1. A method for evaluating a security characteristic, the method comprising: (a) generating a network model representative of a topology of a network and of vulnerabilities of network nodes; (b) generating an attack dictionary representative of attack actions on at least one network node; (c) determining access and IDP information representative of possible communication paths through the network and of IDP rules applied during the possible communication paths; (d) evaluating at least one first result of at least one attack on at least one network node; and (g) evaluating a security characteristic in response to the at least one first result.