What is Red Teaming?

Red Teaming is the ultimate security test for your organisation. It involves our Red Team – the ethical hackers – trying to break through the defences of a Blue Team – your organisation’s network security providers. The Red Team will work to gain access to all your assets without being detected, like a real-world hacker, by using a series of customised stealth-like physical and cyber manoeuvres.

1. Experience a 'Real-Life' Attack

The Missing Link’s award-winning Red Teamers will test your layers of security, mimicking a real-life scenario. They will see if they can access your building, your people, your workstations, mobile and wireless devices, in just the same way a real-life hacker would. A hacker would then target your most valued servers, and see if they could take over your network, so we will too.

Once they’ve completed their mission, our Red Teamers will present a review of the operation, detailing every attack, your blue team’s response, the strength of your existing security defence and any vulnerabilities found. We’ll also document opportunities to improve your security defences and step by step guide for implementation.

The whole idea of red teaming is to support your blue team. To arm them with more knowledge and higher-level skills so they’re better prepared to mitigate risks and stop attacks in their tracks.

The purple option

If you’re not ready for red teaming, purple teaming will provide your organisation with the support and expertise needed to bolster your security. A purple team combines the third party ability of red teamers with your internal blue teamers in an attack operation designed to identify and rectify vulnerabilities across all aspects of your organisation’s security.

This more collaborative approach involves our red team working with your blue team through planned attacks so that each stage of the attack and corresponding response can be analysed and learnt from. This valuable exchange of information allows threats to be identified and defences improved on the fly.

It also prepares your organisation for a pure red teaming exercise down the track, which will not only gather threat intelligence but will also find strengths and weaknesses in your organisation’s response to a potential real-life attack.

2. Test your Defences 

We’ll work with you to customise a red teaming operation that simulates a real-life attack without the adversarial consequences. By using multiple attack vectors – social and physical engineering strategies, we’ll identify defences that work and those that need to be improved, then set out a plan for implementation.

Gaining a foothold

Working with just one or two high-level executives in your organisation, we will pre-determine the operation’s objectives and identify the target our red teamers need to steal despite your blue team’s best efforts. We’ll undertake an initial reconnaissance to gather intelligence about your physical environment, your infrastructure, processes, and people.

Armed with this information, we’ll begin our initial attacks by making phone calls and email phishing in an attempt to get your staff to inadvertently breach security measures by disclosing their usernames and passcodes so we can access your systems.

We could also use physical engineering – for example; we might pose as suppliers or IT support in an attempt to enter your building… whatever it takes, we’ll find a way because that’s what red teaming is all about.

The bottom line is; A hacker is not limited by the scope of a penetration test, so to truly test your defences you need to see how they stand up to a hacker, and that is exactly what a Red Team does. 

3. Know your Enemies

Our Red Teamers will help protect your enterprise from the increasing risk of a cyberattack by organised criminals focussed on gaining access to your servers and networks. By identifying any weaknesses, we’ll provide opportunities to bolster your defences. By verifying your strengths you’ll be empowered to grow your business with confidence.

Determine the threat quotient

A security threat can commence in the most innocuous way – a criminal may steal an access card from a handbag or pocket, pose as a cleaner to enter your premises after hours then gain physical data or usernames and passwords that provide infinite access to systems and networks that don’t have adequate protection.

Organised criminals will use extortion or malicious software to gain access to your systems, steal data, assets, or money. They may add your system to a criminal botnet group, then commence a destructive operation via their external command and control centre.

Cyberactivists will try to damage your reputation by leaking confidential information and data to the public, spreading rumours, and hacking your social media.

Cyberspies might hack your systems to gather information about your processes and executives that can be used to your detriment at a later date. Being slower and more stealth-like in their operation, cyberspies can be difficult for the untrained eye to detect. Our Red team solution is designed to get you on the front foot, it will find the weakness in your layers of security, so they can be improved, it will also help you deal with an attack should one occur.

4. Upskill and Empower

No matter how sophisticated your internal security team is, there’s a chance they may overlook existing issues due to familiarisation, or inadvertently turn a blind eye. By exposing your organisation to multilayered attacks by our external ethical hackers, you’ll get a clear picture of how prepared your people, processes and technology really are to defend against a real-life attack.

Build a defence strategy

At the Missing Link, our Red Teamers are globally recognised and multi-awarded for their exceptional capabilities. With your interests front and centre, we will put your organisation’s security team to the test from multiple angles and with the perspective of a real-life hacker.

Working with custom-built tools and software, our Red Teamers will simulate and attack your defences, which could have stolen your data and disrupted your systems. Armed with insights, we will develop a security risk profile that identifies all your organisation’s assets and classifies their level of exposure to risk. We will provide a thorough assessment of the risk mitigation processes you have in place and the steps required to improve them.

After our Red Teaming operation, you are guaranteed to be in a better position when it comes to fending off and responding to a real-life attack. We will also provide you with an excellent external view of your security and recommendations on how it could be improved.

Perfect Partner Experience

A Red Team engagement consists of many little battles, some won, some lost, and that’s when you start to appreciate what you do well, and what needs improvement. Importantly, the team at The Missing Link are incredibly skilled and 100% emotionally invested in the challenge. We know we will be tested, and we know that The Missing Link team will beat us several times along the way, and that’s great – we learn, and we don’t make the same mistake twice. The whole exercise is really a lot of fun.

A key benefit for us is it allows us to test the response of our other digital security vendors. It’s almost impossible to validate the ROI for most of these products without subjecting them to very thorough testing. The Red team exercises are brilliant, the IT team love the experience, and it raises their level of engagement. We’re really looking forward to the next exercise.

Hugo Evans | IT Security and Platforms Manager, Sparke Helmore Lawyers