Continuous security validation is a proactive cybersecurity approach that requires consistently assessing and validating an organization’s security controls to prioritize remediation actions. It has become necessary because attackers constantly change tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). That is why security teams need to keep up.
If cyber attackers, for instance, shift to exploiting particular open ports, then it may be time for security teams to implement solutions capable of automatically scanning such ports and their vulnerabilities to strengthen their existing policies and procedures.
Table of Contents
- How Does Continuous Security Validation Work?
- What Are the Benefits of Continuous Security Validation?
- How Does Continuous Security Validation Differ from Continuous Security Monitoring?
Continuous Security Validation: A Deep Dive
How Does Continuous Security Validation Work?
Continuous security validation follows a four-step cycle that involves discovery, validation, prioritization, and optimization.
Discovery
In the discovery phase, organizations must scope their entire attack surface. Doing that manually can be tedious. An option to ease the process would be to use an external attack surface management (EASM) solution that can scan the entire public-facing network for all assets and the issues that affect them.
Validation
In the validation phase, organizations can form red and blue teams to conduct breach and attack simulations to further enhance their network security, especially since continuous security validation is more than penetration testing. It not only identifies previously unknown vulnerabilities but also finds ways to remedy them before they can get exploited.
Prioritization
After all existing and previously undetected issues are found, prioritization comes next. An EASM platform can also help with this process by, for instance, indicating the severity rating of an issue. As experts recommend, security teams must then start addressing the most critical issues first and go on down the line.
Optimization
As mentioned earlier, continuous security validation is a never-ending loop. So, in the optimization phase, organizations must work on improving existing security policies and solutions to keep even unknown threats at bay.
After that, the process must begin anew to ensure networks stay protected as attacker TTPs change over time.
What Are the Benefits of Continuous Security Validation?
Continuous security validation improves overall network visibility, allowing security teams to identify policy mismatches in security controls and increase the effectiveness of their cybersecurity solutions. It also helps organizations validate applied mitigations, enhance log management practices, prioritize security efforts, and monitor changes in their detection coverage.
All those translate to reduced security costs, third-party assurance, and brand protection.
How Does Continuous Security Validation Differ from Continuous Security Monitoring?
While many organizations may already be familiar with or even already rely on continuous security monitoring, continuous security validation may be a more novel concept.
Continuous security monitoring requires constant and real-time monitoring of the events and activities that take place in an organization’s network to enable security teams to gather up-to-date network activity logs to improve their threat detection and response capabilities. On the other hand, continuous security validation requires testing existing security controls to ensure they work and assure organizations their security infrastructure remains resilient against attacks.
In a sense, continuous security validation goes beyond seeing. It requires testing and then acting on the evidence gathered to ensure a better cybersecurity posture.
Key Takeaways
- Continuous security validation is a proactive cybersecurity approach that requires consistently assessing and validating an organization’s security controls to prioritize remediation actions.
- The approach is not a one-time process. Its phases—discovery, validation, prioritization, and optimization—must be conducted in a constant loop to ensure an organization’s network stays safe from all threats at all times.
- It improves network visibility, increases the effectiveness of security solutions, and more to reduce costs, reassure third parties they are protected from critical threats, and protect an organization’s brand and operations.
- Continuous security validation extends beyond continuous security monitoring. It empowers security teams to not only identify issues but also take action on them.
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