What is Red Team Testing?

A Red Team test is a simulation of an advanced threat actor to test your organization's prevention, detection, and response capabilities. Utilizing techniques such as Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), phishing, wireless, and covert physical network attack tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), these tests keep your organization one step ahead of potential attacks.

In this article, we dive into the nitty-gritty of Red Team testing, its benefits, how it helps in identifying cyber vulnerabilities, and provides remediation strategies.

The Goal of Red Team Testing

Red team testing aims to stress-test your existing security infrastructure and cyber defense strategy by simulating real-world attacks. The goal is to uncover vulnerabilities, see how well your team responds under pressure, and identify areas where your defenses could be stronger.

The overall objective is to use the information gathered from the exercise to help you improve your cyber defenses and cybersecurity strategies and strengthen your overall resilience.

Importance of Red Team Testing

Red team testing plays a pivotal role in identifying vulnerabilities, assessing your incident response capability, and building stronger security policies.

By simulating real-world attacks, it allows you to identify weaknesses that traditional testing might overlook. This proactive approach ensures your business stays one step ahead of attackers.

It’s also a powerful way to evaluate your incident response, such as:

• How quickly can your team detect and contain a threat?
• Are there gaps in your defenses?

These insights help you refine your processes and prepare for real-world scenarios.

The lessons learned from Red Team testing inform smarter, more proactive security strategies. The insights gained from Red Team testing can help you create stronger security policies, strengthen your cyber defenses, and better protect your organization from sophisticated cyber threats.

Common Misconceptions of Red Team Testing

Unfortunately, there are a few misconceptions around Red Team testing, which may cause misunderstandings about the role it plays in a security program and its value. A good start to avoid Red Team testing misconceptions is to understand how it differs from other cybersecurity testing:

Red Team vs. Technical Testing

Technical Testing focuses on specific vulnerabilities or technical issues in areas like applications, networks, or employee behavior. It’s narrower in scope, compared to Red Team testing, and focuses on identifying areas of greatest risks to help organizations strengthen their defenses.

For example, eSentire’s Technical Testing services include:

• Penetration Testing
• Web Application Testing
• Mobile Penetration Testing

Red team testing goes beyond technical issues, taking a more holistic approach, providing a broader, more comprehensive assessment of your organization's overall security risk.

It looks at all aspects of your organization's security posture, including people, processes, and technology.

The goal is to simulate real-world attack scenarios that test how well your organization as a whole can detect, respond to, and recover from a sophisticated attack.

Red Team Testing vs. Penetration Testing

While both penetration tests and Red Team engagements aim to identify vulnerabilities in your security, their approaches are different:

• Penetration testing focuses on finding as many vulnerabilities as possible in a defined environment. It’s ideal for understanding technical gaps in defined systems.
• Red teaming examines broader aspects of the organization from an attacker's perspective to simulate how an attacker might exploit vulnerabilities across your entire organization, not just in a specific system. Unlike the structured Pen Test, Red Team engagements are often more unscripted, flexible, and unpredictable.

How Do Red Team Testers Conduct Tests

Just like real-world attackers, Red Team testers have a structured process they use to see weaknesses in your cyber defense strategy.

Each step in Red Team testing is designed to uncover blind spots and stress-test your people, processes, and technology. By understanding how attackers operate, you can build a more resilient security posture and better protect your organization from real-world threats.

A Red Team testing process can be split into five basic steps:

Scope Definition: Before the test begins, the team defines clear boundaries and goals. These include specific systems or parts of the infrastructure to attack, what data to try to access, or certain actions to attempt, such as shutting down a system. Setting the scope ensures the test remains focused and aligned with your organization's security priorities.

Reconnaissance: This is the research phase, where testers gather as much information as possible about the target, often starting from the public domain. This could include details about the company's digital footprint, social media posts, employee information, and any other useful data they can find. The goal is to uncover entry points that an attacker might exploit.

Attack Planning and Simulation: Once they have enough information, they'll plan their attack, defining the methods they'll use, and mapping out the systems or networks to target.

Red team testers will launch the first stage of their attack, which might be a phishing email to steal user login credentials, exploiting known system vulnerabilities, or identifying weak network configurations. Once they've gained initial access, Red Team testers attempt to move across the network, compromising other systems or accounts, and escalating their privileges in the system.

Response and Evasion Tactics: Red team testers will respond to countermeasures, constantly adapting to evade detection. Once they've reached their target, they carry out the predefined objectives. This could involve capturing sensitive data, disrupting a service, or achieving a persistent presence in the network. This step challenges your detection and response capabilities in real time, ensuring a realistic assessment of your security.

Reporting and Follow-up: After a test, all actions and discoveries are extensively documented in a detailed report. This includes vulnerabilities they found and exploited, the impact of a simulated attack, and actionable recommendations on how to fix the flaws and improve the organization's security program.

How to Integrate Red Team Testing into Your Security Framework

Given the evolving nature of cyber threats, regular testing is important to understand the evolving threat landscape, keep your security program current, and your organization secure.

The first step to adding Red Team testing to your security framework is to examine your cybersecurity maturity. Understand what security controls, processes, and procedures you currently have in place. Based on this analysis, you'll be better placed to determine the scope and focus areas for your Red Team test.

When determining the scope of your test, answer questions like:

• What systems or applications will the Red Team simulate attacks on?
• What types of specific breaches (i.e., phishing, business email compromise attacks, or ransomware) should they try to emulate?
• What specific data should they try to exfiltrate?

Post testing, once the Red Team has provided a detailed report on the vulnerabilities found, how these vulnerabilities were exploited, and recommendations to address your security gaps. You need to ensure there's a systematic process to address these recommendations.

You should also use findings from the Red Team testing exercise to educate and train relevant stakeholders by conducting additional technical testing for the IT team or undergoing cybersecurity awareness training for all employees.

In essence, integrating Red Team testing into your security framework will require preparation, planning, and a commitment to continuous improvement. It's not just about testing; it's about using that knowledge to strengthen your overall security posture.

How to Choose a Red Team

Whether in-house or outsourced, ensure that your Red Team has varied skill sets across different areas of cybersecurity, including skills to exploit technical vulnerabilities, execute social engineering, and manipulate physical security controls.

In-house Red Teams may be ideal if you want a team with intimate knowledge of your organization. However, building an in-house team requires significant investment in hiring, training, and retaining talent.

On the other hand, outsourcing Red Team testing to an external provider brings fresh perspectives and specialized expertise. They often have experience across multiple industries and access to cutting-edge tools and techniques.

If outsourcing, you should prioritize finding a provider with the right experience and expertise, a thorough understanding of your business & industry, and the range of services provided.

Remember, your Red Team must understand your organization’s specific goals and risks. During the selection process, make sure they can customize their approach to align with your objectives, whether it’s testing compliance, detecting insider threats, or improving incident response.

eSentire Red Team Testing

eSentire's Red Team applies real-world tactics, techniques, and procedures in a controlled and safe manner to highlight vulnerabilities in your security infrastructure, providing comprehensive insights for effective remediation. Contact us to learn more.