Security posture

What is security posture?

Security posture is an organization’s overall security status and risk tolerance. It includes cybersecurity policies, controls, and technical capabilities to protect against threats. It evaluates how effectively an organization can predict, prevent, detect, and respond to cyber threats. A robust security posture addresses current threats and adapts to new vulnerabilities, ensuring comprehensive protection.

Summary

Security posture is a critical measure of an organization’s resilience against cyber threats, assessing the effectiveness of security controls across people, processes, and technology. A robust security posture focuses on defensive measures and proactive steps to reduce risks, like continuous monitoring, threat intelligence integration, and incident response readiness. Improving security posture needs regular evaluation and assessments, updates to security policies, and adapting to emerging threats.

Organizations with a solid security posture can better anticipate, prevent, and respond to cyber threats, reducing risk exposure and enhancing overall security.

Deep dive

How to assess security posture

Assessing your security posture is a structured approach to evaluating your organization’s security controls and overall effectiveness. Common methods include:

Vulnerability assessments: Regular scans to identify vulnerabilities in systems, apps, and networks that attackers could exploit.
Penetration testing: Ethical hackers simulate attacks to test defenses and find exploitable weaknesses.
Security audits and compliance checks: Review security policies, procedures, and configurations against industry standards like NIST, ISO 27001, and GDPR.
Incident response readiness reviews: Test the ability to detect, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents through tabletop exercises, which simulate different attack scenarios, helping to uncover weaknesses and evaluate the effectiveness of your security defenses.
Threat intelligence integration: Use real-time threat data to adjust your security measures and anticipate evolving risks.

How to improve cybersecurity posture

Improving your cybersecurity posture involves a multi-layered strategy that addresses technical, procedural, and human factors:

Enhance security awareness training: Regularly train employees to recognize phishing, social engineering, and other common attacks.
Adopt zero trust architecture: A zero trust model assumes no user or device is trusted by default and continuously verifies all users and devices.
Use threat detection tools: Deploy monitoring tools like SIEM (security information and event management) and EDR (endpoint detection and response) to detect anomalies and threats in real time.
Patch management: Regularly update software and systems to ensure that systems are up-to-date and protected against known vulnerabilities.
Strengthen access controls: Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) and least privilege access principles to minimize the impact of credential compromises.

Risk posture

Risk posture is a category of security posture that specifically evaluates an organization’s tolerance for risk. It considers the likelihood and impact of threats and how the organization manages them while balancing security investments and acceptable risk levels.

Organizations with a strong risk posture actively assess threats and vulnerabilities and implement controls aligning with their risk tolerance. These assessments range from vulnerability scans and penetration testing to compliance audits and threat modeling.

Those with a weak risk posture might underinvest in security measures, leaving them exposed to high-impact incidents. The key to managing risk posture is understanding that it’s dynamic and evolves with new threats, technologies, and business processes.

Security posture management

Security posture management means continuously monitoring and managing your organization’s security posture to identify and address weaknesses. You can do it by automating visibility, analyzing, and remedying security gaps.

Cloud security posture management (CSPM): Automates the detection of misconfigurations and compliance risks in cloud environments to help maintain security standards in dynamic cloud infrastructures.
Configuration management: Ensures that all systems are configured securely to reduce the attack surface.
Automated compliance checking: Tools to automatically assess compliance with security policies and regulatory requirements.
Risk scoring and prioritization: Tools provide real-time risk assessments and scoring to prioritize vulnerabilities based on their severity and potential impact so that teams can focus on critical issues first.

Examples

Snowblind malware: In early 2024, Promon identified a new banking trojan named Snowblind targeting Android apps. This malware exploited gaps in the security posture of banking apps, specifically the inadequate monitoring and enforcement of the Linux kernel feature seccomp. These weaknesses made it difficult to detect and defend against the malware, emphasizing the need for continuous security audits and updates to address emerging vulnerabilities.
FjordPhantom malware: In late 2023, Promon’s research uncovered FjordPhantom, a sophisticated malware targeting banks in Southeast Asia. This incident exposed flaws in app security posture, including weak defenses against social engineering and insufficient protection against advanced attack techniques. These vulnerabilities allowed unauthorized data access, stressing the importance of strengthening user verification methods and updating threat detection systems.
Wi-Fi at train stations: In September 2024, a cyberattack compromised Wi-Fi services at 19 UK train stations by exploiting a legitimate administrator account. This incident revealed critical security posture weaknesses, particularly in third-party service management, poor access control, and insufficient real-time monitoring. It underscores the need for stricter access permissions, enhanced monitoring of privileged accounts, and faster incident response capabilities.

History

The concept of security posture evolved as threats became more sophisticated and widespread. This prompted organizations to adopt a more holistic approach to cybersecurity.

Initially, security efforts were reactive and focused mainly on perimeter defenses like firewalls and antivirus software. But with the rise of advanced persistent threats (APTs), supply chain attacks, and cloud computing, a comprehensive strategy was needed.

The adoption of industry standards like the NIST cybersecurity framework, ISO 27001, and CIS controls played a major role in formalizing security posture assessments. Today, security posture is not just about defense but also about proactive measures, continuous improvement, and resilience in the face of evolving threats.

Future

The future of security posture management will be defined by automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). AI tools offer predictive threat modeling and automatic remediation, which allows organizations to stay on top of emerging threats. Going forward, security posture management platforms will integrate more with cloud environments to offer real-time security assessments as the attack surface changes. Regulatory pressures will also drive organizations to adopt more stringent security posture assessments to comply with evolving standards. The integration of predictive analytics and AI will enable organizations to anticipate vulnerabilities before they are exploited, transforming security posture from reactive to predictive.