Advanced Red TeamOperations

Red team operations are advanced adversary simulation exercises where our team acts as sophisticated attackers to test your organization's security posture, detection capabilities, and incident response procedures. Unlike traditional penetration testing, red team engagements are adversarial, goal-oriented, and designed to mimic real-world APTs and targeted attacks without your security team's prior knowledge.

Penetration testing focuses on finding vulnerabilities across a defined scope. Red teaming is goal-oriented adversary simulation with specific objectives (e.g., access sensitive data, establish persistence). Pentests are collaborative and comprehensive, while red team exercises are stealthy and adversarial to test detection and response. Red teams use social engineering, physical security testing, and custom tools to bypass defenses like real attackers would.

Typically, only C-level executives and legal/compliance teams are informed about red team engagements to maintain realism. Your SOC team, security analysts, and IT staff should not be notified so we can test their detection and response capabilities authentically. We work with your leadership to define rules of engagement, escalation procedures, and safety controls while keeping the exercise realistic.

Red team engagements typically last 2-6 weeks, depending on scope and objectives. Some engagements are longer-term (3-6 months) to simulate advanced persistent threats. The engagement includes reconnaissance, initial access, lateral movement, objective achievement, and post-engagement analysis. We provide a comprehensive report detailing our tactics, what we accessed, and recommendations to improve detection and response.

Yes, red team operations often include social engineering tactics such as spear phishing, vishing (phone-based attacks), physical security testing, and pretexting. These techniques test human defenses and security awareness. We can tailor social engineering scope based on your comfort level and objectives. All social engineering is ethical, approved, and designed to improve security awareness without causing harm.

Purple teaming is a collaborative approach where our red team works directly with your blue team (defenders) to improve detection, response, and defensive capabilities. Instead of adversarial exercises, purple team sessions focus on knowledge transfer, testing detection rules, validating security controls, and improving SIEM tuning. It's ideal for organizations that want to strengthen defenses through collaborative testing and threat-informed defense strategies.