Want fewer security fires to fight? Start with threat modeling

CISOs understand that threat modeling helps teams identify risks early and build safer systems. But outside the security org, the value isn’t always clear. When competing for budget or board attention, threat modeling often loses out to more visible efforts like new tools or headline-driven response plans.

The problem isn’t the practice. It’s the framing. To win support, CISOs need to show how threat modeling connects to bottom-line outcomes: fewer vulnerabilities, faster incident response, and less rework during development. In short, it needs to be positioned not as a nice-to-have activity but as an investment in resilience.

Cost avoidance, not just risk reduction

“There’s that old adage of ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’” says Kasey Best, Director of Threat Intelligence at Silent Push. “But when it comes to security incidents these days, your pound of cure could weigh a ton on the stock price if the wrong actor gets in.”

Framing threat modeling as risk reduction alone doesn’t always land. But when it’s tied to financial benefits like reduced breach likelihood, shorter development cycles, and fewer urgent patches, the conversation shifts.

Best emphasizes the growing importance of catching threats before they escalate. This approach, which they describe as a “pre-weaponization focus,” centers on identifying potential threats in their earliest stages, long before they’re actively exploited.

“If an organization could choose to know about a problem ahead of time, they would choose that 100% of the time,” Best explains. “Because then they can plan accordingly.” That’s where proactive threat intelligence and early detection can tip the scales. “We give them that preemptive response option,” Best says. “And really, why would you choose otherwise?”

The average data breach cost reached $4.88 million in 2024, according to IBM’s latest report. That figure includes incident response, legal fees, regulatory penalties, and reputational damage. While threat modeling won’t stop every attack, it helps reduce the number of vulnerable systems exposed in the first place.

Time is money

According to Jared Atkinson, CTO at SpecterOps, threat modeling is fundamentally about “understanding how an adversary would approach your environment and how they might exploit vulnerabilities.” For businesses, it’s the difference between being blindsided by an attack and having a strategic defense plan mapped out in advance.

“In a business context,” Atkinson explains, “it’s like having a map that shows the most dangerous routes an attacker could take to compromise your systems.” This makes it more than just a technical exercise, it becomes a tool for communicating tangible risk to non-technical stakeholders. Rather than drowning in jargon or abstract metrics, decision-makers gain a view of where their systems are most vulnerable and what that means in terms of real-world business impact.

To frame this in more familiar terms, Atkinson draws a comparison to military strategy, using the concepts of measures of performance (MOPs) and measures of effectiveness (MOEs). “MOPs evaluate whether something was done correctly, such as making sure a fire extinguisher was used the right way,” he says. “MOEs, on the other hand, evaluate whether the right things are being done to achieve the desired outcome—was the fire actually put out?” In cybersecurity, the goal is to operate at the MOE level. Threat modeling helps teams understand not just where the fires could start, but whether their tools and responses would extinguish them.

For security teams stretched thin, time is one of the most valuable resources. Threat modeling can reduce time spent firefighting by giving teams a picture of what could go wrong, and how to prepare. Time saved here is time that can be reinvested elsewhere, such as in strategic planning, vendor assessments, or proactive monitoring.

Making the case to the board

Boards need to understand how the security program reduces risk, supports business continuity, and enables growth. For threat modeling, this means building the case around metrics like:

• Reduced security bugs post-release
• Lower incident response times
• Improved developer throughput
• Decreased time-to-remediation
• Lower total cost of security incidents

Some CISOs also frame threat modeling as a force multiplier. By making security visible early, it enables product and engineering teams to take more ownership. This reduces the long-term burden on the security team and scales security practices across the organization.

Starting small, scaling fast

Threat modeling doesn’t need to start as a full-scale initiative. Some CISOs begin with one critical system or pilot project. From there, they build templates, training materials, and internal champions who help scale the practice across teams.

Incorporating threat modeling into an organization’s development lifecycle doesn’t have to be daunting. In fact, it shouldn’t be, according to David Kellerman, Field CTO of Cymulate.

“The key is to start small and make threat modeling approachable,” Kellerman says. Rather than rolling out a heavyweight process full of complex methodologies, CISOs should look for ways to embed threat modeling into workflows that teams already use. “I advise CISOs to embed threat modeling into existing workflows, such as architecture reviews, design discussions, or sprint planning, rather than creating separate, burdensome exercises.”

This lightweight, integrated approach not only reduces resistance but helps normalize secure thinking within engineering culture. “Use simple frameworks like STRIDE or basic attacker storyboarding that non-security engineers can easily grasp,” Kellerman explains. “Make it collaborative and educational, not punitive.”

As teams gain familiarity and confidence, organizations can gradually evolve their threat modeling capabilities. “The goal isn’t to build a perfect threat model on day one,” Kellerman says. “It’s to establish a security mindset that grows naturally within engineering culture.”

The key is consistency. When teams know what to expect and have tools to support the process, threat modeling becomes just another part of building software, not an extra task.

Over time, the organization shifts from reactive fixes to proactive design. And that shift is where the real ROI emerges.