Offensive Security

Red Teaming

Objective-based adversary emulation across people, process, and technology. We pursue a defined goal the way a real attacker would, and measure whether your team detects and responds.

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Overview

A red team assessment is goal-driven rather than coverage-driven. Instead of enumerating every vulnerability in scope, we agree a specific objective with you, such as reaching a defined dataset, a production system, or a privileged account, and pursue it the way a determined, patient adversary would. Red teaming is the most holistic form of cybersecurity testing because it evaluates your entire security posture: prevention, detection, and response together.

That means combining technical exploitation, social engineering, and physical or process weaknesses across an extended timeframe, within written rules of engagement. Our testers use TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures) aligned to realistic threat actors relevant to your sector. The point is not just to find gaps in security controls. It is to simulate real-world attacks and test whether your monitoring, your processes, and your security teams notice and respond to an intrusion in progress. We evaluate detection and response capabilities, document the full attack path, and measure where your security operations center and incident response processes held and where they did not.

Red team engagements deliver the most value once fundamental security controls and monitoring are already in place. If you are earlier in your programme, a penetration test or vulnerability assessment is usually the better first step. We will tell you plainly which fits your situation.

What’s included

Objective definition, scenario design, and threat profile scoping
Multi-vector emulation: external, internal, social engineering, and physical where in scope
Detection and response evaluation against your monitoring and your security teams
Full attack narrative with timeline, decision points, and evidence
Prioritised improvements across prevention, detection, and response
Optional purple-team debrief with your defenders

How we work

01
Define the objective
We agree the goal, the threat profile to emulate, the vectors in scope, and the rules of engagement, with written authorisation in place before the exercise begins.
02
Pursue the objective
We execute across the agreed vectors, blending techniques and capturing timing, decision points, and evidence throughout. Reconnaissance, gaining access, and attempting to compromise the objective are all conducted within the agreed scope.
03
Evaluate detection and response
We assess what your monitoring detected, when it detected it, and how your team responded at each stage of the red team engagement.
04
Debrief
We deliver the full attack narrative and, if you wish, run a purple-team session to transfer knowledge directly to your defenders and build actionable remediation plans.

What you get

Red team report with attack narrative, timeline, and evidence
Detection and response evaluation with gap analysis
Prioritised improvements for prevention, detection, and response
Optional purple-team debrief session

A word on timing

Red teaming delivers the most value when you already have fundamental security controls, logging, and an incident response process in place. Without those foundations, a penetration test or vulnerability assessment gives you a higher return per engagement. We will tell you honestly which is the right fit for your current security posture.

Frequently asked questions

How is red teaming different from a penetration test?

A penetration test aims for broad coverage within a defined scope and typically runs over days. Red teaming pursues a specific objective with patience and stealth, simulating real-world attacks against your people, process, and technology over a longer timeframe. It is closer to a rehearsal of a real targeted breach and tests your detection and response capabilities in a way traditional penetration testing does not.

Should our security team know the red team exercise is happening?

Usually only a small number of senior stakeholders are informed, so the response from the broader team is genuine. We agree the level of awareness during scoping. The exercise always operates under written authorisation regardless of who knows. This is what makes the evaluation of your in-house security operations and response real rather than rehearsed.

What is a purple-team debrief?

A purple-team session brings your defenders and the red team together after the exercise to walk through what happened step by step, share the attacker perspective, and identify specific detection and response improvements. It turns the exercise into a knowledge-transfer as well as a comprehensive assessment.

What are TTPs in the context of a red team engagement?

TTPs stands for tactics, techniques, and procedures. They describe how real threat actors operate: the methods they use to gain access, move laterally, and reach their objectives. We align our red team engagements to TTPs relevant to the adversaries most likely to target your sector, which makes the simulation realistic and the findings directly applicable to your defences.

See the kind of report you get

Every engagement ends with a report you can act on: an executive summary, CVSS-aligned findings, reproduction evidence, and prioritised fixes. Ask for a redacted sample and we will share one.

Request a sample report