Hexeon® Unleashed: Human-Centric Offensive Security Amplified by Technology

Part 3 in a blog series spotlighting Coalfire's 5th Annual Penetration Risk Report.

Coalfire's 5th Annual Penetration Risk Report paints a concerning picture of cybersecurity, revealing a substantial 7% spike in high-risk vulnerabilities and a pervasive deficit in cyber hygiene and strategic cloud security endeavors across diverse organizations.

Addressing the inherent challenges in safeguarding multi-cloud environments and mitigating risks amid growing global supply chain exposures demands an innovative and nuanced approach to traditional risk management.

Coalfire and research partner MITRE Engenuity have aligned to re-calibrate best-practice cybersecurity. Utilizing MITRE's threat-informed defense framework, organizations now wield a progressive, open-source model that succinctly identifies and prioritizes vulnerabilities.

The advocacy is clear: thinking like the attackers and developing proactive, robust defenses is not just a strategy but an imperative in navigating the multifaceted cyber threats that permeate today's digital domain.

In this blog post, we will explore practical solutions, focusing on Hexeon®, Coalfire's innovative platform offering a unique offensive security testing approach. We will delve into how Hexeon® combines human intelligence and advanced technology, setting new standards in vulnerability lifecycle management and redefining the expectations organizations should have from their cybersecurity vendors.

This fusion of technology and expertise lays the foundation for a robust cybersecurity strategy that adapts seamlessly to the ever-evolving and persistent landscape of cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

Hexeon®: a synthesis of human ingenuity and technological might

Launched this year, the Hexeon platform enhances the traditional penetration testing model by intertwining high-frequency offensive pen testing with strategic defensive risk management. This dual-focused approach orchestrates a synchronized, continuous exploration and management of vulnerabilities, veering away from the conventional, snapshot-based methodologies that have proven insufficient in the contemporary digital ecosystem.

Hexeon melds a platform-fueled customer experience with advanced analytics into a singular, potent approach to offensive security, translating complex data into actionable insights and facilitating custom risk mitigation for customers.

Empowering businesses to counter threats preemptively

Hexeon is a beacon for offensive security transformation, empowering businesses to progress from a reactive to a preemptive cybersecurity stance. By continuously challenging defensive structures with real-world adversarial tactics and concurrently offering practical remediation strategies, Hexeon perpetually empowers organizations to enhance their security posture.

Additionally, the platform harmonizes meticulous human penetration testers with expansive scale and analytical capabilities, ensuring that security testing is exhaustive, ongoing, and reflective of the dynamic digital threat landscape.

• Human-first approach: Hexeon underscores the belief that while technology and automation are integral, human expertise and critical thinking are irreplaceable. With their ability to think like adversaries and navigate through a variety of IT environments, Coalfire’s experienced offensive security team members use automation within Hexeon to quickly identify potential security risks and simulate real-world attack scenarios that comprehensively test customer security measures.
• Insightful and outcome-oriented dashboards: Hexeon delivers insightful dashboards, offering teams a real-time glimpse into penetration test findings and enabling more strategic cybersecurity. The platform highlights and trends vulnerabilities, applies risk scoring and prioritization, and equips organizations with actionable threat and breach intelligence. Moreover, by incorporating peer industry benchmarking, Hexeon ensures organizations address present vulnerabilities and strategically align their cybersecurity posture with industry norms, providing a multifaceted, proactive approach to managing and anticipating cybersecurity threats.
• Automation and integration to improve efficiency and extensibility: Hexeon leverages automation and integrations to enhance efficiencies and visibility. This includes the normalization, deduplication, and correlation of findings, coupled with systematic framework mapping encompassing compliance, MITRE, and more. The platform facilitates contextual remediation and reporting, ensuring clear and actionable insights. 
• Practical remediation: Identifying vulnerabilities is merely one facet of security. Hexeon pioneers actionable, practical remediation strategies that align with organizational priorities and resources, ensuring that vulnerability mitigation is strategic and achievable.

Architecting a future-proof cybersecurity posture

The findings in Coalfire's report and the continuously evolving digital threat landscape underline that a persistently adaptive approach to penetration testing has transitioned from an option to an imperative.

Hexeon epitomizes this evolution, offering organizations a blueprint to craft a cybersecurity posture that is resilient, intelligent, and endlessly adaptive. By intertwining relentless, automated testing with the strategic nuance of human ingenuity, Hexeon illuminates the path through the opacity of the threat landscape and empowers organizations to safeguard the digital frontier.