The various teams and groups involved in a cybersecurity risk assessment are frequently divided into several categories in cybersecurity testing based on their roles. The team designated as the red team is in charge of conducting offensive activities and acting as a possible attacker throughout the battle. If you want to know more, you can enrol in a good Cyber security online training.
Objectives of the Red Team
Any cybersecurity test’s goal is to faithfully imitate threats to an organisation in order to evaluate that organisation’s defences and spot any potential security risks and weaknesses. The red team’s major goal is to correctly imitate the tools, techniques, and processes utilised by the simulated adversary because their function is to pose as the attacker. These ruses frequently rely on resources like the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which lists different attack strategies and emphasises the ones employed by significant cyber threat actors.
The Importance of the Red Team
The cyber defences of every firm will eventually be put to the test. It’s always preferable for this test to be conducted by a reliable individual rather than an actual adversary.
Because they mimic potential real-world threats to an organisation’s cybersecurity, the red team is crucial to security testing. The effectiveness of an organisation’s defences against a prospective danger will be appropriately assessed by a good red team’s ability to replicate that threat. The tactics for enhancing these defences and lowering an organisation’s susceptibility to genuine threats can then be developed and put into action using the results of this assessment.
Services and Activities
- External and Internal Penetration Testing: They undertake in-depth analyses of an organisation’s internal and external infrastructure in order to find any holes or vulnerabilities that an attacker might use against us.
- Vulnerability Assessment: To help enterprises better understand their security posture, the red team conducts vulnerability assessments by scanning systems for known vulnerabilities and delivering in-depth reports.
- Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SSDLC): They assist enterprises in putting safe development practices into place at every stage of their SDLC.
- Web, Desktop, and Mobile Application Security: The team offers thorough security evaluations for online, desktop, and mobile applications to make sure they are secure against potential threats and free from vulnerabilities.
- API, Cloud, and WiFi Penetration Testing: We perform specialised penetration testing for APIs, cloud environments, and WiFi networks in order to find vulnerabilities specific to these settings.
The red team does penetration testing on voice-over IP (VOIP) systems to find flaws that could let a company’s communication infrastructure slip.
- Testing for Phishing Awareness: To assess employee awareness and the efficacy of current security measures, we simulate phishing assaults.
Red Team Tactics
The red team’s job is to faithfully imitate the strategies that an actual attacker would employ to compromise a company’s systems. The specifics of these strategies can vary from engagement to engagement, particularly if the engagement’s goal is to mimic a specific real-world cyber threat actor. Additionally, certain techniques and tactics may be prohibited or restricted by the assessment’s rules of engagement.
However, some strategies are utilised consistently across encounters, or other threat actors employ versions of the same approaches. During a security evaluation, a red team may employ various common techniques, such as the following:
- Social Engineering: Social engineering is a frequent approach used by cybercriminals and an excellent place for the red team to start if it is permitted by the exercise’s rules of participation. Red teams may try to deceive their target into providing sensitive information or access to the company’s systems by using phishing, vishing, and other similar techniques.
- Network Scanning: Network and vulnerability scanning are popular techniques for gathering data about the systems and software used by an organisation. Scans conducted by a red team are likely to reveal potential vulnerabilities that can be exploited.
- Vulnerability Exploitation: The red team will exploit any security holes found in an organisation’s systems by network scanning or other methods. This is probably an iterative process, where access gained by taking advantage of vulnerabilities is then utilised to find and take advantage of more security gaps.
- Physical Security Testing: A red team may conduct a physical security assessment in addition to assessing an organisation’s digital defences. This can entail employing different strategies to get beyond the physical security barriers, such as following staff into restricted areas.
How the Red Team Security Testing Process Works?
- Rules of engagement: Specifying the exercise’s objectives and rules of engagement is the first step in the red teaming process. All sides will gather to discuss the engagement’s parameters and establish guidelines for handling specific occurrences, such as stopping an attack.
- Assessment: The evaluation can start once the norms of engagement have been established. After doing reconnaissance, the red team will start exploiting any weaknesses found. This will go on until the test is over, which may be established by a time restriction or whether the red team has succeeded in achieving specific objectives (such as accessing a specific file stored on a system).
- Retrospective: After the assessment, a retrospective will be held with participation from all stakeholders. The defenders can ask questions and gather data that can be used to mitigate the discovered vulnerabilities once the red team presents what they did and their findings.
Conclusion
To guarantee that an organisation is secured against the most recent online dangers, regular security testing is imperative. Red team engagements are an excellent tool to assess how well a company’s security stands up to a genuine assault. Check out a good Cyber security class online to learn more about Red Team.
