What is Threat Modeling?

Threat modeling is a proactive process that identifies potential attacks to an important asset so mitigations can be developed prior to any negative impact.  

What are the advantages of threat modeling?

You may find articles titled, “The Three Advantages of Threat Modeling” or “Six Reasons You Need to Threat Model.” The truth is that there are innumerable benefits to threat modeling. 

To start, threat modeling helps improve the security posture of your product which will, in turn, reduce the security risk of your company. 

It was Sir Francis Bacon who said, “Knowledge itself is power,” and the amount of security knowledge you (and your cross-functional teams) will gain from threat modeling your product is priceless. It provides an opportunity to share different security perspectives, and that knowledge impacts every aspect of your product lifecycle from initial design to post-deployment support.

Threat modeling helps to reduce your attack surface. When you create a threat model – right from initial analysis (which may include a diagram) to suggested mitigations – your application is less vulnerable to attack.

How to perform threat modeling

What is a threat modeling process? Where do you start? There are many different threat modeling techniques. The detail your chosen framework covers and its relevance to your setup are much more important than the specific steps or methodology you choose.

What are the popular threat modeling techniques?

The technique you select for your application will depend on many factors, as they each have strengths and weaknesses; some are more appropriate than others for certain use cases.

Threat modeling methodologies like STRIDE and PASTA  are older – STRIDE, for example, was created in 1999 – manual methods.

The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), was developed by NIST and is often used in combination with other threat modeling techniques. The use of attack trees, similarly, is often combined with other frameworks. 

Other methodologies include security cards, LINDDUN, OCTAVE, hTTM, Quantitative TTM, VAST modeling, and more.

Threat modeling automation software

As threats increase in complexity and severity, and the availability of skilled security resources decreases, threat modeling becomes even more crucial — and more difficult. So, we turn to automation and threat modeling software.

The best threat modeling tool facilitates cross-functional collaboration and includes the expert knowledge base required to recommend mitigations that address security weaknesses in your assets.

SD Elements is a threat modeling solution from Security Compass that has a proven 80 percent reduction in threat modeling time and a 92 percent reduction in vulnerabilities, SD Elements helps you automate the creation of common security mitigations that are typically derived from threat modeling analysis. As a result, your cybersecurity risk is reduced early, quickly, and at scale.

Threat modeling questions?

Threat modeling has been important for a long time but in today’s complex and ever-changing cybersecurity landscape, it’s required. If securing your software portfolio is overwhelming, your security staff is overworked, or you just have questions, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.