Three of the cybersecurity trade’s most distinguished distributors, Microsoft, SentinelOne, and Palo Alto Networks, have introduced they won’t take part within the 2026 MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations.
The coordinated withdrawal marks a big shift in how main safety corporations strategy unbiased product validation, with all three citing a strategic reallocation of sources towards inside innovation and customer-focused initiatives.
The MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations are extensively thought to be an important trade benchmark, offering clear and goal assessments of safety product capabilities towards simulated real-world assault situations.
For years, sturdy efficiency in these evaluations has been a key advertising and validation software for distributors. Nevertheless, the three giants have independently concluded that their sources are higher spent elsewhere this yr.
In its official assertion, Microsoft introduced that after “intensive deliberation,” it determined to forgo this yr’s analysis to “focus all our sources on the Safe Future Initiative and on delivering product innovation to our clients”.
Equally, SentinelOne acknowledged its determination got here after a “thorough evaluate internally” and was made to “prioritize our product and engineering sources on customer-focused initiatives whereas accelerating our platform roadmap”.
Palo Alto Networks, a constant participant for six years, echoed this sentiment. The corporate, which achieved 100% technique-level detections with its Cortex XDR platform in earlier evaluations, mentioned it can “modify the main focus of our engineering and testing sources” to “additional speed up crucial platform improvements that straight deal with our clients’ most urgent safety challenges”.
Regardless of stepping again from the high-profile MITRE evaluations, all three corporations reaffirmed their dedication to unbiased, third-party testing by way of different avenues.
Palo Alto Networks highlighted its continued participation in assessments from organizations like SE Labs, the place it earned an AAA ranking for 100% ransomware prevention, and AV-Comparatives, which awarded its Cortex XDR a novel twin certification.
This collective transfer suggests a broader development the place main distributors are diversifying their validation methods. Whereas they proceed to worth their relationships with MITRE, the businesses are more and more prioritizing agile growth cycles and direct responses to the quickly evolving menace panorama over participation in standardized annual evaluations.
The selections underscore the dynamic nature of the cybersecurity trade, the place balancing unbiased benchmarking with accelerated innovation has change into a crucial strategic consideration.
The withdrawals have sparked dialogue inside the cybersecurity neighborhood about the way forward for standardized testing and whether or not different distributors will comply with swimsuit.
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