What is Red Teaming?
“Red Teaming” is a step above traditional penetration (pen) testing by simulating real-world attacks by replicating the Techniques, Tactics and Procedures (TTPs) of real-world adversaries.
A red teaming engagement differs from traditional pen testing as it is performed from as close to a zero knowledge perspective as possible, meaning the organization as a whole is not notified ahead of time, nor is the red team supplied with any pre-requisite information up-front.
The role of the red team (which is often independent from the organization, but can also be an internal team) is to simulate an attack on the target organisation, whereas the blue team (typically an internal security team, but can be outsourced) must defend the organization from infiltration against the simulated attack.
The objectives of a red team test is to reflect a real-world attack scenario focusing on revealing potential threats to the critical data from the wider business rather than being confined to a specific subset of assets. It is a deep dive into the risks and vulnerabilities of the business and is also designed to exercise internal teams and their procedures for such an event.
What thing falls Red Teaming?
Penetration testing or Pen testing is also a cybersecurity practice that companies use to assess the efficiency and reliability of their system’s security plans and policies. This helps them evaluate the potential risks and vulnerabilities present in the system’s network, hardware, platform, assets, and applications.
Red Team Methodology and penetration testing have their own merits and demerits and are best suited to accomplish specific goals. The Red team aims to try and get inside and gain access to the confidential information at the earliest. It mimics the actions of a hacker and tries to avoid getting detected.
On the other hand, Penetration testing tends to find as many possible risks or vulnerabilities and security configuration gaps as possible in a specific time for a system. It exploits the discovered issues and evaluates the risk due to the vulnerability.
The penetration testing process usually takes up to 1-2 weeks, while Red Team Methodology may go on for 3-4 weeks. The Red Team Assessment does not look for numerous vulnerabilities in your system. Instead, each attack takes on the mindset of a hacker who has limited time to find and exploit immediately available vulnerabilities that will help them achieve their goals.
Therefore, penetration testing is an appropriate choice for an organization with its security in the beginning phase. However, if the company is looking for more mature security policies and security hardening measures, Red Team Methodology is the right choice.
- Identifies the risk and susceptibility of attack against key business information assets
- Techniques, Tactics and Procedures (TTPs) of genuine threat actors are effectively simulated in a risk managed and controlled manner
- Assesses the organization’s ability to detect, respond and prevent sophisticated and targeted threats
- Close engagement with internal incident response and blue teams to provide meaningful mitigation and comprehensive post-assessment debrief workshops
For a red team assessment to be successful organizational buy-in is essential from senior management from the very start across departments such as IT, HR and legal.
A red team assessment is not just about highlighting the company’s weaknesses but is an attempt to think outside the box when it comes to the security of the business. It is a clear effort from the organization to understand and continuously improve the security posture of the business into the future.
The test can last anywhere from weeks to months, but at the end the results are collated and a workshop is run with the blue team. The complexity of this workshop depends on the target. It can be:
- A high level summary of where they performed well and where they can improve;
- A technical review of each attack and counterattack between the two teams; or,
- Or a set up for a larger “find and fix” project the company wants to launch on the back of the red team.
Red teams offer a means of measuring response to specific scenarios as business operations change. For example the ‘unattended laptop’ scenario which has changed, due to the dramatic shift to remote working in the pandemic, to a shared remote environment which has a different risk profile and possible attack paths. Red teams are ideal for companies that are keen to assess how good they are at preventing, detecting and responding to real world cyber attacks.
