Red Team Assessment: Advanced Cyber Attack Simulation
Overview
Razorthorn’s red team assessment service provides intelligence-led security testing designed to thoroughly evaluate your organisation’s cyber resilience, threat detection and incident response capabilities. Conducted by CREST certified ethical hackers, our red team assessments simulate real-world cyber attacks using the same tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) employed by criminal adversaries.
Unlike traditional penetration testing that focuses on identifying vulnerabilities, red team assessments evaluate your entire security programme under realistic attack conditions. Our experienced red team specialists employ custom tools, exploits and methodologies to breach your environment, testing whether your security controls, monitoring systems and incident response teams can detect and prevent sophisticated attacks.
Red team assessments typically run over 30 day windows, mirroring genuine intrusion timelines. This extended engagement allows realistic simulation of advanced persistent threats, lateral movement and data exfiltration whilst evaluating your organisation’s ability to detect and respond to ongoing attacks.
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The Razorthorn Approach to a Red Team Assessment
Objective-Based Engagement Design
We design red team assessments based on your organisation’s specific objectives and threat landscape. Common objectives include:
- Gaining administrative access to critical applications
- Accessing and exfiltrating sensitive data
- Compromising specific user accounts or mailboxes
- Establishing command and control infrastructure
- Installing reconnaissance or monitoring tools
- Disrupting business operations or critical services
Intelligence-Led Black-Box Testing
Our red team typically operates with minimal prior knowledge of your environment, simulating external attackers. This black-box approach ensures realistic testing of your defences under genuine attack conditions without insider advantages.
CREST Certified Ethical Hackers
All red team assessments are conducted by CREST certified ethical hackers with extensive experience in advanced attack techniques, threat intelligence and adversary tradecraft. Our specialists bring deep technical expertise and understanding of real-world attack patterns.
Extended Engagement Timeline
Red team assessments typically run over 30-day windows, allowing realistic simulation of advanced persistent threats. This extended timeline enables our team to operate stealthily, establish persistence and conduct multi-stage attacks whilst testing your organisation’s detection capabilities over time.
Comprehensive Testing Scope
Our red team assessments employ multiple attack vectors including:
- Technical exploitation of network and application vulnerabilities
- Social engineering targeting employees
- Physical security testing and unauthorised access attempts
- Supply chain and third-party targeting
- Cloud infrastructure and SaaS application attacks
Continuous Evaluation
Throughout the engagement, we evaluate not just whether we can breach your defences but whether your security operations centre detects our activities, whether incident response activates and how effectively your team responds to identified threats.
When to Conduct Red Team Assessments
Mature Security Programmes
Red team assessments are most valuable for organisations with established security programmes, functioning security operations centres and incident response capabilities. If you’re still building foundational security, consider penetration testing first.
Regulatory and Compliance Requirements
Certain regulations and frameworks recommend or require red team assessments for organisations in critical sectors or handling sensitive data. Our assessments support compliance with DORA, TIBER-EU and sector-specific requirements.
Following Major Security Investments
Validate new security investments through red team assessment. Following SIEM deployment, EDR rollout or security operations centre establishment, red team testing demonstrates whether these investments actually improve security under attack conditions.
Incident Response Validation
Test incident response plans, procedures and team readiness through realistic attack simulation. Red team assessments reveal whether your organisation can detect, contain and recover from sophisticated breaches.
Annual Security Validation
Regular red team assessments provide ongoing validation of security posture as environments evolve, new threats emerge and security programmes mature. Annual testing tracks improvement and identifies new gaps.
Consider Purple Team for Collaborative Improvement
If your primary goal is improving detection and response capabilities rather than testing them, consider purple team assessments instead. Purple team exercises combine red team attack simulation with blue team collaboration, enabling your security operations centre to learn detection techniques in real time whilst attackers explain their methods. This collaborative approach accelerates security capability development.
Why Choose Razorthorn for a Red Team Assessment?
CREST Certified Ethical Hackers
Our red team specialists hold CREST certifications demonstrating advanced technical skills and adherence to professional ethical hacking standards. This certification ensures high quality, responsible testing.
18 Years of Security Testing Experience
Since 2007, Razorthorn has conducted advanced security assessments across diverse organisations and threat landscapes. Our extensive experience ensures sophisticated, realistic red team engagements.
Real-World Threat Intelligence
Our red team assessments incorporate current threat intelligence and adversary tactics. We simulate techniques actually employed by criminal groups, nation-state actors and advanced persistent threats rather than outdated attack patterns.
Comprehensive Attack Surface Coverage
We test all potential attack vectors including technical exploitation, social engineering, physical security and supply chain risks. This comprehensive approach ensures complete evaluation of your security posture.
Objective, Risk-Managed Testing
All red team activities are conducted within agreed rules of engagement with appropriate risk management and controls. We balance realistic attack simulation with responsible practices protecting business operations.
Red Team Assessment Enquiry
Optimise your cyber security posture with realistic breach and attack simulations from Razorthorn’s CREST certified ethical hackers. Our red team assessments thoroughly test your detection capabilities, incident response readiness and overall cyber resilience.
Get in touch to arrange a consultation.