AUTOMATED TESTING OF NETWORK SECURITY POLICIES AGAINST A DESIRED SET OF SECURITY CONTROLS

Systems and methods for automated testing of network security controls are provided. According to one embodiment, information regarding multiple desired security controls for a protected network are received by a network device. Network traffic configured to validate an extent of conformance by the protected network with the desired security controls is generated by the network device. The generated network traffic is transmitted by the network device onto the protected network. An assessment is performed by the network device regarding how network security policies configured within the protected network process the generated network traffic.