26 August 2025 | Scott Reininga, Executive Vice President, Reversec

Cybersecurity is often framed as a defensive game: build walls, monitor traffic, patch vulnerabilities, and respond to incidents. But as digital environments grow more complex and attackers more agile, this reactive posture has been showing its limits for a while.

Offensive security continues to evolve from a niche testing function into a strategic capability. It’s no longer just about simulating attacks, it’s about understanding systems through the lens of adversaries, uncovering hidden dependencies, and stress-testing assumptions that traditional security models overlook.

From pen testing to strategic adversarial thinking

Historically, offensive security has been synonymous with traditional red teaming and penetration testing. These exercises are valuable but often focus on isolated scenarios, scoped engagements, and technical exploits.

This new model of offensive security asks deeper questions:

How would an attacker chain together misconfigurations, legacy systems, and overlooked integrations?
What assumptions are baked into our architecture that could be exploited?
How do emerging technologies – such as generative AI – change the threat landscape in ways we haven’t yet modelled?

Redefining the discipline

At Reversec, we approach offensive security as a continuous, intelligence-led process where we use adversary simulation of modern, in-the-wild techniques across all facets of what we do.

Here’s how we’re redefining offensive security:

1. Adversary simulation

Emulating sophisticated threat actors tests how well your organisation can detect, respond to, and recover from targeted attacks. These simulations go beyond technical exploits – they test your people, processes, and decision-making under pressure. It’s not about “breaking in”, it’s about thinking like an attacker and showing how they would move, escalate, and persist across all attack types.

2. Generative AI security

As large language models (LLMs) become embedded in business operations, they introduce new risks such as prompt injection, data leakage, and unpredictable behaviour. Our team has pioneered offensive testing techniques for GenAI systems, revealing how attackers can manipulate AI agents in ways traditional security models aren’t prepared for.

We want to avoid the FUD that often surrounds GenAI. We work with our clients to figure out how to best deploy / use it securely. We train their developers in how best to use it, take part in joint research projects, and even engage them in our events.

3. Service & tooling innovation: Offensive insight for defensive strength
At Reversec, our tooling philosophy is rooted in the belief that offensive capabilities can illuminate defensive blind spots. We’ve developed a suite of advanced tools that help organisations uncover hidden risks, simulate real-world attack scenarios, and harden their environments against emerging threats. From utilities that map lateral movement paths across complex infrastructures to tools that identify misconfigurations in cloud and hybrid environments, our innovations are designed to expose what traditional scanners miss.

One standout example is our Attack Path Mapping service, which visualizes potential adversary movement across systems, identities, and trust boundaries. Developed as a result of our research-driven ethos, this capability enables defenders to proactively close off high-risk routes before they’re exploited. We also invest in niche areas like mainframe exploitation and identity abuse, all domains often overlooked but critical to enterprise security. Each service, tool or offering we release is battle-tested, heavily researched, and built with actionable intelligence.

4. Cloud & infrastructure testing

The scale and scope of information systems used by businesses has dramatically expanded over the last 10/15 years, with the rise of SaaS, cloud and AI. As a result, modern infrastructure is complex, distributed, and often misconfigured. Being at the forefront of cloud research in the industry, we specialize in uncovering weaknesses in cloud environments, from overly permissive IAM roles to undocumented APIs and telemetry blind spots. Offensive testing helps organisations understand how attackers could exploit these gaps to gain access, move laterally, or exfiltrate data.

Why This Matters Now

The urgency to redefine offensive security is driven by three converging trends:

Attackers are faster and more automated. AI, phishing, deepfake-enabled fraud, and scalable reconnaissance mean that threats evolve faster than most defences.
Digital environments are more complex. Hybrid cloud, third-party integrations, and shadow IT create sprawling attack surfaces that can’t be fully mapped without adversarial testing.
Security is a board-level issue. Business leaders need clarity, not just compliance. Offensive security provides that clarity by showing how real-world attacks would unfold, what’s at stake, and where to invest.

Offense as a foundation, not a feature

Offensive security is no longer a specialized corner of cybersecurity, it’s becoming its foundation. It’s how organisations build resilience, anticipate threats, and design systems that hold up under pressure.

Redefining offensive security means embracing it not just as a test, but as a mindset. It means integrating adversarial thinking into architecture, governance, and innovation. And it means preparing for the future not by building higher walls but by understanding how those walls can be climbed, bypassed, or turned against us.