Method for emulating an attack on an asset within a target network

Abstract

One variation of a method includes: generating data packets by recombining packet fragments transmitted between machines during a prior malicious attack on a reference network; defining triggers for transmission of the data packets between pairs of assets connected to a target network; generating an executable file including the data packets and the triggers; initiating transmission of the data packets between the pairs of assets according to the triggers to emulate the malicious attack on the target network; serving a context file, specifying artifacts representing indicators of the malicious attack responsive to execution of behaviors corresponding to these triggers, to a security technology deployed on the target network; and, in response to absence of an event record related to the emulation in a log of the security technology, generating a prompt to reconfigure the security technology to respond to the malicious attack.