Precise Insight and Visibility Of Tactics
PIVOT™
PIVOT is the next-generation cyber security test, covering incident response and forensic investigation capabilities. SE Labs is currently running a private pilot test with all of the top cyber security vendors. To learn more and to sign up for subsequent PIVOT tests contact us now.
PIVOT explained
Cyber security solutions tested and rated
The security industry doesn’t need more smoke and mirrors. It needs clear evidence, honest feedback, and testing that rewards effectiveness over showmanship.
PIVOT is the world’s leading advanced cyber security test, covering protection, detection and forensic investigation capabilities.
Built on established testing practices developed by SE Labs, it provides comparative results for cyber security products.
Methodology
Building on decades of security testing experience
The PIVOT testing programme is based on the SE Labs Advanced Security testing methodology, and covers both detection and protection methods.
PIVOT tests the abilities of cyber security products to detect and protect against threats posed by known attack groups. Vendors may submit single products or a combination of products and services from their own catalogue.
SE Labs emulates the techniques and tactics of attack groups. We publish our approach to each of these groups in our Threat Series. The choice of groups used in each PIVOT test is not disclosed until after testing is complete.
SE Labs tests using the full attack chain, from the reconnaissance phase through to possible persistence, data theft and/ or destruction.
A detailed analysis describes how each product handled detection of each stage of the attack and, in the case of the optional protection test, how effectively it stopped the threat – and at what stage.
A further investigation layer to the test assesses how fully the product is able to describe the breach attempt post-incident.
Download Advanced Security Methodology
Inform your endpoint security strategy
Accurate tests. Clear results. Vital insights
PIVOT testing delivers insight, actionable information and conclusions for cyber security users, product vendors. SE Labs shares the test data and insights from PIVOT with industry analysts ahead of publication to provide transparent insight into our testing.
Read the press release
Enterprise users
Choosing the right cyber security product for your organisation is no easy job. Multi-vendor testing does not always identify clear benefits or downsides to different solutions or approaches. Picking apart competing claims can be more difficult than building the business case for using the technology in the first place.
Understanding the best course of action for you and your organisation is now even more difficult. Let’s not forget the job of communicating the right course of action to non-technical budget holders.
SE Labs PIVOT testing changes this. From years of testing cyber security products and services, we know there is no single product that works for every business. We also know – and show – that some are more effective than others.
PIVOT communicates clearly, transparently, and without fear or favour. Our testing will provide insights and results you can use to understand how different products work, how well (or not) they detect, and what the outputs will look like to your security team.
PIVOT helps you and your organisation find the right cyber security products to protect what’s important, in budget and in line with your organisation’s risk appetite.
Cyber security vendors
PIVOT delivers practical insight that helps you improve your product, communicate its value, and ultimately protect your users.
Testing should help build better products, but in the past, it has distorted development goals in search of a more desirable result on the test bench. The result is massive, institutionalised testing that serves neither vendors nor end users.
We think it’s time to fix that – and that’s the basis for PIVOT. We have built a testing regime that helps you improve products and your customers get the security they deserve. Together, we can build greater security, not just better test scores.
PIVOT testing delivers results that are useful to your engineers, credible to your customers, and actionable for your marketing teams. Our reports show how your solution performs in the context of real threats and user environments — and where you can strengthen it.
Just like the SE Labs tests you already know, PIVOT testing doesn’t hide behind black-box metrics or nebulous scores; we explain what the test means, how it works, and how it maps to real-world protection.
Industry analysts
We share the results of PIVOT testing to major analyst firms ahead of publication to increase the transparency of our testing and methodology, and to ensure that ours is not the only informed independent point of view on the test results.
Industry analysts bring their own insights, research and experience of how security products and services work in the real world, bringing perspectives and information that benefits users, vendors and testing organisations like SE Labs.
Large scale, independent and comparative test data is in short supply – yet it is a vital ingredient in research and analysis. Industry analysts benefit from access to test data that triangulates what they see happening in the market – and within end user cyber security operations.
Our methodology helps ensure that testing produces practical and actionable recommendations, and vendors, end user organisations and SE Labs benefits from the research community’s independent perspective and insights.
