Test Your Staff, Employees, and Procedures
Red Teaming is a type of cybersecurity service that uses different methods and targets multiple layers of the system to test an organisation’s resilience to cyber-attacks and the responsiveness of the SOC or IT team to attack attempts.
Conducting Red Teaming means simulating an actual intrusion into an organisation. Unlike a penetration test, where we try to find as many security flaws as possible, this service aims at breaking into a system, leaving the target unaware of the attack. That’s why the project is based on two assumptions:
- Employees of the tested organisation do not know that the test will be run (ideally, only one person on the client-side knows about the test).
- The test is run over a long period, as this is the only way for (ethical) hackers to remain undetected on the network.
Red Teaming is often used to test or improve the performance of an internal cyber security management team. We have seen an increase in SOC centres that ensure the network’s integrity from a cyber security perspective. Smaller organisations typically do not have dedicated SOCs but have IT staff or outsourced cybersecurity teams who manage the cybersecurity of the IT system. We recommend that as few people as possible know about the planned Red Teaming exercise for best results. Ideally, only one person is the point of contact between the Red Team and the organisation. However, the test should be conducted with the least impact on the business and operations of the tested organisation.
Besides providing a clear picture of the technical resilience to cyber-attacks, Red Teaming also checks how resilient your organisation is to social engineering attacks. In an actual attack, the hacker typically starts with social engineering, e. g. spear phishing, which opens the door to the internal network.
What does Red Teaming look like?
Red Teaming starts with a user-level attack: various techniques (e.g. OSINT) are used to obtain the relevant passwords or access to the internal network. We try to remain as undercover as possible, just like real hackers do. Aggressive and massive campaigns quickly trigger alarms on security systems and warn security teams of unusual actions on the network.
The purpose of the test is to get as far as possible, using the same methods and tools as used by cybercriminals. It is essential to keep a record of the campaigns and procedures, as this is the only way we can give you a quality report at the end of the project.
The comprehensive security testing approach we use for Red Teaming projects provides the most transparent picture of security in an organisation: employee awareness, the adequacy of procedures and the effectiveness of the internal IT team or SOC Security Operations Centre.
The service allows you to:
- check the maturity level of information security in your organisation,
- test the organisation’s ability to detect suspicious behaviour,
- test the response of staff in the event of an intrusion.
Deliverables
Years of experience in cybersecurity testing projects have shown that a quality implementation report can answer many questions in the client-contractor relationship and the relationships within the organisation.
Therefore, we conclude each of our projects with comprehensive reports:
- Executive summary report with risk analysis
- Remediation report with recommendations for improvement
- Technical report with detailed descriptions of the testing process and findings
- Documentation to help you recreate the results
- Advice on improving protection systems, detection, and response capabilities
We recommend Red Teaming to …
As this is an advanced project targeting all levels of an IT system, we recommend that you first test individual parts of the system and ensure an adequate level of cybersecurity. Once you feel that the particular areas have been properly optimised, ask Red Teaming experts to check the actual resistance of your IT system to a hacker attack.
We particularly recommend this project to organisations in the critical infrastructure segment, which has recently been the most frequent target of cyber-attacks globally and where a successful attack may have fatal consequences for society at large.
