In today’s digital world, organizations may use numerous software applications, have hundreds of employees and serve thousands of customers. This presents countless potential cyber security risks throughout the organization. To help front-run these threats before they happen, companies can utilize cyber security prevention techniques like vulnerability assessments, red teaming and penetration testing.
In order to employ these prevention methods as a cyber security professional, you must have the appropriate cyberthreat knowledge. St. Thomas University (STU) offers an online Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a specialization in Cyber Security Management program for those ready to lead these efforts. Advanced cyber security management coursework prepares you with the expertise to design and implement effective threat prevention strategies and programs.
A Three-Pronged Approach
Vulnerability assessment, penetration testing and red teaming are three cyber security prevention techniques commonly used in an overarching organizational strategy. While each method serves a distinct purpose, they work best when applied together as part of a layered cyber security risk assessment.
To highlight how they work together, let’s examine a hypothetical scenario: You are eager to protect an estate and a priceless painting you just inherited from a distant wealthy relative. Each of the three prevention techniques that follow maps directly onto a step you might take to protect that estate.
What Is Vulnerability Assessment?
Vulnerability assessment involves discovering and cataloging potential weaknesses across your organization. This strategy usually uses a high-level perspective, looking at threats across your entire organization without going into too much detail on any one specific area.
The process typically involves examining computer systems, networks and software to find weaknesses that hackers might exploit. With innovations in AI technologies, automated vulnerability scanning tools can accelerate this discovery process, but a thorough assessment adds manual analysis and risk prioritization on top of automated results.
To use our estate analogy, imagine a vulnerability assessment as walking around your house checking for weaknesses. This would include things like unlocked doors or windows, faulty locks or other entry points where burglars might be able to break in. In assessing vulnerabilities, you are not yet testing whether those weaknesses can be exploited. You are simply identifying where they exist.
What Is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing, also called pen testing, involves intentionally exploiting identified vulnerabilities to determine how a real attacker could take advantage of them. After you’ve conducted a vulnerability assessment to identify potential weaknesses, it’s time to test them to determine if they could present a cybersecurity threat.
To conduct a penetration test, companies will usually enlist the help of professional ethical hackers to try and attack the specific problem at hand. If they are successful, then you know you need to address that issue. The thinking here is that it’s better to get hacked by professionals you’ve hired than wait until an actual criminal hacks you.
To jump back to our analogy, let’s say that during your vulnerability assessment you realize that one of your upstairs windows has an alarm with poor wiring. This poor wiring might prevent the alarm from sounding properly if the window is opened. So, for penetration testing, you hire a professional burglar to try and break in using that window to test the integrity of your estate’s security. A successful breach confirms the vulnerability is real and actionable and tells you exactly what needs to be fixed.
What Is Red Teaming?
Red teaming is the practice of deploying a trusted group of security professionals to launch a simulated cyberattack on your organization, testing your overall security preparedness rather than targeting a single known weakness. Red teaming takes the idea of penetration testing and goes one step further.
The red team will attempt to compromise your systems in real time while your internal security personnel, commonly called the blue team, work to detect and ward them off. This dynamic between the red team and blue team mirrors the conditions of an actual attack, giving your organization a realistic picture of how well its defenses hold up.
To use our estate example, let’s say you agree that your upstairs window has a faulty alarm. However, you think your high fences, security guards and sensor-activated floodlights are more than enough to keep any burglars off your property. In this case, you would hire a team of professional crooks to use their creativity, knowledge and resources to try and breach your estate’s security without getting caught. Their goal is not to find one flaw but to expose every gap in your overall defenses.
Enhanced Cyber Security Knowledge
Using our analogy of trying to protect a priceless painting is a fun hypothetical scenario that makes cyber security seem a little bit like a game. In reality, cyber security is a very serious discipline, given people’s money, data and livelihood are at risk every day. The techniques above are also much more complex in practice than any analogy can convey.
If you are interested in pursuing a leadership career in the field, you can enroll in a specialized MBA program to expand your knowledge across business management and security infrastructure technology. STU’s online MBA in Cyber Security Management blends courses in business administration, strategy, ethics, law, and cutting-edge cyber security systems, technologies and practices.
These advanced studies provide you with the tools and processes necessary to protect digital assets from threats and attacks. The skills you gain apply across any business environment, preparing you to excel in a wide array of cyber security leadership positions.
Learn more about St. Thomas University’s online MBA program with a specialization in Cyber Security Management program.
