Extended Security Posture Management (XSPM) for Comprehensive Validation Coverage

Extended Security Posture Management (XSPM) provides a comprehensive set of validation tools an organization needs to provide ongoing management of its cybersecurity posture. It is the only platform to automate and combine purple teaming and red teaming methodologies that answer customer concerns: Are my security technologies and processes effectively protecting the organization? and How can my organization be breached?

Delivering Comprehensive Security and Business Validation with XSPM

The cybersecurity industry is based on the principle that hackers are usually one step ahead and defenders are a step behind. To try and flip it around, businesses took steps to understand where their security posture is weak and vulnerable. For instance, automated testing in the application development lifecycle (continuous but not comprehensive) or penetration testing services (comprehensive but not continuous).

With its XSPM platform, Cymulate helps companies stay one step ahead of cyber attackers. It mimics the same myriad of attack strategies and tools that malicious hackers and cybercriminals use, allowing businesses to assess their true preparedness to handle cybersecurity threats effectively. Once discovered, it provides specific recommendations for remediation and both technical and executive reporting.

Since it’s an on-demand SaaS-based platform, it lets users run simulations 24/7 from anywhere, significantly shortening the testing cycles and speeding up the time to remediation.

The capabilities and functions of the Cymulate XSPM platform include:

• The ability to test all phases of an attack: pre-exploitation, exploitation, and post-exploitation
• Full coverage of the MITRE ATT&CK framework
• On-demand testing in addition to automation for continued testing and monitoring
• Effective but safe testing that avoids disrupting production systems
• Test individual controls, as well as how those controls work together
• Continuous, automatic updates, including pinpoint simulations of emerging threats
• Full technical reporting, native SOAR and GRC integration, CSV output for ingestion in other tools, and executive reporting for non-technical professionals

Offensive Testing Methods Used in XSPM

To truly understand how an adversary might breach a system, organizations need to adopt a range of offensive testing techniques. These methods emulate different stages of real-world cyberattacks and help assess whether security defenses can withstand them. Each approach plays a unique role, and when combined within the XSPM platform, they offer a comprehensive and continuous view of an organization’s security posture.

1. Attack Surface Management (ASM) looks for exposed and accessible digital assets or company information. Essentially, this technology emulates an adversary's reconnaissance stage.
2. Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART) – end-to-end penetration campaigns that point to the attack paths through which an organization might be breached.
3. Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) – simulates attacks against each and every security control in order to validate its efficacy.
4. Purple Teaming - collaborative exercises between red and blue teams to simulate real-world attack scenarios and improve detection and response capabilities

Time and time again we hear from security professionals and executives that different teams utilize different approaches and a full-stack solution combining those approaches is really what they need to get a holistic view of the current state of the security posture.

Red Teams focus on automating penetration campaigns end to end and Purple Teams on customizing attacks and complex attack scenarios. Many vendors focus on one or two of the above and provide their customers only with a partial picture.

The Future of Extended Security Posture Management

Comprehensive, end-to-end validation is a must. However, this, too, leaves the organization with yet another unmanaged list of action items to act upon. Platforms correlating the data produced by exposure management and security validation capabilities are the next generation of Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) and Continuous Security Validation tools. These management platforms include analytics, insights, intuitive control dashboards, and above all – some automation and integration. When providing gradual modular implementation options, these platforms are flexible and support different skills and companies’ security maturity levels.

The Cymulate holistic approach combines all the automated continuous testing methods. It adds the control and prioritization plane with management capabilities required to have a fact-based discussion on cybersecurity in light of business needs while providing the security team prescription for a remedy. For example, vulnerability prioritization technology—the ability to connect to vulnerability scanners in order to reflect the most urgent vulnerabilities to patch—improves prioritization and resource optimization, eventually creating a better cybersecurity posture.

Whatever solution you choose, make sure you can do the following:

1. Assess your current state to establish a security baseline
2. Close gaps in security baseline and maximize security posture to optimization
3. Rationalize your technology, people, and processes to optimize investments
4. Assure improved operational effectiveness and prevent security drift.

Remove assumptions, document how you are secure end-to-end.

To find out if your organization is protected against the latest malware attacks, run Cymulate's Immediate Threat Assessment. This allows you to test and verify by yourself if your organization is exposed to these attacks. It also offers suggestions for mitigations in case it turns out that your organization is indeed vulnerable. Also, IOCs are available at the Cymulate UI!