What is Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)?

By: Cymulate,

Last Updated: October 8, 2024

Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) is a cybersecurity testing method that imitates real-world to evaluate the effectiveness of an organization’s security controls. By simulating various attack scenarios, such as malware placement, phishing attempts, and firewall breaches, BAS helps identify vulnerabilities in security defenses without causing harm to systems. This automated and continuous process enables organizations to test their defenses regularly, ensuring that security measures are up-to-date and capable of detecting and mitigating potential threats.

How Breach and Attack Simulation Works

At its core, Breach and Attack Simulation is a platform that is designed to perform actions that closely mimic real threat scenarios to determine if they are will be caught by your security controls.

This can involve:

Placing files that are indistinguishable from malware (but not actually dangerous to your systems) onto a machine to see if the anti-malware tool catches them. By simulating the presence of malicious software, organizations can assess the reliability of their endpoint protection solutions without exposing the network to real risks.
Attempting to send data traffic through a firewall or malicious email through an email filter. This helps to identify potential gaps in network security configurations and email gateways, allowing security teams to fine-tune their settings to block unwanted traffic or threats effectively.

The Role of Complex Attack Scenarios in Breach and Attack Simulations

BAS uses a set of complex attack scenarios that attempt to bypass these control systems to reach a specific goal. These goals can vary based on the nature of the security controls being tested, but the overarching objective remains the same: to see if the simulated attack can slip past defenses undetected.

If that goal can be reached — such as traffic making it through a firewall, an email bypassing the email security filter, or malware executing on an endpoint — then the BAS platform has successfully uncovered a flaw in that specific control system. This discovery highlights a vulnerability that requires immediate remediation to prevent real-world attacks from exploiting the same weakness.

Cymulate, for example, leverages multiple simulations designed to test a variety of vectors (pathways that attackers can use to gain access to systems and resources). By providing a broad spectrum of simulations, Cymulate ensures that organizations can continuously assess and fine-tune their defenses across the entire attack surface.

Email Gateway Vector Simulations: Send emails that should be blocked by your spam filters.
Endpoint Vector Simulations: Drop files identified as malware onto disks to see if anti-malware tools detect them.

Simulating Real Threats in a Safe Environment with BAS

BAS platforms can execute files so that behavioral-based detection systems will see identifiable activity and jump into action, but in a safe and controlled manner to avoid creating even more risk in the process. Web Application Firewall (WAF) simulations attempt to trick a web server into giving up information or performing actions that it should not – An activity that must be stopped before it ever reaches the actual web server itself.

BAS is also designed to be run repeatedly; even automated to make the process of keeping security tight and up-to-date, making it easier for the organization to handle. The tests are designed not to interfere with production operations, working quietly behind the scenes so that users don’t even notice them running unless the vector is something like Phishing Awareness which tests employee vigilance.

Combined, these two properties of BAS allow your IT and/or security teams to test whenever they need to, rather than waiting for scheduled change-control times.

How does Breach and Attack Simulation differ from Penetration testing?

Traditional penetration testing usually offers a singular, point-in-time evaluation of an organization’s security posture. These assessments, usually conducted annually or bi-annulay, only provide a snapshot of vulnerabilities and weaknesses at the time of the test. However, with the rapidly evolving nature of cyber threats, this approach can leave gaps in security as new vulnerabilities arise between assessments.

In contrast, BAS platforms offer continuous, automated testing of an organization’s defenses. Instead of relying on periodic evaluations, BAS simulates real-world attack scenarios on an ongoing basis, targeting specific security controls to determine how they hold up against modern threats.

Unlike manual penetration testing or complex vulnerability scanners, BAS tools like Cymulate are designed even for those who are not security experts to use effectively and efficiently.

This means that you can take advantage of a higher level of security without increasing headcount or outsourcing to a specialized firm. While it cannot remove the need for manual pen-testing (especially if required by regulations), it can dramatically reduce the number of manual pen-tests you need to do in many cases, which impacts the overall security posture, and on the bottom line.

The Importance of Validating Security Controls with BAS

Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) is an effective way to identify and address weaknesses in security controls without disrupting operations or breaking budgets. But what exactly are “security controls”?

Simply put, a security control is anything that limits the ability of a threat actor to accomplish their goal, or otherwise stop even a legitimate user from doing something they shouldn’t.

Security controls can be devices/software or policies and are critical for making sure that everything stays safe in your organization. Common examples of devices and software include things like anti-malware tools, firewalls, web filters, and email filters. Examples of policies are Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) rules and company regulations that inform employees as to which websites are acceptable and unacceptable to view at work.

Security controls are powerful tools for any organization, but they can be complex and difficult to manage. An enterprise anti-malware platform may have dozens of pages of settings and configuration options, and setting something incorrectly can have consequences ranging from leaving the company open to attack to preventing users from getting their jobs done.

security control validation breaches

Because of the complexity of these solutions and policies, there are times when even the best security and IT teams make mistakes and accidentally weaken security. A single mistake can wind up costing the business millions of dollars, not only in lost revenue but also in lost time and loss of reputation.

Add to this the fact that the cybersecurity landscape changes on a daily – sometimes hourly – basis. A minor bug in an application’s code that caused no problems yesterday can become an easy port of entry for an anxious entrepreneurial cybercriminal to exploit today.

So despite all your security controls working perfectly, there can still be weaknesses that a threat actor can use to their advantage. Worst of all, it can evolve so quickly that it might go undetected for months, and by the time the threat is finally spotted, it may be too late to recover.

Why Breach and Attack Simulation is a Must-Have for Cybersecurity

BAS solutions test the security controls of your environment without impacting your end-users or requiring extensive cybersecurity knowledge. You can confirm that all of the security controls you put in place are working effectively and doing everything you expect them to be doing. You can quickly confirm that you are protected against the latest threats.

Finally, you can test repeatedly – and whenever needed. More importantly, if there are any weaknesses discovered anywhere, you can find the information you need to remediate the problem and close the gap quickly and completely. BAS is the method that tests everything else you have in place from a security perspective and allows you to stop speculating on if your security posture is where it needs to be.

Cymulate: BAS Testing Anytime, Anywhere

With just a few clicks, Cymulate challenges your security controls by initiating thousands of attack simulations, showing you exactly where you’re exposed and how to fix it—24/7.

With Cymulate’s BAS, you get: