Cyberattacks are hitting harder and faster, especially for cloud-native companies and critical infrastructure providers. Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report confirms what many already feel: confirmed breaches rose 18% year-over-year, with vulnerability exploitation as an entry point jumping by 34%. To counter the threat, organizations often double down on security tools and compliance checklists like engaging in Offensive security training. But those only go so far. Real cybersecurity requires a balance of people, processes, and technology—with people leading the charge. Without skilled practitioners, even the best tools can’t stop determined attackers. That’s why offensive security training—often thought to be only for red teamers or pentesters is gaining traction across the entire security function.
Ethical hacking and hands-on threat simulations equip defenders with an attacker’s mindset, helping them anticipate moves before they happen. When you know how attackers operate, you can better detect, respond to, and prevent breaches. Here’s how offensive training is transforming four key roles in cybersecurity.
From Newbies to Veterans: How Hacking Skills Level Up Your Team
New Practitioners: Building Real-World Intuition
The cyber talent gap isn’t just about headcount—it’s about skills. The 2025 SANS GIAC Workforce Report found that 52% of security leaders say their main challenge is not hiring enough people, but hiring people with the right capabilities.
For new hires, especially those coming from general IT or non-security backgrounds, reading about attacker tactics isn’t enough. Offensive training lets them simulate real attacks—like exploiting a misconfigured web server or bypassing access controls. By walking in a hacker’s shoes, they build a much deeper understanding of risk. They learn how seemingly small missteps can open the door to major breaches.
This hands-on experience also improves their judgment. Instead of treating every alert equally, they learn to prioritize based on real-world attacker behavior. Exposure to open-source and commercial attacker tools gives them a grounded sense of the threat landscape—making them faster, more effective contributors in detection, triage, and remediation.
Incident Handlers: Anticipating the Next Move
Generative AI is accelerating threat actor capabilities, reducing the time between exploit and impact. That means incident response needs to be faster, sharper, and more deliberate. It’s no longer enough to rely on playbooks or alerts alone.
Offensive training helps incident responders understand the why behind attacker actions. Practicing techniques like privilege escalation or lateral movement teaches them to recognize goals—and predict next steps. They learn to move from reactive mode to proactive hunting.
When you’ve simulated tactics like abusing Active Directory misconfigs or exploiting token impersonation, you start to see clues others might miss. This improves your ability to isolate compromised systems quickly and trace root causes with more accuracy. The result: faster containment, more focused remediation, and fewer surprises during future incidents.
Translating Attacker Mindsets into Strategic Gains
Forensic Analysts: Reading Between the Logs
Digital forensics isn’t just about collecting data—it’s about telling the right story. And without context, even the best tools can leave you guessing.
Analysts who’ve trained offensively have a better eye for detail. They understand what malicious payloads look like from the inside out. They can spot tampered registry keys, fake timestamps, or suspicious process chains that others might overlook. This turns a standard investigation into a complete narrative that reveals how the attacker got in, what they did, and how to stop it from happening again.
Security Managers: Aligning Strategy with Reality
Managers may not be in the trenches writing detection rules or responding to threats, but their decisions shape the entire security program. And strategy grounded in real-world threat insight is always stronger.
Managers who’ve participated in ethical hacking exercises know what real adversaries can do—and where their teams might be vulnerable. This helps them cut through vendor hype, challenge false confidence in compliance checklists, and focus on risks that matter most.
They also get better at defining meaningful red team goals, measuring ROI from security testing, and ensuring remediation efforts fix what’s truly exploitable—not just what looks good on paper.
