Red Team

What is a Red Team?

A red team is a group that pretends to be an enemy, attempts a physical or digital intrusion against an organization at the direction of that organization, then reports back so that the organization can improve their defenses. Red teams work for the organization or are hired by the organization. Their work is legal, but can surprise some employees who may not know that red teaming is occurring, or who may be deceived by the red team. Some definitions of red team are broader, and include any group within an organization that is directed to think outside the box and look at alternative scenarios that are considered less plausible. This can be an important defense against false assumptions and groupthink. The term red teaming originated in the 1960s in the United States.

Source: Wikipedia

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A group of people authorized and organized to emulate a potential adversary’s attack or exploitation capabilities against an enterprise’s security posture. The Red Team’s objective is to improve enterprise cybersecurity by demonstrating the impacts of successful attacks and by demonstrating what works for the defenders (i.e., the Blue Team) in an operational environment. Also known as Cyber Red Team.

Source: NIST

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Red team testing uses ethical hacking to identify breaches to an organization’s security system using real-world techniques like those used for social engineering attacks. Red teaming goes beyond a penetration test, or pen test, because it puts a team of adversaries — the red team — against an organization’s security team — the blue team. The red team is typically made up of highly trained security professionals who understand real-world tactics for compromising environments. Organizations can use information from this simulation to correct weaknesses in their security defense and improve their security posture.

Red team testing can help your company by thoroughly analyzing the strength of every security control your organization uses. Instead of relying on the theoretical capabilities of your security system, you can understand how they will hold up in practice. Red team testing doesn’t identify potential breach areas exclusively in your technology. It can identify security vulnerabilities in all of the following areas:

• Technology: Cybersecurity professionals use hacking strategies to identify risk areas related to networks, applications, routers and other types of technology.

• Human resources: Red team testing can expose vulnerabilities related to your human resources, like staff, independent contractors and business partners. According to the InfoSec Institute, an estimated 6% to 28% of cybersecurity attacks happen with help from current or former employees.

• Infrastructure: Red team testing can expose vulnerabilities related to the security of your infrastructure, including access to offices, data centers and warehouses.

Source: Crowdstrike