Playing Offense in Cybersecurity: Football Season Edition

As football season kicks off, everywhere you turn, people are talking about the offense and defense of their favorite teams. In the game of football, defense wins championships - but no team can win without also playing offense. The same lesson applies in cybersecurity.

Organizations spend most of their time on the defensive line - protecting assets through prevention, detection, and response to active threats. All of this is incredibly important, but if you want to win against today's cyber adversaries, you need a strong offense in your playbook. This means thinking like the attacker, stress testing your systems and finding gaps before the opposing team does.

Offense and Defense: Two Sides of the Same Game

Both defensive and offensive cybersecurity use the same tools - third-party risk management, external attack surface management, open-source intelligence, NIST assessments, and security awareness. The difference is in how you use them. Defense focuses on reacting to threats and protecting assets. On the offensive line, you have to think like the attacker and use tactics such as manual penetration testing, wireless network testing, secure code reviews, red teaming, and social engineering. The winning goal is to be proactive and test your organization's systems and defense before the wrong team can.

Cybersecurity’s Offensive Playbook: Lessons from the Field

Quarterback → Red Team Leader

The quarterback calls the plays, reads the defense, and directs the attack. In offensive cybersecurity, that’s the Red Team Leader or Ethical Hacker. This is who is designing the plan, choosing the tactics, and guiding the team to uncover weaknesses.

Offensive Line (Center, Guards, Tackles) → Exploit Development & Offensive Tools

The offensive line clears the path so the play can happen. In cybersecurity, that’s your exploit development and offensive toolsets. They build the foundation—create scripts, tools, and exploits that open up opportunities for the attack team to advance.

Running Backs → Penetration Testing

Running backs take the handoff and push through gaps in the defense. That’s like penetration testing—pushing into discovered vulnerabilities to see how far an attacker could realistically get.

Wide Receivers → Social Engineering Campaigns

Receivers run routes designed to trick defenders and get open for big plays. In cybersecurity offense, that’s social engineering tactics like phishing campaigns, phone pretexting, or impersonation. These deceptive tactics stretch the defense and test its weakest points.

Tight End → Hybrid Testing (Physical + Digital Attacks)

Tight ends are versatile. They block when needed and catch passes when called on. In cybersecurity, this is hybrid testing, combining digital tactics like penetration testing with physical ones such as tailgating or USB drops. This flexibility helps uncover the unexpected vulnerabilities that rigid defenses often miss.

Why Offense Matters

Just like in Football, the goal of the offense in cybersecurity is all about stress testing the defense. The offensive tactics reveal blind spots, highlight the weakest links, and give security teams the information they need to strengthen and bolster their security posture.

As we kick off football season, remember, just don't sit back on defense. Get your offense on the field, run the plays, and make sure your organization is ready for Game Day!