Can you tell if your security systems are working?

Not only does the average user thankfully not have access to a threat zoo (although sadly far too many average users have pet specimens they are totally unaware of) neither do they have the time or hardware to enable such a forensic testing routine as I created to be performed. Which begs me to look beyond the 'can you tell if your security systems are working?' question and push a little deeper with 'how can you tell if your security systems are working?' instead.