Red Team
Red Team
Angreiferteam zur realistischen Sicherheitsprüfung
A red team simulates a realistic attacker with a concrete objective — such as access to a particular piece of information — and uses every avenue: technology, people and process. Unlike a pentest that lists vulnerabilities within a scope, the red team tests the defenders' detection and response capability as a whole. The question is: would we even notice?
History & facts. The term stems from military war games in which a „red“ party embodies the adversary. In cybersecurity, red teaming is objective-oriented and broad — it may use social engineering, physical access and the chaining of multiple weaknesses, often over a longer period and without warning the defenders (the „blue team“). What is measured is not only whether an objective was reachable but whether and when the defence noticed.
Outlook & recommendation. Red teaming is demanding and presupposes a certain maturity: without functioning basic detection it mainly produces frustration. It forms the bridge to intelligence-led methods such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) TLPT. The greatest value arises in the joint evaluation with the blue team (purple teaming), from which concrete detection improvements follow — not in the mere trophy of a successful break-in.