What’s the Difference between Offensive and Defensive Cybersecurity?

If you’ve been paying attention to anything involving computers or the Internet recently, you know cybersecurity is at the forefront of business needs, and will continue to be for some time. But not all cybersecurity measures are the same. So, what’s the difference between offensive and defensive cybersecurity?

Think of your company as a castle. The castle has numerous defensive measures to keep intruders out; a moat, a drawbridge, castle gates, and high, fortified walls with guards at the ready to repel invaders. While these are undoubtedly necessary, they are passive and defensive security measures. Your company has similar cybersecurity measures available in the form of firewalls, malware detectors, antivirus, network scans, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and cybersecurity training. These tools stand at the ready, waiting to repel a cyber threat to your company.

The other side of the cybersecurity realm is active or offensive. To continue the castle analogy, imagine a Game of Thrones episode in which a group of mercenaries is hired by the castle’s owner to break in undetected. The invaders would use a variety of methods to try and find a vulnerability in the castle’s defenses and breach the walls undetected. Once they found a way in, they would let the owner know how they did it, likely resulting in plot twists, treachery and beheadings.

For your business, offensive cybersecurity measures include Pentesting, Pentest Scanning, Code Review and Vulnerability Assessments. These are active measures used to try and find a weakness in your company’s cybersecurity. They vary in intrusiveness to your company’s network, but are invaluable to establishing and maintaining security and privacy of your company’s data.

So, which is better for your business, offensive or defensive cybersecurity measures? The answer is both. “You can’t just be passive anymore,” says MacguyverTech CEO Steve (Mac) McKeon. “It’s always important to make sure your defensive cybersecurity measures are up to date, but you also need to have a service that thinks like a hacker and tries to find vulnerabilities in your system.”

Indeed, a combination of methods is essential to ensure that your castle’s defenses can repel the digital equivalent of thieves, barbarians and the occasional dragon. “We found that a combination of offensive and defensive tools is effective, and that being persistent in checking your network’s cybersecurity is essential,” McKeon continued, “so we developed a Persistent Vulnerability Assessment (PVA) service that combines the best of both worlds for our clients.”

With both offensive and defensive cybersecurity tools at your disposal, your company can be a fortress for company and client data and privacy. Just be wary of those pesky Lannisters.

For more information about cybersecurity and all things related to custom software development, visit the MacguyverTech home page.

For more information about our PVA service, visit our Persistent Vulnerability Assessment page.