Offensive Cybersecurity: What is it?

Cybersecurity practices that effectively reduce the chances of your company suffering a hacker attack go far beyond the well-known defensive actions. Learn what offensive cybersecurity is and how it can help prevent losses

When talking about cybersecurity, the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is the idea of ​​defending their digital assets against hackers and “computer viruses”, thus investing in protection through antivirus, firewalls, good practices, etc.

All of this is indeed cybersecurity, but these defensive approach capabilities are just part of what must be done to ensure that a company’s digital assets are truly secure.

There are other resources within the cybersecurity universe that go beyond defensive activities, including practices that are considered offensive. Thus, we have the categories defensive cybersecurity and offensive cybersecurity.

What is offensive cybersecurity?

Offensive cybersecurity is a set of practices, complementary to defensive cybersecurity, which consists of simulating cyberattacks on systems, networks and applications to discover and exploit security flaws with the aim of correcting them before real hackers do so.

In other words, while defensive cybersecurity focuses on protecting systems and networks against attacks through preventative security tools, offensive cybersecurity focuses on conducting controlled attacks to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in security.

Both approaches are important to ensuring comprehensive cybersecurity, as defensive security protects against known threats and offensive security uncovers unknown vulnerabilities and assists in continually improving defenses.

How do we do this?

Offensive cybersecurity is typically performed by security professionals known as ethical hackers or penetration testers .

They perform their activities with the consent and knowledge of the system owner, as well as the network to improve overall security. Ultimately, this strengthens defenses and reduces the risk of successful cyberattacks.

The main activities involved in offensive cybersecurity are:

1. Pentesting : Performing controlled attacks on systems and networks to identify vulnerabilities. This may include exploiting flaws in applications, operating systems, wireless networks, IoT (Internet of Things) devices , and other infrastructure components.
2. Vulnerability analysis : continuous assessment of systems, networks and applications in search of known or unknown security flaws, classifying them by degree of criticality. This involves the use of specialized resources and tools to identify and exploit vulnerabilities.
3. Reverse engineering : analysis of the structure of systems, networks and applications to understand their internal functioning and identify possible vulnerabilities.
4. Exploit development : Creating code and techniques to exploit specific vulnerabilities in various categories of targets. They use these exploits to demonstrate the consequences of a security exploit or provide mitigation recommendations.
5. Security intelligence gathering : researching and monitoring information about threats, vulnerabilities, and techniques used by real hackers. This helps to understand trends in cyberattacks and anticipate potential threats.

Count on a company specialized in offensive cybersecurity

A company specializing in offensive cybersecurity, such as Resh Pentest Experts , has advanced skills and knowledge to identify vulnerabilities that may go unnoticed during internal security assessments.

Therefore, we perform comprehensive testing and simulate attacks across a variety of categories to uncover weaknesses and security flaws that real attackers can exploit.

Want to know how to improve your company’s cybersecurity?

Furthermore, we offer the most complete Pentest on the market with services that adapt to the needs of your business.

If you want to understand more about the topic, get in touch with Resh.