How to Validate Your Security Controls Before It’s Too Late

Security Controls Validation: The Critical Difference Between Protection and Vulnerability

Cybersecurity teams face a critical challenge: ensuring their security controls actually work when attacked. Many organisations implement extensive security measures but fail to validate their effectiveness before a real attack occurs. This oversight creates a dangerous false sense of security. Security controls validation isn’t just another cybersecurity checkbox—it’s a fundamental practice that can mean the difference between a thwarted attack and a devastating breach.

Key Takeaways: Security Controls Validation

• Security controls often fail during attacks due to misconfigurations, excessive privileges, and lack of regular testing
• Effective validation uses threat-informed approaches aligned with the MITRE ATT&CK framework
• Realistic testing requires simulating actual attack techniques against Windows, Linux, and Mac environments
• Continuous validation helps meet requirements for regulations like NIS2, DORA, and UK CSRA
• Organisations can improve their security posture by implementing a methodical, continuous validation approach

Understanding how to properly validate your security controls before an attack occurs is essential for maintaining effective cyber resilience.

Why Most Security Controls Fail When Attacked

Security controls often appear robust on paper but collapse when faced with real-world attacks. This disconnect happens for several critical reasons:

• Improper configuration of security tools
• Lack of testing against realistic attack scenarios
• Default settings left unchanged
• Excessive user privileges
• Overlooked system hardening requirements

Another common failure point is the gap between security tool capabilities and their actual implementation. Organisations may invest in sophisticated security solutions but fail to properly configure them for their specific environment. Even well-implemented controls degrade over time as environments change and new vulnerabilities emerge.

Without regular validation, security controls become increasingly misaligned with actual threats. This leads to a dangerous situation where security teams believe they’re protected against attacks that could easily bypass their defences. Regular, threat-informed validation closes this gap by identifying where controls are insufficient before attackers discover these weaknesses.

What Makes Effective Security Validation Different?

Traditional Security Assessment	Modern Security Validation
Predictable patterns	Threat-informed approach
Checklist-based methodologies	Simulation of actual attack techniques
Compliance-focused	Effectiveness-focused
Abstract assessments	Targeted to specific organisational threats

Simulation-based testing provides a more realistic assessment than compliance-driven checklists. By mimicking actual attack techniques documented in frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK, organisations can understand how their security controls would perform against genuine threats. This approach reveals gaps that traditional security testing might miss.

Validation should focus on testing security controls in the context of specific threat scenarios relevant to your organisation. Rather than abstract assessments, this targeted approach evaluates your defences against the threats most likely to affect your specific industry, technology stack, and business model.

How Can You Test Security Controls Realistically?

Testing security controls realistically requires moving beyond theoretical vulnerability assessments to simulate actual attack techniques. Start by identifying the most relevant threat scenarios for your organisation based on industry threats and your technical environment.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework provides an excellent foundation for realistic testing. This framework catalogues real-world attack techniques and tactics used by threat actors. By selecting specific techniques from this framework, security teams can systematically test their controls against documented adversary behaviours.

Methodical Validation Process:

1. Select specific ATT&CK techniques relevant to your threat model
2. Align your security controls against these techniques
3. Test how controls perform when facing these techniques
4. Analyse detection and prevention capabilities
5. Address gaps and misconfigurations
6. Repeat tests to verify improvements

Automated security validation platforms like Validato enable this process by safely simulating attack techniques in production environments without creating actual risk, providing meaningful insights about your security posture.

Common Security Gaps by Operating System

Windows Environment	Linux Environment	Mac Environment
Excessive user privileges	Insecure permission settings	Misconfigured permissions
Weak credential policies	Default configurations	Outdated software
Unpatched vulnerabilities	Unpatched services	Excessive user privileges
PowerShell abuse	Privilege escalation	Authentication bypasses
Legacy protocol exploitation	Credential harvesting	Persistence mechanisms

Security validation should systematically test for these environment-specific vulnerabilities, particularly focusing on:

• Access control weaknesses
• Authentication bypasses
• Privilege escalation paths
• Persistence mechanisms
• Defence evasion techniques

Regulatory Requirements for Security Validation

Recent regulations increasingly emphasise the need for security controls validation. Frameworks like NIS2, DORA, and UK CSRA now require organisations to demonstrate not just the presence of security controls but their actual effectiveness.

Key Regulatory Requirements:

• NIS2 Directive: Requires organisations to implement and verify effectiveness of security measures
• DORA: Mandates regular testing of cybersecurity measures for financial entities
• UK CSRA: Establishes security requirements for critical infrastructure

Proactive security validation helps meet these requirements by providing evidence of controls testing, demonstrating a threat-informed security approach, offering documentation of remediation efforts, and supporting continual improvement of security measures.

Regulatory frameworks increasingly recognise simulation-based testing as a key component of cyber resilience. Many cybersecurity authorities recommend organisations use security control validation tools to verify effectiveness by simulating attacker behaviours mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

Implementing a Continuous Validation Approach

Implementing effective security validation requires a methodical approach that builds over time. Rather than attempting to validate everything at once, organisations should adopt a phased implementation:

This staged approach allows organisations to focus resources on the most critical aspects of security first. Since most cyber threats affect host environments, starting with endpoint validation provides immediate value while building organisational capabilities.

For organisations with limited security resources, automated validation platforms significantly reduce the expertise needed. These tools enable even smaller security teams to implement professional-grade security validation with minimal specialised knowledge.

Measuring the Impact of Security Validation

Key Metrics to Track:

• Reduction in security control gaps over time
• Decreased mean time to remediate identified issues
• Improved coverage of relevant attack techniques
• Enhanced detection rates for simulated attacks

These metrics demonstrate tangible improvements in security posture and help justify security investments. When communicating with leadership, focus on translating technical improvements into business outcomes—such as reduced risk exposure, enhanced compliance posture, and more efficient security operations.

Regular reporting on validation results helps maintain focus on security improvements and demonstrates progress toward a more resilient security posture. By quantifying security control effectiveness, organisations can make more informed decisions about where to allocate security resources for maximum impact.

Conclusion

Security controls validation isn’t merely a technical exercise—it’s a fundamental business practice that protects against increasingly sophisticated threats while meeting regulatory requirements. By implementing a thoughtful, continuous validation approach, organisations can significantly improve their security posture and reduce their vulnerability to attacks.

If you’re interested in learning more, contact our expert team today.