Published 15/07/2025 – est. 4 minutes to read.
Threat modelling is a critical part of building secure systems.
It shifts security left in the development process, reduces risk, and helps ensure that systems are resilient to real-world threats.
Benefits of Threat Modelling
The benefits of threat modelling are summarised below:
Proactive Risk Management
- Instead of reacting to security breaches, threat modelling allows teams to anticipate threats early in the design or development phase.
- It saves time and resources by addressing issues before they become real problems.
Improved Security Posture
- Helps uncover vulnerabilities that might not be obvious through other testing methods such as penetration testing or code reviews.
- Ensures that security is baked into the system architecture from the start.
Better Understanding of the System
- Encourages teams to fully map out how a system works, including data flows, trust boundaries, and assets.
- Leads to better documentation and shared understanding across teams (development, architecture, security, operations).
Regulatory and Compliance Alignment
- Many security standards and frameworks (such as ISO 27001, NIST, and PCI DSS) recommend or require some form of threat modelling.
- Helps demonstrate due diligence and security-by-design to auditors and stakeholders.
Cost-Effective
- Fixing security flaws early in the design phase is significantly cheaper than fixing them post-deployment or after a breach.
- Reduces potential costs related to data breaches, including fines, legal fees, and reputational damage.
Supports Secure Development Practices
- Fits into Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SSDLC) processes like DevSecOps.
- Encourages all project stakeholders, such as developers and architects, to think like attackers, building more resilient systems (not just Security folk!).
Methodologies
STRIDE is a popular threat modelling framework originally developed by Microsoft to help identify security threats in software systems. It’s an acronym that categorises six common types of threats:
In Summary
STRIDE doesn’t tell you how to fix threats, but it ensures you think about all the ways a system can be attacked. It’s a powerful foundation for secure design and is recommended by the NCSC and the UK Government Security Function.
We discuss the practical implementation of STRIDE in part two.
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