, invest in cyber attack simulations on a set schedule like once or twice a year.

Final Thoughts

Cyber attack simulations need to be a regular part of your security system updates. By working with experts, having clear goals, and working ahead of time to fix known issues, you can find unknown chinks in your armor.

By knowing where your weak points are, you can begin fixing them. So start securing your network today.