Red Teaming is a term which originated from the military world. In a Red Team scenario, the Red Team thinks and acts as an attacker, which makes the detection of vulnerabilities possible in either an offensive method or a defensive strategy. This technique can be adapted well to applications out-side of the military realm, and has therefore found its way into IT security.

Entities, such as criminals, malicious employees, industrial spies or foreign powers, might be inter-ested in your organisation’s valuable information or financial assets. Digital attacks, to acquire these assets, are increasingly being applied instead of tra-ditional physical acts of forced entry. Digital attacks are easier, cheaper, and lower risk for attackers.

Madison Gurkha has years of experience in con-ducting Red Teaming tests. We have learned to think like malicious entities, and can simulate a re-alistic attack by using of a combination of attack methods, such as social engineering (exploiting human weaknesses), advanced malware and pen-etration testing. These attacks will expose many, if not all, weaknesses in your organisation’s human, procedural, technical and physical security.

ApproachIn a Red Teaming attack, Madison Gurkha employs an approach based on a standard that was jointly developed by us and the financial sector. This ap-proach includes the following phases:

Scoping & InitiationThe first step is to jointly establish the scope of the attack, as well as the main company assets that should be the target of the attack. In this phase, we also agree on the rules of engagement that the Red Team must abide to.

Threat IntelligenceIn this second phase, we develop realistic scenari-os that are most likely to allow us to reach the main company assets. Depending on the agreed scenar-ios, we collect information about the organisation, employees, procedures, physical locations and IT assets in use. It is also possible for the client to par-tially provide this information.

Red Teaming/ExecutionBy leveraging the previously gathered information, Madison Gurkha executes the attacks to acquire the main company assets.During the attack phase, we employ different tech-niques, such as social engineering, to gain access to a building or an employee’s computer, advanced

To what extent is

your organisation

prepared for realistic

attacks? There is

only one way to find

out: by conducting a

Red Teaming test.

Your Security is Our Business

IS YOUR ORGANISATION PREPARED FOR A REAL CYBER ATTACK?

RED TEAMING

malware (Advanced Persistent Threats) and pen-etration testing. Information that is acquired in this phase can also be used to design new scenarios that might bring the Red Team closer to the organi-sation’s main company assets.

Blue Team evaluationIf desired, Madison Gurkha is able to pay special at-tention to the evaluation of the Blue Team. In such a scenario it would consider questions such as: did

your system and network administrators or Secu-rity Operations Center (SOC) notice the attack? Did our attack leave any traces? How could your de-fense and detection system be improved? What is the state of your ‘forensic readiness’? How did the team respond to alerts and incidents? If the attack went by unnoticed, this scenario is very useful to test incident response (planning) at a later date.

ReportingAt this phase, we submit our findings in a written report, as well as in a presentation with all the in-volved parties, including our client’s Write and Blue Team. Reporting takes place regularly throughout the process where necessary and, if required, on a daily basis.

ReferencesMadison Gurkha has worked in information secu-rity for over 15 years, including in fields where IT security is crucial, including:n vital infrastructuren healthcaren financen government

In these sectors, Madison Gurkha has success-fully executed many small and large Red Teaming attacks.

If you would like to know more about our services, please get in touch for a no-obligation

discussion: sales@madison-gurkha.com, +31 40 237 79 90, www.madison-gurkha.comYour Security is Our Business

“Madison Gurkha conducted

a very large Red Teaming

investigation for us. We

were impressed by their

approach and by what

they managed to achieve

in a very short time period.

Their investigation exposed

unknown weaknesses, which

we obviously remedied as

quickly as possible.”

Security officer, government ministry