RED TEAMING
Bolster your cyber defences, test your resillience and strengthen your incident response with realistic attack simulation.
Trusted by leading organisations
What is red teaming?
Adversary simulation,
real-world impact
Red teaming is a proactive and comprehensive approach to testing and evaluating the effectiveness of your business’s security defences. It involves simulating real-world attack scenarios to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses that malicious actors could exploit.
Red teaming goes beyond traditional penetration testing to assess your detection and response capabilities in practice. Instead of defining a large scope of target systems, a red team engagement will set objectives and scenarios to measure the effectiveness of security operations.
A specialist ‘red team’ composed of experienced cyber professionals employs advanced techniques and tactics to mimic the mindset and actions of real adversaries. The insight they gain can help your business enhance its defences, improve its incident response capabilities and strengthen its overall resilience.
Red teaming benefits
THINK LIKE ATTACKERS.
DEFEND LIKE LEADERS.
Red teaming helps identify weaknesses in your systems, networks and processes, enabling you to bolster your cyber defences and address any gaps across your entire security landscape. It can help your business with:
- Improved incident response – Red team exercises help your business test and refine its incident response capabilities, enabling you to detect, respond to and mitigate security incidents more effectively.
- Holistic view of security – Red teaming comprehensively assesses your business’s security controls, and the effectiveness of policies and procedures in practice.
- Risk mitigation – Red teaming helps mitigate risks and protect critical assets and sensitive data by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities and weaknesses.
- Training and awareness – Red team exercises provide valuable training opportunities for security teams, enhancing their skills and knowledge in identifying and responding to simulated threats.
- Compliance – Red teaming helps demonstrate compliance with industry standards, regulations and security best practices, ensuring you meet the necessary regulatory requirements.
- Stakeholder confidence – Through red teaming, you can demonstrate your commitment to security and gain the trust and confidence of customers, partners and stakeholders.
- Continuous improvement – Red teaming promotes a culture of continuous improvement in cyber security, allowing your business to stay proactive and adaptive in an evolving threat landscape.
- Cost-effective risk management – Red teaming helps your business prioritise security investments, allocate resources effectively and avoid potential financial losses associated with security breaches.
Proactive security
starts here
What does
red teaming involve?
BEYOND TESTING,
PROVING RESILIENCE
Red teaming is a goal-oriented approach to assessing the security of your business’s IT systems, processes, people and security operations. It employs advanced techniques and strategies to simulate a real-world attack in order to uncover vulnerabilities.
The goals that are agreed before a red team begins will determine the types of activities performed by our red team experts. Here are some examples of red team objectives:
1. Compromising a file server
Many businesses use a central file server that implements access controls to provide storage for many departments, such as HR, accounting, legal, and operational teams. In this scenario, an unauthorised user gaining access to confidential data could have disastrous consequences for the business.
2. Switching off CCTV systems or door access controls
Many physical security solutions are connected to the network, so what might happen if a malicious actor were to gain access? Shutting down security systems may expose an entirely new physical attack surface that has not been considered, and may have wider impacts on health and safety, insurance and business operations to name a few.
3. Gaining access to an executive’s email account
Business executives are involved in the highest level of decisions. An email from a senior person can instruct sensitive actions from other employees, such as a bank transfer or signing a contract. Furthermore, executive’s have access to a treasure trove of confidential information. Should a malicious actor compromise an exec’s email account, serious damage could be caused without the appropriate monitoring, detection and incident response processes.
4. Accessing a segmented network
Networks are usually designed with zones dedicated to different access requirements or levels of trust. For example, guest WiFi users should have separate network access to authorised employee devices. A red team scenario may investigate the impact of putting an untrusted device on a highly trusted network, such as a management VLAN.
Red teaming involves a combination of advanced cyber tactics and techniques to help your business gain an in-depth understanding of its security posture and identify areas for improvement. By identifying and addressing vulnerabilities in these areas, your business can enhance its security posture and increase its resilience to cyber attack.
What cyber security challenges does
red teaming address?
UNCOVER GAPS.
BUILD CONFIDENCE.
Cyber security is a pressing concern in today’s interconnected world, and red teaming is crucial in addressing various challenges. By employing advanced tactics and specialised knowledge, red teaming tackles the following cyber security issues:
Assessing security awareness
Red teaming evaluates the security awareness and training of employees. It can help identify gaps in knowledge, address human vulnerabilities and implement training programmes to improve your overall security posture.
Validating incident response
Red teaming tests your organisation’s ability to detect, respond to, and recover from cyber threats. By simulating real-world scenarios, it ensures your incident response processes are effective and ready for actual security events.
Preparing for advanced threats
Red teaming helps your business prepare for sophisticated and evolving cyber threats. Emulating real-world adversaries helps uncover vulnerabilities that may go undetected through traditional security measures.
Continuous improvement
Red teaming drives continuous improvement in your business’s security posture. By learning from red team exercises and implementing recommended enhancements, you can strengthen your defences and stay ahead of emerging threats.
Bridging the skills gap
A lack of skilled cyber security professionals poses a challenge for many businesses. Red teaming addresses this challenge by providing tools and expertise to detect and respond to sophisticated threats, compensating for the skills gap.
Saving costs
Building and maintaining an in-house team of security experts can be costly. Red teaming offers a cost-effective solution by providing access to advanced technologies and specialised skills, saving on the expense of building and training an internal team.
Other types of penetration testing
CREST-approved
penetration testing services
As well as red team exercises, our team provides the following penetration testing services:
Network penetration testing
Our network and infrastructure penetration testing assesses your networks and systems for vulnerabilities. It simulates exploitation safely to show the potential impact. We have extensive knowledge of enterprise environments, networking and security technologies.
Website penetration testing
Assesses your web applications and APIs for security vulnerabilities that may be exploited to compromise your applications. We use comprehensive OWASP testing methodologies and leading tools to provide assurance that your applications are secure.
Mobile Application penetration testing
Mobile application pentesting provides an in-depth review of your applications’ security to ensure data is protected. Our team has deep experience in assessing iOS, Android and Windows platforms, and many mobile development frameworks such as React Native, Flutter and Xamarin.
Cloud penetration testing
Cloud penetration testing attempts to find misconfigurations that may expose your cloud systems and data to attack. It’s performed against environments hosted by a cloud service provider, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure.
Vulnerability Assessment
Our vulnerability assessment service evaluates your systems to identify, categorise and prioritise security weaknesses across your organisation. By analysing your infrastructure at scale, we ensure vulnerabilities are identified and addressed before they can be exploited.
All penetration testing services
Our penetration testing services are ideal for businesses who have commercial or regulatory requirements to complete testing, as well as businesses who prioritise cyber security and need independant technical assurance.
Frequently asked questions
What is red teaming?
Red teaming is an advanced, simulated cyber attack, conducted by highly-skilled security experts. It is designed to test how well an organization’s people, processes and technologies can detect and respond to real-world threats.
What is the difference between red teaming and penetration testing?
Penetration testing focuses on identifying vulnerabilities in specific systems or applications, while red teaming simulates real-world attack scenarios to test how well your organisation can detect and respond to an attack. Red teaming is broader in scope and emphasizes stealth and evasion tactics.
Why is red teaming important?
Red teaming provides a realistic assessment of your security capabilities, helps uncover weaknesses and enables proactive measures to strengthen your defences against potential cyber threats.
Who conducts red teaming?
Our experienced and skilled cyber security professionals carry out our red teaming activities. They possess a deep understanding of advanced attack techniques and methodologies.
How often do I need red teaming?
The frequency of red teaming assessments depends on your business’s risk appetite, industry regulations and the evolving threat landscape. We recommend conducting red teaming exercises regularly, especially after significant changes to your systems or infrastructure.
Can red teaming disrupt my business operations?
We carefully plan and coordinate our red teaming exercises to minimise disruption to your day-to-day operations while ensuring a comprehensive assessment of security measures.
What are the deliverables of a red teaming engagement?
A red teaming engagement typically includes a detailed report highlighting identified vulnerabilities, recommendations for improving security measures and insights into your business’s response and incident management capabilities.
How can red teaming benefit my business?
Red teaming can help your business improve its security posture by identifying weaknesses, enhancing incident response capabilities, validating security investments and fostering a proactive security mindset.
Is red teaming limited to large businesses?
Red teaming benefits businesses of all sizes, as cyber threats can impact a business regardless of its scale. Small and medium-sized enterprises benefit from red teaming assessments to bolster their security defences.
Can red teaming guarantee 100% security?
Red teaming provides valuable insights into your cyber preparedness, but it can’t guarantee absolute security. It’s a proactive measure to identify vulnerabilities and strengthen defences, but ongoing vigilance and continuous security efforts are still needed.
How can my business get started with red teaming?
To initiate a red teaming engagement, you can partner with a reputable cyber security provider, like Sentrium, or employ in-house experts. It’s crucial to define the scope, objectives and rules of engagement for the red teaming exercise to ensure an effective assessment.