Anytime we install new software, develop new applications, or design our network architecture, we always take on a variety of cybersecurity risks. Every technology strategy is a double-edged sword, and if we don’t fully understand the vulnerabilities of our chosen technologies, we greatly increase the likelihood that cybercriminals can successfully infiltrate our systems and steal or harm our data.

By carefully establishing threat models, we can systematically approach the vulnerabilities associated with our technologies and find ways to overcome them.

What is threat modeling?

Threat modeling is a multi-step process that begins with a comprehensive understanding of any given technology.

If, for example, we’re designing a new client-facing application for our business, we might begin building our threat model by succinctly describing the application’s step-by-step workflow. After that, we can identify the type of server we’re deploying that application on, and in the midst of that thought process, we can make note of - and later challenge - any assumptions we've made along the way.

Once we understand exactly what our technology is expected to accomplish, we can begin to identify the types of cybersecurity threats that tend to effectively exploit that technology. Carrying on the earlier example, we might expect a client-facing web application to be at risk of cross-site scripting attacks or malicious client-side file uploads.

After we’ve identified the types of threats we expect to encounter, we can decide upon which methods we should use to mitigate those threats, and we can begin validating these methods work how we expect them to. If, for example, we decide to use anti-virus software to scan file uploads that pass through our client-facing web application, we need to ensure the service is compatible with our existing technologies, that it successfully filters out the types of threats we expect to face, and that its performance metrics align with our own.

The threat modeling process restarts constantly over time as we periodically update and improve our technologies. Even the slightest changes to our application can create significant new vulnerabilities, and our approach to mitigating those vulnerabilities must evolve in lockstep.

What are the benefits of threat models?

If we take the right approach to our threat model, we should ideally arrive at a clear understanding of the attack vectors cybercriminals might use to exploit our technology, and this understanding should justify our subsequent cybersecurity efforts. This understanding should also establish a high degree of confidence in our technology's security policies that all beneficiaries (e.g., internal and/or external application users) can derive confidence from.

What is the Cloudmersive Virus Scan threat model?

The Cloudmersive Virus Scan threat model identifies the types of cybersecurity threats which the Cloudmersive Virus Scan API is designed to mitigate. This includes everything from virus and malware threats to custom (obfuscated) content threats in the form of scripts, executables, macros, invalid files, and more.

For more information on the Cloudmersive Virus Scan threat model, please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of our team.