Threat Modeling FAQ

Threat modeling is a structured approach to identifying, quantifying, and addressing security risks associated with an application, system, or business process. Rather than relying on generic security checklists, it focuses on analysing the specific threats relevant to your unique situation. It helps organisations proactively identify potential threats before they can be exploited.

Threat modeling allows businesses to understand their security risks before incidents occur, enabling proactive rather than reactive security measures. It provides visibility into how attackers might target your specific business processes and technology, allowing for targeted defences.

Traditional security assessments typically focus on identifying known vulnerabilities or testing existing controls. Threat modeling takes a more holistic approach by examining how systems and processes could be compromised through various attack vectors, including logical flaws and complex scenarios that conventional security tools might miss.

Threat modeling is most effective when implemented early in the development lifecycle, but can provide value at any stage. It's particularly valuable before launching new products, after significant system changes, during mergers/acquisitions, or when expanding into new markets.

Threat modeling delivers multiple benefits: risk identification before incidents occur, prioritisation of security investments, improved compliance posture, enhanced customer trust, competitive advantage through demonstrable security diligence, and an enhanced understanding of the system.

Threat modeling reveals process gaps, people-related risks, cross-system interactions, and business logic flaws that conventional security approaches may miss. It identifies threats hiding in the interactions between systems, processes, and people, providing a detailed view of your security posture.

Threat modeling enhances your overall security programme by providing context and prioritisation to your existing security measures. It helps focus your security resources and efforts on the most business-critical assets and highest-risk threat scenarios, making your entire security strategy more effective and efficient.

Our threat modeling process involves five key phases: system/process scoping, threat identification workshops, risk analysis and scoring, mitigation strategy development, and documentation/knowledge transfer to your team.

Effective threat modeling requires input from key stakeholders and subject matter experts including architects, developers, security professionals, and operations teams.

Yes. Threat modeling directly supports compliance by documenting security controls, validating data flows, identifying potential compliance gaps, and producing evidence required by auditors.

Penetration testing validates that your security controls work as expected against active exploitation. Threat modeling is complementary, identifying potential threats and weaknesses before they're exploited. Together, they provide a more comprehensive security posture.

In practice, threat modeling often informs penetration testing through a threat-led approach, where modeling insights help prioritise high-risk areas for focused testing. This methodology is increasingly recognised in regulations like the EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which promotes risk-based testing for critical sectors.

Threat models should be revisited whenever significant changes occur to your applications, infrastructure, or business processes. For rapidly evolving systems, quarterly reviews are recommended. For more stable environments, annual reviews may be sufficient.

Our deliverables are tailored to your organisation's specific needs and engagement scope. The comprehensive package typically includes detailed threat models, risk-prioritised findings with clear remediation pathways, executive summaries for leadership teams, and knowledge transfer sessions. The depth and breadth of these deliverables can be customised based on your project timeline and particular business objectives.

Threat modeling creates a risk-based view of your environment, allowing you to focus security investments on the highest-risk areas with the greatest business impact. This ensures your security budget addresses the most significant threats to your organisation.

Absolutely. Threat modeling excels at identifying process weaknesses, social engineering vulnerabilities, insider threats, and operational risks that traditional security tools miss entirely.

Threat modeling translates technical risks into business impacts, creating a common language between security professionals and business stakeholders. This improves collaboration and helps ensure security initiatives align with business objectives.

We offer a comprehensive range of threat modeling training programmes tailored to different roles and experience levels.

Our training is valuable for a wide range of professionals including security practitioners, developers, architects, product managers, risk analysts, and IT operations teams. Anyone involved in designing, building, or securing systems can benefit from understanding threat modeling methodologies.

Participants will learn how to identify potential threats to systems and applications, create comprehensive threat models using industry-standard methodologies, prioritise risks based on business impact, develop effective mitigation strategies, and integrate threat modeling into existing development and security processes.

We offer flexible training options ranging from single day introductory workshops to comprehensive multi-day courses. We can also develop custom training programmes tailored to your organisation's specific needs, technologies, and time constraints.

Absolutely. We offer on-site training tailored to your organisation's specific environment, technology stack, and security challenges. On-site training allows us to incorporate your actual systems and processes into practical exercises for maximum relevance.

Our training combines theoretical knowledge with extensive hands-on exercises based on real-world scenarios. Our instructors are practising threat modeling consultants who bring practical experience and current best practices into the classroom.