Generic pen tests find vulnerabilities. Threat emulation tells you whether your security programme can stop the specific adversary group targeting your sector — using their actual TTPs, their actual tooling, and their actual playbook.
A standard penetration test answers: "what vulnerabilities exist?" Threat emulation answers: "can we stop this specific adversary group?" The distinction matters because your security programme isn't built to stop vulnerabilities in the abstract — it's built to stop attacks, and attacks have authors with documented patterns.
Privilege Zero selects threat actor profiles based on current intelligence relevant to your industry and geography, builds a structured emulation plan from their documented TTPs, and executes it against your live environment — measuring exactly how far they'd get before your defences fire.
The output isn't a vulnerability list. It's a MITRE ATT&CK coverage heat map showing where your detections succeed and where a named adversary would operate freely.
Identify the adversary groups most likely targeting your organisation based on industry sector, geographic presence, and the type of data you hold. Select TTPs from current threat intelligence — not a static list from three years ago.
Build a written emulation plan mapping each selected TTP to a specific test procedure, tooling choice, and expected detection artefacts — reviewed and approved by your security team before execution begins.
Establish logging baselines, agree measurement criteria with your SOC, and confirm alert thresholds. The goal is controlled, measurable — not surprise fire drills that disrupt your operations.
Execute each TTP in sequence — replicating the actor's tooling, C2 communication patterns, beacon intervals, and post-exploitation behaviour. Every step is logged with timestamps, commands, and network artefacts.
Correlate execution logs against SIEM alert telemetry to produce a precise detection rate per tactic — identifying not just what was detected, but how quickly, and with what fidelity.
Produce a MITRE ATT&CK Navigator heat map of your detection coverage and deliver a prioritised detection engineering backlog with Sigma-compatible rules for every gap — ready for immediate SOC deployment.
Below is an illustrative example of the ATT&CK coverage output delivered after each emulation. Red = detected with high fidelity. Orange = partially detected. Yellow = low-confidence detection. Grey = no telemetry generated.
Full narrative of each TTP executed, artefacts generated, detection outcomes, and how closely execution matched the emulated actor's real-world behaviour.
Exportable ATT&CK Navigator layer file with detection coverage ratings per technique — ready for your CISO's board presentation.
Sigma-compatible detection rules and SIEM queries for every gap identified — tested against your environment, ready to deploy.
Board-level communication of your resilience against the emulated threat group — framed as business risk, not technical findings.
Tell us your industry and primary threat concerns. We'll identify the right actor profile and deliver a scoped emulation plan within 48 hours.
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