The Cybersecurity Control Playbook

7Mapping Threats to Controls Using MITRE ATT&CK

Today's threat actors are more sophisticated, persistent, and diverse than ever before. As organizations increasingly rely on digital infrastructures, understanding how adversaries operate—and, more importantly, how to defend against them—has become a critical priority. This is where threat mapping comes into play. It's not enough to have security controls; organizations must ensure those controls align with real‐world threats. The challenge is clear: how do you know what techniques attackers will use and whether your defenses can handle them? Enter the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

MITRE ATT&CK has emerged as one of the most powerful tools for security professionals aiming to map known adversarial techniques to their existing defenses. By leveraging the framework, organizations can take a structured, data‐driven approach to understanding how attackers behave once inside the network. Instead of relying on theoretical models or generic “best practices,” MITRE ATT&CK allows teams to base their defenses on documented tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) observed in real‐world attacks. The result? A defense strategy that is as dynamic and evolving as the threats themselves.

This chapter delves into how organizations can implement a robust threat‐mapping strategy using MITRE ATT&CK. We will walk through the core concepts of threat mapping, explore the role of leadership in driving these exercises, and discuss how tools like artificial ...