With emerging attacks coming harder, faster, and more ingeniously than ever before, organizations can’t afford to sit around and wait for attackers to tell them where their weak spots are. They need to get ahead of and around them with offensive security tactics; think penetration testing and red teaming. Unfortunately, for board members and stakeholders not on the security front lines, OffSec can carry the image it did just a few years ago; as an above-and-beyond “nice to have.”
This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Here’s how CISOs can win the OffSec investment that will help keep them competitive.
Defensive Security Alone Is No Match for AI
Thanks to advanced AI techniques like polymorphic malware, word-perfect phishing and BEC scams, and automated vulnerability finders, attackers have developed a strong upper hand. If companies trust the same level of defensive security they’ve always had against today’s leveled-up threats, they are going to see how quickly they fall behind.
It is important to implement defensive measures such as MFA, encryption, solid access controls, endpoint detection and response, and secure firewalls. But it is also necessary to think like threat actors and see what they see.
Why Offensive Security Is Needed
Today, organizations often stand a better chance of preventing attacks than they do chasing them down. Attacks are getting faster than ever (the new average time-to-exploit just dropped from 32 to 5 days). By contrast, the average time to patch still sits at a slow eight and a half months, 47% slower than 5 years ago.
As fixes slow down and attackers speed up, companies need to adopt a circumventive (proactive/offensive) security approach. Pen testing and red team engagements not only reveal exposed network and system weaknesses ahead of time; they train security teams on how to handle them before a real-world attack takes place.
And this can give organizations just the kind of time and insight they need. Responding in real-time is a necessary skill, but it favors the attackers who have struck first. Preparing ahead of time with instituted OffSec measures gives teams a definite home court advantage.
Offensive Security as Risk Management and Growth Enabler
Offensive security is, at its core, a powerful strategy to reduce cybersecurity risk. Imagine the risk of trying to implement an unprioritized laundry list of security measures in the dark, without having the deep visibility pen test or red team can provide.
By effectively bringing down risk (arguably better than limited-view security implementations alone), OffSec more than proves its ROI and aligns with company goals.
5 CISO Tactics for Gaining OffSec Buy-In
Once CISOs are on board, the final step is to gain OffSec buy-in from C-suite decision-makers. Here are just a few tips to help CISOs gain OffSec buy-in from C-suite decision-makers:
1. Make the Regulatory Argument | No company’s executives want to be on the record for shooting down initiatives that are necessary for compliance. Point out that PCI DSS makes pen testing a requirement and GDPR mandates regular evaluations of a security system’s effectiveness.
Additionally, regulations like NIS2, HIPAA, SOC2, and more all require elements of review that are accomplished in no better way than by offensive security.
2. Draw a Line to the Bottom Line | Point out that OffSec promotes growth by protecting resilience. If companies are willing to risk all the money they pour into development, R&D, marketing, and overhead on the ability to respond to lightning-fast AI-powered attacks (in real-time, every time), that’s their decision.
But regular, methodical offensive security tactics can put them through simulated attacks as often as they need, finding and repairing errors only attackers would spot, and keeping themselves one step ahead at all times. This means avoiding costly breaches (up to $4.44M) in favor of reasonable investments—and no reputational damage.
3. Tie OffSec to Your Core Functionality as a CISO | Executives (and the industry) will agree. One of the main roles of a CISO is to identify and reduce cybersecurity risk. Without the full battery of tests to discover what that risk is, how severe it is, and where it lies, a CISO’s hands are effectively tied.
Without vulnerability management, penetration testing, and red teaming, the most a CISO (and therefore their initiatives) can base their findings on is an incomplete view. Offensive security is necessary to the core functionality and benefit of having a CISO in the boardroom.
4. Tell the Story | Present everything in the business lens. Include key metrics, eye-catching statistics and easy-to-read graphs that tell the story you want them to understand. Example:
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82% of breaches involve human error, misconfigurations, or privilege misuse — all things red teams and pen tests are designed to uncover (Verizon DBIR, 2024).
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Organizations with mature penetration testing programs experience 75% fewer security incidents and save an average of $2.2 million in breach costs (IBM 2024).
5. Internal vs Third Party Services | For organizations with on-staff penetration testers and/or red teamers, the offsec investment lies in the tools provided to the testing team. Enabling security testers with top-of-the-line pen testing and red teaming tools ensures they can perform advanced engagements efficiently and effectively.
If resources are prohibitive and internal testers are not an option, call out the effectiveness and affordability of relying on outsourced managed security services providers (MSSPs) to handle the penetration testing and red teaming services for you.
Conclusion
As cyberattacks get better in scope and scale, CISOs would be unwise not to suggest offensive security tactics proven to prepare teams against just those types of threats.
Presenting the case for OffSec in a way that proves its business value is the key; and today, security value is business value. Forta’s CISO’s Guide to Justifying Offensive Security Tactics helps you dive even deeper into the strategic imperative of offensive security — and understand how to get the buy-in that you need.
