What is Breach and Attack Simulation?
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) is an advanced approach to efficiently test and validate the effectiveness of security controls in your IT environment.
More accurately described as “emulation” rather than simple simulation, BAS provides a focused, scenario-based replication of real attack techniques to assess the effectiveness of your detection and response capabilities. While simulation merely imitates the effects of attacks, our emulation approach precisely mimics the actual technical behavior and tactics of threat actors.
What Use Cases Does BAS Cover?
With our Breach and Attack Simulation, we offer you an efficient project to verify your security controls based on the MITRE ATT&CK® framework. The goal is to measure how well your security infrastructure (e.g., EDR, SIEM) can detect and respond to current threats and identify weaknesses in your response processes before real attackers can exploit them. This service is ideal for multiple use cases, including SOC team training, security tool validation, incident response process verification, and security operations benchmarking – at a fraction of the cost of a Red Team assessment .
Validating External SOC
It is particularly worth highlighting that BAS is also an especially efficient method for verifying the effectiveness of external SOC services. Through controlled and realistic attack simulations, you can objectively assess whether your SOC provider reliably detects threats, correctly prioritizes them, and responds appropriately as contractually agreed – without incurring the risk of an actual security incident.
Which Attack Techniques Are Emulated?
Our BAS projects utilize the highly-realistic playbooks provided by our partner RedMimicry, which emulate the technical behavior of real attackers as closely as possible - without causing actual harm. Each playbook includes detailed threat intelligence about the specific actors and TTPs being emulated, providing valuable context for understanding the attack methodologies. The playbooks are grouped into various scenarios, for example including LockBit, Black Basta, SPECTR or attacks against the software supply chain. These scenarios represent current threat actors and attack techniques.
Which Security Layers Are Tested?
The simulations comprehensively test the different layers of your security architecture, including:
- Endpoint Security: Testing the visibility, event collection, alerting, and blocking capabilities of your EDR solution
- Security Infrastructure: Verification of SIEM, UEBA, NDR, Next-Generation Firewalls, Log Collection, and Email Security
- Response Processes: Assessment of detection, analysis, response, and forensic capabilities
A key efficiency advantage of the RedMimicry platform is the ability to repeat scenarios without additional cost, thanks to its automatically managed infrastructure. This enables extensive test campaigns rather than just examining selected systems. The simulations employ advanced techniques like EDR evasion, obfuscation, and multi-stage payloads to realistically test your security controls.
SCHUTZWERK operates its own RedMimicry installation, requiring only a lightweight agent to be installed on your systems. This allows us to emulate sophisticated attack scenarios with minimal setup effort. The platform supports various operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux, ensuring comprehensive testing across your entire IT environment. The existing playbooks can be customized to your specific environment or we can develop entirely new attack scenarios tailored to your organization. The execution is managed by our experts with deep experience in cybersecurity and attack analysis.
Objective
Efficient assessment of detection and response capabilities through realistic simulations of attack scenarios
Question
How effective are the implemented security controls in detecting and responding to current attack techniques?
Scope
Security controls, detection and response measures in the IT infrastructure
Breach and Attack Simulation: Methodology & Approach
As part of a Breach and Attack Simulation, we conduct semi-automated attacks that replicate current threat scenarios and attack techniques. These attacks are executed against your security controls to verify their effectiveness in a controlled, project-based approach.
The process includes:
- Planning and scope definition: Determining which attack scenarios are most relevant to your organization
- Configuring the RedMimicry platform: Setting up the simulation environment in your network
- Executing attack simulations: Running realistic scenarios mimicking genuine threat actors
- Real-time monitoring: Documenting which attacks were detected and which remained unnoticed
- Results analysis: Evaluating your detection and response capabilities
- Recommendations: Developing actionable advice for improving security controls
The simulations cover various phases of the attack lifecycle, from initial compromise to lateral movement and data exfiltration.
Core Components of a SCHUTZWERK Breach and Attack Simulation
A Breach and Attack Simulation typically includes the following aspects:
- Semi-automated emulation of attack techniques based on the MITRE ATT&CK® framework
- Attack scenarios with realistic threat actor behavior (e.g. based on RedMimicry playbooks)
- Flexible execution options: covert testing or collaborative purple teaming approach
- Built-in threat intelligence for each attack scenario and playbook
- Incident Response Readiness Exercises to test and improve crisis management capabilities
- Identification of security gaps and blind spots in your detection systems
- Validation of your Security Operations Center (SOC) and response capabilities
- Documentation of which attacks were detected and which remained unnoticed
- Detailed reports with concrete recommendations for action
The simulations can be tailored to your specific requirements and threat scenarios, providing a cost-effective alternative to full-scale Red Team assessments while still delivering valuable insights into your security posture.
- Value: BAS offers a highly cost-effective alternative to comprehensive Red Team assessments, providing targeted insights into security control effectiveness at a fraction of the cost and time investment. The reusable infrastructure and automated components significantly reduce consulting expenses while maintaining high-quality results.
Benefits of Breach and Attack Simulation
Breach and Attack Simulation offers several advantages compared to traditional security testing:
- Rapid Implementation: Quick setup and execution of realistic attack scenarios using RedMimicry’s pre-built playbooks.
- Comprehensive Coverage: Systematic simulation of a wide range of attack techniques and tactics.
- Risk-based Prioritization: Identification of the most critical security gaps based on real threat scenarios.
- Measurable Results: Quantifiable assessment of detection and response capabilities.
- Cost Efficiency: Semi-automated execution of security tests saves time and resources compared to fully manual Red Team exercises.
- Reality Check: Verification of whether your security monitoring tools and SOC can actually detect sophisticated attacks.
Our experts support you in interpreting the BAS results and implementing effective improvements to your security posture.
Breach and Attack Simulation vs. Red Teaming : Key Differences
While both Breach and Attack Simulation and Red Teaming aim to test your security controls, they differ in several important ways:
- Approach: BAS uses semi-automated tools and predefined scenarios, while Red Teaming relies primarily on manual techniques and greater attacker creativity. Red Teaming adapts attack techniques both during initial planning and continuously throughout the engagement specifically to the customer’s infrastructure, security defenses, and business processes, whereas BAS uses more standardized attack scenarios.
- Duration: BAS is typically conducted as an efficient, time-limited project, while Red Teaming often runs over several weeks or months.
- Scope: BAS focuses specifically on testing detection and response capabilities against known attack patterns, while Red Teaming has a broader scope that may include physical security, social engineering, and custom exploit development.
- Resource Investment: BAS requires significantly less time and budget compared to a full Red Team assessment.
- Purpose: BAS aims to efficiently verify security controls with realistic scenarios, while Red Teaming aims to comprehensively test an organization’s entire security posture against highly adaptive attackers.
- Depth and Agility: BAS provides a good overview, but not the depth and agility of a Red Team assessment.
BAS can be an excellent alternative when you need to validate your detection capabilities but don’t require the full depth and breadth of a Red Team assessment. It’s particularly valuable for organizations that want to efficiently test their SOC capabilities or as a stepping stone before undertaking a more comprehensive Red Team exercise.
Conclusion: Proactive Security Validation with Breach and Attack Simulation
Breach and Attack Simulation represents an important building block in a modern cybersecurity strategy. It enables organizations to efficiently validate their security controls against current threats and improve the effectiveness of their defense measures.
SCHUTZWERK supports you with expertise and RedMimicry’s state-of-the-art attack simulation platform to comprehensively assess your detection and response capabilities. If you require an even more comprehensive assessment, we also offer Red Team services . Contact us to learn more about our Breach and Attack Simulation services and how we can help you strengthen your cyber defenses.