What is Attack Simulation?
Attack Simulation recreates techniques commonly used by threat actors against selected systems, users, or infrastructure within agreed rules of engagement.
Unlike vulnerability assessments that focus on identifying weaknesses, attack simulations evaluate how existing security controls, monitoring tools, and operational procedures perform during a realistic security event.
The objective is to measure detection capability, response effectiveness, communication, and operational readiness without exposing production systems to unnecessary risk.
How Attack Simulation Differs
What Attack Simulation Helps You Validate
Detection Capability
Determine whether security monitoring solutions identify suspicious activity within expected timeframes. The assessment evaluates alert quality, coverage gaps, and the accuracy of detection rules across your security tooling.
Incident Response
Evaluate how internal teams investigate alerts, coordinate actions, and manage incidents. The simulation measures time-to-detect, time-to-respond, and the quality of decision-making under realistic conditions.
Security Controls
Validate whether endpoint protection, network controls, identity protections, and monitoring systems respond as intended. Identify controls that underperform or fail to activate during realistic attack scenarios.
Operational Readiness
Assess communication, escalation procedures, documentation, and decision-making throughout an incident. Understand whether your organisation can coordinate effectively when security events occur.
Attack Scenarios We Can Simulate
External Intrusion Attempts
Simulated attacks against internet-facing infrastructure, applications, and exposed services. The assessment evaluates perimeter defences, detection capabilities, and response procedures for external threat scenarios.
Credential-Based Attacks
Password spraying, credential misuse, and account compromise scenarios within approved scope. Evaluates identity controls, monitoring for authentication anomalies, and response to account-based threats.
Phishing Simulations
Controlled phishing campaigns designed to evaluate user awareness and response procedures. Measures click rates, reporting behaviour, and the effectiveness of security awareness programmes.
Lateral Movement
Assessment of how an attacker could move through connected systems after gaining initial access where the engagement scope permits. Evaluates network segmentation, monitoring, and detection of internal movement.
Data Access Scenarios
Controlled attempts to access sensitive information in order to validate monitoring and access controls. Assesses data loss prevention capabilities and the detection of unauthorised data access.
Ransomware Readiness
Simulation of behaviors associated with ransomware attacks to evaluate detection, containment, and response procedures. The assessment does not deploy destructive malware or encrypt production data.
What We Measure
Response metrics provide an objective view of your organisation's operational security posture during a realistic attack scenario.
Detection Time
Mean time to detect simulated activity
Initial Response Time
Time from alert to first analyst action
Escalation Efficiency
Speed and accuracy of escalation procedures
Alert Quality
Signal-to-noise ratio across security tooling
Visibility Coverage
Percentage of attack stages generating alerts
Containment Effectiveness
Speed and completeness of containment actions
Response Coordination
Cross-team communication and decision quality
Recovery Preparedness
Readiness to restore normal operations
Why Conduct Attack Simulations?
Validate Existing Investments
Confirm whether deployed security technologies perform as expected during realistic attack scenarios. Understand the return on investment from your security tooling before a real incident occurs.
Improve Incident Readiness
Identify procedural gaps before they affect a live security incident. Understand where response procedures break down and where additional training or documentation is needed.
Strengthen Operational Processes
Support continuous improvement across monitoring, response, and communication workflows. Use simulation findings to drive measurable improvements in security operations.
Build Leadership Confidence
Provide leadership with an independent understanding of organisational cyber readiness. Support board-level reporting with evidence-based assessments of security programme effectiveness.