Let’s be real — most security teams are inundated with alerts and reports on a daily basis. New malware, phishing schemes, and hacking techniques are appearing in those alerts every day. But here’s the real issue: how do you know what’s relevant to your environment? Now, look no further than AI-powered Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS). AI-powered BAS is changing the approach to testing and improving security defenses, and frankly, it’s pretty cool.
• They are reliant on a list of attacks that have been preloaded and may not be relevant to the current attacks.
• The process of writing tests is often time intensive, and requires a degree of expertise.
• Hackers are fast and smarter than most teams who are testing for attacks.
Even in the case when the security teams know what the latest attack looked like, pretty much after one news cycle, most companies cannot test quickly enough to ensure safety moving forward. The gap is real.
So, why is this functional utility useful?
• Faster Testing: You can convert your new threat report to a real test in minutes.
• Real Results: It demonstrates what an attacker could exploit your system based on what the report indicates.
• Better Clarity: You learn the security gaps that need remediating immediately.
• Proof to Management: You can provide actual data instead of best guesses to your boss.
In short, AI is helping you shift from just reading about attacking methods, to testing them in your own environment.
Why Traditional Security Testing Is Not Always Enough
Typical security testing tools enable teams to determine if systems are secure. However, they often have the same gaps:• They are reliant on a list of attacks that have been preloaded and may not be relevant to the current attacks.
• The process of writing tests is often time intensive, and requires a degree of expertise.
• Hackers are fast and smarter than most teams who are testing for attacks.
Even in the case when the security teams know what the latest attack looked like, pretty much after one news cycle, most companies cannot test quickly enough to ensure safety moving forward. The gap is real.
How AI Is Changing the Game
Second, consider this: You find a report about a new threat from cybercriminals, upload it into your system, and before you know it, your BAS tool builds a real, live simulation of that attack to test your defenses, in a matter of minutes. Impressive, right? That is the functionality of AI enabled BAS tools. They can ingest threat data and automatically build attack simulations, allowing security teams to see which elements of their systems are securely protected and which are susceptible to an attack.So, why is this functional utility useful?
• Faster Testing: You can convert your new threat report to a real test in minutes.
• Real Results: It demonstrates what an attacker could exploit your system based on what the report indicates.
• Better Clarity: You learn the security gaps that need remediating immediately.
• Proof to Management: You can provide actual data instead of best guesses to your boss.
In short, AI is helping you shift from just reading about attacking methods, to testing them in your own environment.
What Is The Downside?
Of course, not everything with AI is sunshine and rainbows; I have used merely "good" BAS systems in the past that could take hours to get operational. If AI can reduce that time to mere minutes, I will consider that a victory! Nevertheless, you need to be mindful of a few things:- The AI must be effectively assessing the data.
- It must work with any existing security tooling without issue.
- A human will still need to validate whether the findings are reasonable.