Dr Anton Chuvakin Blog (Original)

Security writing since the mid-2000s. New posts are mirrored from Anton on Security on Medium.

Security Testing: At What Level?

By Anton Chuvakin
Historical Archive Note: This post was originally published on the Gartner Blog Network on January 29, 2018 by Anton Chuvakin.
Original URL: http://blogs.gartner.com/anton-chuvakin/2018/01/29/security-testing-at-what-level/ | Archive.org Snapshot

Now that we are on a subject of testing security and breach/attack simulation tools, one more interesting question arises: if you test security, what constitutes a “pass”? Or, alternatively, at what level do you test?

Think back to the infamous bear analogy. In security, it is NOT a certainty [it is also not obviously false, BTW] that it is enough to outrun the slowest competitor [who the bear can then eat … chomp-chomp], you may actually have to outrun the bear [a Russian APT joke is here somewhere I am sure].

So, there are good arguments that you need to test at the level of your likely adversary [i.e. the above BEAR, even if he is not that FANCY … there!]. But how do you know that level? Even if your threat assessment capabilities are not shitty, this is likely achievable by a tiny minority only… people who basically know what “threat assessment” even means (some actually call it “threat modelling” despite the appsec connotations) …

Here is what I am thinking:

Conceptual test level Pros Cons
Test at maximum possible level You can test whether your security posture will withstand the best of the best Gap may be so huge, that no clear action plan is evident
Test at the level of your current security Can test the freshly deployed controls; can actually ace the test Not immediately motivating for making improvements
Test at the level of your current security PLUS 10% Easy to figure out what to improve How do you actually define and measure it?
Test at the level of your past adversary Can have data, to be turned into test methods Not a good prediction of the future, perhaps?
Test at the level of your likely adversary Philosophically, this is the best scenario! Hard to gather solid data on this, and figure it out

Now, hilarity ensues if “level of your likely adversary” is MUCH higher than “level of your current security” 🙂

Ideas? Impressions?

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