Threat Modelling

"Threat modeling is analyzing representations of a system to highlight concerns about security and privacy characteristics."

- The Threat Modelling Manifesto

Ever spent weeks or months building a system only to have deployment to production halted at the last minute? Well, it happens all the time. Unfortunately, security is often a second-class citizen, and, as such, investigation of potential threats only occurs right before deployment or after a long, expensive and hard to untangle period of development.

Threat modelling is a design process which aims to encourage an open-minded, investigative, continuous and proactive approach to understanding and addressing risk at an early stage. It is a risk assessment and management process based on representations of a system, rather than the assembled nuts and bolts. Already started development? No problem, threat modelling can be started at any stage of a system's evolution, although, the earlier the better. Risks and threats change and your organisation may need to adapt quickly.

Threat modelling analyses aspects such as authentication and authorization controls, network security and encryption. It may also try to understand what a regular user might look like, and, often just as importantly, what an attacker could look like. Should developers be anticipating sophisticated ransomware groups or nation state actors? Or are system controls more likely to be bypassed by regular users looking for discount codes?

Regardless of the type of system or nature of the business, threats exist. Realising what they are too late, can be expensive and damaging. Anticipating them early, that's good risk management.

Speak to us today to see how Realize Security's threat modelling methodology can be customised to protect and enable your business or use case.

Resources

• The Threat Modelling Manifesto