How Financial Services Firms Can Meet Regulatory Demands with Proof-Based Security

The Regulatory Landscape Is Changing Fast

The EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is raising the bar for how financial institutions manage, monitor, and prove their cyber resilience. As of January 2025, firms must go beyond checkbox compliance and demonstrate that they can withstand, respond to, and recover from ICT-related disruptions across their entire digital estate.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) refers to the systems, software, networks, and third-party services used to manage, process, and transmit data across a financial institution. It includes hardware, applications, cloud services, communication platforms, and managed service providers. Under DORA, ICT is the operational core and the most likely attack surface, so financial entities are expected to govern and secure it comprehensively.

DORA applies to banks, investment firms, insurance providers, crypto asset service providers, and other financial entities operating in the EU. It introduces a set of mandatory requirements focused on ICT risk management, incident response, operational continuity, third-party oversight, and threat-led resilience testing.

Although the regulation formally takes effect in 2025, clients, regulators, and boards are already asking the key question: Can you prove your resilience today?

What DORA Requires (and Why Most Firms Aren’t Ready)

DORA consists of five core pillars:

1. ICT Risk Management – Establish and maintain robust frameworks to manage and reduce technology-related risk.
   
2. ICT-Related Incident Reporting – Detect, classify, and report major cyber incidents quickly and accurately.
   
3. Digital Operational Resilience Testing – Conduct regular testing of systems, controls, and processes, including threat-led simulations.
   
4. Third-Party Risk Management – Ensure vendors and ICT providers meet security expectations and do not become single points of failure.
   
5. Information Sharing – Participate in sector-wide collaboration to improve collective defence and response capabilities.

Where many firms struggle is in moving from policy to practice. They may have documentation and detection tools but lack proof that their controls actually work under real-world conditions. And that is where the risk lies.

The Risk of Assumed Resilience

DORA’s intent is clear: organisations must prove that their ICT operations can survive disruption. But common gaps persist:

• Assumed effectiveness of controls that have not been tested in production
  
• Overreliance on audit artefacts or tabletop exercises
  
• Blind spots in hybrid environments, identity management, and lateral movement paths
  
• Insufficient validation of third-party vendors, MSPs, and cloud service configurations

Recent threat intelligence reveals that attackers can achieve lateral movement in as little as 27 minutes, with an average of 48 minutes—well before most defenders are able to detect or respond.¹

This level of speed makes traditional, point-in-time audits and static defences inadequate. It highlights just how vulnerable firms are when security controls are untested or unverified, and why DORA calls for continuous validation rather than trust in assumptions.

The consequences are real. Regulatory scrutiny is increasing. Non-compliance can lead to reputational damage, enforcement actions, and financial penalties. More importantly, without proper testing, firms are more likely to suffer the very disruptions DORA was designed to prevent.

How NodeZero^® Helps Firms Meet DORA Head-On

NodeZero^®, the autonomous penetration testing platform from Horizon3.ai, helps financial institutions operationalise the intent of DORA by providing continuous, safe, and scalable validation of their security posture.

Unlike vulnerability scanners or manual audits, NodeZero behaves like a real attacker. It identifies weak credentials, exposed assets, misconfigurations, and privilege escalation paths across production environments.

NodeZero enables firms to:

Continuously test ICT controls for exploitability, not just presence

Validate segmentation, access policies, and detection capabilities across on-premises and cloud systems

Simulate full attack paths that mirror real adversary behaviour, from initial access to lateral movement and impact

Retest quickly after remediation to confirm fixes and reduce MTTR

Evaluate third-party vendors or managed services as part of integrated risk management

Generate audit-ready reports and dashboards that translate findings into board-level visibility and compliance documentation

NodeZero Across the Org Chart

DORA is a board-level mandate, but its success depends on both technical execution and executive oversight. That’s why the most effective approach blends two powerful mindsets.

Offensive security resonates with engineers and practitioners because it speaks their language: real adversarial behaviour, lateral movement, and tactical gaps they can investigate and resolve. It’s about realism, detail, and hands-on impact.

Proof-based security, on the other hand, aligns with the priorities of executives, compliance leads, and risk stakeholders. It focuses on measurable outcomes: reducing exposure, tracking remediation progress, and producing defensible evidence that stands up to board and regulatory scrutiny.

Both perspectives are essential, and NodeZero brings them together.

It applies offensive techniques—such as credential compromise, misconfigurations, and privilege escalation—not through isolated red teaming exercises, but through continuously using the same TTPs attackers use across live environments. Then it translates those results into proof-based insights that show exactly what’s exploitable, what’s fixed, and how resilient the organisation truly is.

That fusion of realism and clarity resonates across the entire enterprise—from SOC analysts to CISOs to regulators.

Aligning NodeZero to DORA Pillars

Advanced NodeZero Capabilities That Raise the Bar

NodeZero Tripwires™ deploy deceptive assets like fake credentials or files along real attack paths to detect malicious activity.

Rapid Response provides early access to vetted exploits, allowing teams to safely test for emerging threats before attackers strike.

Phishing Impact Testing shows how compromised credentials could be used to escalate privileges, move laterally, or access sensitive data.

NodeZero Insights™ turns penetration test results into dashboards and KPIs that track trends, risk exposure, and remediation progress.

Conclusion: Don’t Just Comply—Prove You’re Ready

DORA represents more than another cybersecurity checkbox. It marks a shift toward continuous operational accountability. Financial firms that embrace this shift will not only avoid penalties—they will strengthen their security posture, streamline audits, and build trust with clients and regulators alike.

NodeZero makes this possible. It enables security and compliance teams to move from theory to verification, from policy to proof, and from “we believe we’re secure” to “we’ve tested, and we know.”

DORA readiness starts with validation.

See how NodeZero can help you meet DORA requirements. Request a demo today and validate your resilience in minutes.

1. https://reliaquest.com/news-and-press/speed-of-cyber-attacks-increased-in-2024-with-lateral-movement-achieved-in-just-27-minutes-reliaquest-annual-threat-report/ ↩︎