Red Teaming (Insider Perspective on Ethical Hacking) What Does Red Teaming Entail?

Taking action only after there has been an incident is not an effective strategy for an organization to protect its business from being breached, therefore the organisation should be proactive in adopting an offensive approach and to use this offensive mindset to gain an understanding of how attackers view the organisation's environment as an opportunity for attack. By adopting this approach organisations can develop a Red Teaming aspect to their security posture that will enable them to identify vulnerabilities and take action before these vulnerabilities are exploited by criminals.

Red teaming is an intentional and very proactive practice in which security consultants/experts will conduct simulated "real world" attack scenarios in order to identify different areas of risk across an organization's environment, systems and processes that could lead to cyber-attacks before these attacks occur.

In this blog, we look at what constitutes a Red Team, how it is structured, and the importance of having Red Teaming as part of a Firm's Modern Security Strategy. You will also learn about the historical relationship between Red Teams and Blue Teams, the manner in which they execute their interaction, the various tools available to facilitate the simulated interaction, and the various types of security analysis that exist as it relates to Red Team activities.

A red team is a collection of extremely talented security specialists acting in place of an adversary, who are tasked with simulating the same tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by real-life attackers in order to assess how well an organization has established defenses against these potential threats. Red teams can be considered to be ethical hackers tasked to test the limits of a company’s security infrastructure.

The red teaming process goes far beyond standard vulnerability testing and can be considered a multidimensional/full test of an organization’s overall cybersecurity posture against a defined objective(s), such as gaining access to sensitive information or compromising important networks or systems. By attempting to breach an organization’s security system through targeted attacks and advanced threat simulations, red teams identify weak areas in an organization that would otherwise remain hidden until a real-life attack occurs.

The Classic Showdown: Red Team vs. Blue Team

To understand the value of a red team, you must also understand what a blue team does. In most cases, there is already a blue team in place within an organization's defensive strategies, whether or not it is explicitly labelled as such. Therefore, the interaction between the blue and red teams creates one of the greatest learning opportunities for an organization Through the red team vs. blue team engagement, organizations can assess how well their defensive capabilities function in an environment that is as real as possible after an attack simulation is conducted. Because of these events' value, many organizations choose to have a purple team created as a liaison between the red and blue teams and assist them in maximising their ability to learn from each other.

In general, red team engagements will be highly structured and will contain specific, predetermined objectives as defined by the red team leader. The goal of the engagement is not chaos but rather a precise examination of security capabilities. Red teams will typically work up to a final objective, such as obtaining a specific file or gaining administrative access to an important server.

There are usually a distinct number of stages in a red team engagement. The stages closely represent what would happen during an actual cyber-attack.

The 4 Stages of Red Team Engagement

1. Reconnaissance: Red teams conduct information-gathering exercises regarding their target organization. Examples of information sources may include employee profiles on social media and public-facing websites as well as identified vulnerabilities in the organization’s internal networks. The reconnaissance phase is the intelligence-gathering stage.
2. Initial Compromise: Using the information gathered during the reconnaissance phase, Red teams will establish an initial foothold in the target's internal network using various methods, such as phishing emails, exploiting previously identified vulnerabilities, etc.
3. Persistence & Escalation: Once the Red Team has established a foothold inside the target’s network, they will begin to build a persistent presence on that network and start working to escalate their access levels by lateral Movement until they reach access to higher value resources.
4. Exfiltration: The final stage often involves achieving the main objective. This could mean accessing and quietly extracting sensitive data—all without being detected by the blue team.

After the exercise, a comprehensive red team assessment is delivered. The following is the most significant aspect of your project as an entire project. A comprehensive report will reveal what the red team did and why, identify any system vulnerabilities they found, and disclose any security controls that were utilized to exploit those vulnerabilities.

In addition to assisting, you with your defence strategy, you will also receive recommendations on defense improvements, enhanced detection capabilities, and improved incident response procedures to prevent against future attacks.

MITRE ATT&CK Framework for Red Teaming

Red Teaming becomes far more effective when it’s aligned with something structured and proven—this is where the MITRE ATT&CK framework comes in. Instead of running generic or tool-driven attacks, red teams use MITRE as a real-world playbook of how actual adversaries operate. It breaks an attack into clear stages like Initial Access, Execution, Privilege Escalation, Lateral Movement, and Exfiltration, with each stage mapped to techniques observed in real intrusions.

This gives red teams a smarter way to plan their approach and ensures every action mirrors authentic attacker behaviour. It also creates a common language between red and blue teams. Instead of vague statements like “we moved laterally,” operators can reference specific MITRE technique IDs, making it easier for defenders to identify detection gaps, validate controls, and improve response strategies.

By stitching multiple techniques into a full attack chain—phishing for access, escalating privileges, maintaining persistence, moving laterally, and eventually exfiltrating data—MITRE-aligned simulations reveal exactly where defences break down. For organisations, this delivers a more transparent, repeatable, and intelligence-led assessment of their security posture, helping teams prioritise improvements based on real risk rather than assumptions.

In today’s evolving threat landscape, MITRE ATT&CK has become a core part of modern red teaming—bringing structure, clarity, and real-world relevance to every engagement.

The concept of red teaming and blue teaming allows for continuous improvements through collaboration between both teams. Additionally, tools such as Atomic Red Team create opportunities for security professionals to test their equipment against present threats. For individuals who have an interest in pursuing a career in Cybersecurity, Red Teaming offers an exciting and rewarding experience. With the right level of education and credentialing, one may find themselves among the cadre of Ethical Hackers whom companies apply to protect themselves from cyberattackers.

We help organisations build this proactive, attacker-aware mindset. Our security experts conduct focused, objective-driven assessments, uncover hidden gaps and deliver clear, actionable guidance to strengthen detection, response, and overall resilience.

Whether an organisation is looking to validate its defences or enhance its security maturity, we provide the technical depth and strategic direction needed to stay prepared in an evolving threat landscape.