Red Teaming
Everything we do, aimed at a single goal. A full-scope attack simulation that combines OSINT, social engineering, penetration testing, physical intrusion and, where useful, reverse engineering, testing not just whether you can be breached, but whether you would notice and how well you would respond.
In plain terms
When a checklist is not enough
A penetration test asks how many doors are unlocked. A red team asks a harder question: given a real goal, such as reaching the payroll system or the customer database, could a determined adversary get there, and would anyone stop them? We bring together every discipline we offer, technology, people and physical access, into one realistic campaign that unfolds exactly as a genuine threat actor's would.
This is the truest test of your security investment. It measures your prevention, your detection and your response together, and gives your leadership an honest answer to the question that matters most: if this happened for real, how would we actually cope? Because it is deliberately quiet and thorough, a realistic red team is a longer engagement, typically running two months or more.
Think of it as a fire drill for a real cyber attack, run against your live organisation instead of a plan on paper. Nobody schedules the alarm, so what you learn is genuine: did the smoke detectors work, did people know what to do, did the response happen in minutes or was the intruder free to roam for weeks? That honesty is the whole point, and it is why a red team is usually the last assessment an organisation grows into, not the first.
Scope & coverage
What a red team combines
Reconnaissance & OSINT
We build a picture of your organisation from public sources alone, exactly as a real attacker plans their approach.
- Exposed people, technology and assets
- Leaked credentials from past breaches
- Look-alike domains and impersonation angles
- The easiest, quietest way in
Social engineering & initial access
Phishing, vishing or a physical foothold, whichever route a real adversary would most likely choose to get their first step inside.
- Targeted spear phishing and pretext calls
- Physical entry and mystery-guest access
- Exploiting an exposed internet-facing service
- Establishing a quiet, reliable foothold
Foothold & lateral movement
From one compromised point we move through the network toward the objective, deliberately and under the radar.
- Internal reconnaissance and credential access
- Lateral movement across systems and segments
- Living off the land to avoid detection
- Mapping the path to high-value systems
Privilege escalation & domain dominance
We escalate toward administrator and full domain control, measuring the true blast radius of a single mistake.
- Active Directory attack paths to Domain Admin
- Access to crown-jewel systems and data
- Persistence that survives a reboot or reset
- Proof of impact, safely demonstrated
Detection & response measurement
Throughout, we track what your monitoring saw and missed, giving a candid measure of your ability to respond.
- What your tools and team detected, and when
- Where a single alert would have broken the chain
- Response speed and escalation in practice
- A clear before-and-after for your defenders
Objective & impact
We reach the agreed goal and prove it, so the business impact is undeniable and easy to communicate to leadership.
- The agreed crown-jewel objective, reached
- Impact expressed in business terms
- A step-by-step replay of the whole attack
- Concrete, prioritised improvements
The value
What you gain
A test of real resilience
Not a list of vulnerabilities, but a clear answer to whether a motivated attacker could reach your crown-jewel systems, and how far they would get.
Detection & response, measured
You learn whether your team, tools and processes actually spot and stop an intrusion in progress, or whether it goes unnoticed.
Lessons your whole team can use
A joint debrief with your defenders turns the exercise into concrete, lasting improvements across technology, people and process.
Methodology
How we work
Objective setting
Together we define the goal, the rules of engagement and what is in and out of scope, in writing.
Recon & planning
We study your attack surface and design the most realistic path an adversary would take toward the goal.
Execution
A controlled, multi-stage campaign over weeks, combining technology, people and, where agreed, physical access.
Reporting
A step-by-step account of the attack, mapped to MITRE ATT&CK, with what your defenders saw and missed and concrete improvements.
Debrief workshop
A joint session with your defenders, replaying the attack step by step and agreeing improvements.
Retest
We confirm the key findings are actually closed.
For the technical reader
Under the hood
We map every action to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, so the story of the engagement reads as a clear sequence of adversary techniques rather than a bag of findings. That makes it easy for your defenders to see precisely which tactics they detected, which they missed, and where a single detection rule would have broken the whole chain.
Red teaming tests people and process as much as technology, which is exactly why it is powerful. Real incidents rarely come down to one clever exploit: they come down to a phishing email that worked, an alert nobody actioned and a segmentation gap that let one laptop reach a server it never should have. We surface those human and procedural gaps and turn them into fixes. Where an objective calls for it, we can even reverse engineer your own software to build a bespoke way in, the kind of tailored attack a generic test never attempts.
Every engagement is fully authorised, tightly scoped and completely confidential, with a direct line for immediate escalation if anything genuinely sensitive is discovered.
A red team is also where our full range comes together. The recon phase is an OSINT exercise; initial access may be a phishing campaign or a physical mystery-guest entry; the internal phase is penetration testing under stealth; and if the objective calls for it, we can even reverse engineer your own software to build a bespoke way in. Few boutiques can draw on all of those disciplines in a single, coordinated operation, and that breadth is what lets us model a genuinely capable adversary rather than a checklist.
Deliverables
What you receive
Executive summary
Clear, business-level conclusions written for management and decision makers, no jargon required.
Technical findings by risk
Every issue classified from Critical to Low with a CVSS score, so your team always knows what to fix first.
Evidence for every finding
Screenshots, logs and a proof of concept for each issue, so nothing is theoretical and everything is verifiable.
Prioritised remediation plan
Concrete, actionable fixes: urgent security measures first, strategic improvements next.
Debrief workshop
A walkthrough of the findings with your team, including questions and answers and next steps.
Retest of key findings
Confirmation that the most important gaps have actually been closed after your team has fixed them.
Who it's for
When you are ready for a red team
Standalone or combined
Red teaming works best when your basic hygiene is already sound. If you are earlier in the journey, a penetration test first will give you more value for money, and we will tell you so honestly. When you are ready, this is the engagement that proves how your people, processes and technology truly hold up together.
Questions & answers
Red teaming: questions and answers
How is a red team different from a penetration test?
A penetration test finds as many vulnerabilities as possible in an agreed system. A red team pursues one real-world objective by any realistic route, technical, human, or physical, and measures whether you detect and respond along the way. It tests your defences as a whole, not just a system's flaws.
How long does a red team engagement take?
Because it is deliberately quiet and thorough, a realistic red team typically runs two months or more. Rushing it would defeat the purpose: a real adversary is patient, and so are we.
Is it safe, or could it break something?
It is carefully controlled. The engagement is fully authorised and scoped, actions are chosen to avoid disruption, and there is a direct escalation channel so anything genuinely sensitive can be handled immediately.
Should we tell our security team it is happening?
Usually not, because their genuine reaction is exactly what we are measuring. A small, trusted “white cell” of senior stakeholders knows and can call a halt at any time, but the wider defending team is kept unaware so the test stays realistic.
How do we know if we are ready for one?
If your basic security hygiene is still weak, a penetration test first will give you far more value for money, and we will tell you so honestly. A red team pays off once you have controls and monitoring worth putting to the test.
What do we get at the end?
A full attack narrative mapped to MITRE ATT&CK, a candid account of what your defences detected and missed, the business impact of the objective we reached, and a prioritised plan of concrete improvements, delivered in a joint debrief with your team.
