Simplifying Security Validation For Enterprises - What You Should Know

Every cloud-native enterprise adds dozens of security tools to boost their cloud infrastructure. However, as per an IBM report, the proverbial “more is better” is not always applicable due to a lack of visibility on their performance. To ensure the efficacy of security controls both individually and collectively, security control validation is critical to maintain proper cybersecurity hygiene.

Security validation is used for the secure simulation of actual attacks on cloud systems, in order to test weaknesses like misconfigurations, exploitable software vulnerabilities, or weak credentials. It helps identify the resistance to potential breaches and designate areas which need to be fortified. This article talks about the importance of security validation, outlines its objectives, and explains relevant concepts and practical applications.

Importance of security validation

Continuous security posture validation enhances an organization’s cybersecurity measures while maintaining compliance with industrial regulations. The following reasons highlight the importance of security validation:

• Threat identification: Security validation tools can mimic attacks and breaches like social engineering and spear phishing. This helps identify and respond to potential threats in advance to prevent future harm.
• Security measures verification: This process can be used to improve security systems like firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems for better security performance.
• Risk management: Security control validation can assist in isolating gaps & mitigating risks as well as identify areas that need to be fortified.
• Regulatory compliance: Security validation can help cloud-native enterprises meet compliance standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP and ISO 27000 compliance standards by deploying tools and methodologies like Zero Trust, BAS, CART etc, some of which have been discussed in the later sections.
• Continuous improvement: Security validation provides validity to the cloud-native infrastructure security by continuously testing security measures. 

Objectives Of Security Validation

The objectives of security control validation are primarily based on 

1. Improving the performance of security controls
2. Advanced threat detection & response
3. Gaining foresight towards building a robust security posture. 

The above can be categorized into 4 major objectives:

• Ascertain and Remove Vulnerabilities: This helps identify potential weaknesses and get rid of them before attackers can exploit them.
• Resource Optimization: Ensuring that every security tool is performing up to standards.
• Improved Incident Response: This helps boost the speed and efficacy of threat management of the security operations center (SOC) towards unknown security incidents.
• Minimize Financial & Reputational Risks: This ensures that no harm is done by unintended security incidents towards the infrastructure or brand reputation of an organization.

Security Controls Validation Vs. Traditional Security Testing

Security Controls Validation sets itself apart from traditional security testing frameworks and some of the key differences are listed below:

• Automated Continuous Assessments: In most cases, traditional testing methods are limited to periodic evaluations based on a designated time frequency, On the contrary, Security Controls Validation is a continuous and automated evaluation of an organization’s security frameworks.
• Line of Defense: Traditional security testing methodologies are limited to a set of protocols for a likely security incident but are not adaptable. Security posture validation testing implements higher forms of threat intelligence measures to create a state of preparedness against any and all threat scenarios.  
• Mission-Critical Attack Simulations: This approach differs from traditional security testing scenarios as it utilizes real-world attack scenarios to verify the performance matrix of security controls.

Tools & Components Of Security Validation

The components and tools of security validation assists enterprises to assess security vulnerabilities in your system. Here are some examples of security validation components tools:

• Breach & Attack Simulation (BAS): BAS tools simulate cyber attacks within the organization by mimicking the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by actual cybercriminals such as email attacks, vulnerability exploitations, data exfiltration etc. During the breach simulation, BAS monitors the security controls like Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW), Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) and collects data to identify the performance and areas of improvement. Some common platforms include Picus Security and Cymulate.
• Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART): Similar to BAS, CART can host potential attacks with the help of tools and exploits created by industry experts outside the organization. It uses red teaming to create multi-stage attacks on network vulnerabilities(insecure user accounts, open ports, misconfigured firewalls), software vulnerabilities(OS command injection, cross-site scripting, and man-in-the-middle attacks) and employee vulnerabilities (social engineering, malware injection, and phishing scams) from outside the organization. This helps to identify and remove gaps in the current infrastructure and improve the enterprise security. Some common examples include Cymulate, IBM Security Randori & FireCompass.
• Zero Trust Model: The Zero Trust model assumes that no user or device should be trusted by default and requires strict access controls and continuous verification of users and devices before granting access to resources or data. It uses MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication), Micro-segmentation and least privilege principle to continuously improve security.
• API testing: OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite, or Postman and similar tools are capable of creating unique API-based security protocols. Fuzz testing, API traffic interception and vulnerability scanning are some examples which can be used for implementing infrastructure security.
• Attack Surface Management (ASM): Known commonly as ASM, it helps identify the potential attack surface of an organization by incorporating them into known, unknown, or third-party assets. A comprehensive ASM solution can help identify, classify, and monitor all assets in the IT infrastructure to uncover exposures and enhance overall security. 

Conclusion

Cybersecurity requires a more holistic approach when it comes to identifying & mitigating threats. This ensures the safety of your company as well as its customers. With Entro, you not only secure your non-human identities (API keys, access tokens, encryption keys) but gain valuable insights to keep your organization compliant and resilient against potential threats. Entro enriches security validation by giving you key insights into exposed non-human identities complete with context about which resources they secure. Leverage Entro and stay ahead of security threats.