Case Study: Illumio achieves up to 22x increased attacker effort with Bishop Fox micro-segmentation testing

Developing a New Methodology for Illumio to Measure the Power of Micro-Segmentation

Illumio, a leader in micro-segmentation, faced a challenge: prove quantitatively how their segmentation control reduced attacker lateral movement and effort. To create objective, repeatable measurements and cut through vendor hype, Illumio engaged Bishop Fox for methodology development and red team testing (Red Team, Methodology Development).

Bishop Fox designed a MITRE ATT&CK–based framework, ran red team exercises across three progressively segmented 100‑workload use cases and scaled one use case to 500 and 1,000 hosts with randomized pathways and flat‑network controls. Bishop Fox’s testing showed micro‑segmentation increased attacker difficulty by up to 22x and that time to compromise doubled as hosts scaled from 100 → 500 → 1,000, giving Illumio clear, measurable benchmarks of impact.

Illumio

Raghu Nandakumara

Head of Industry Solutions