Red teaming is a cybersecurity assessment where ethical hackers simulate real-life cyberattacks on a business to identify vulnerabilities and provide remediation advice.
Like black box penetration testing, red teams start the exercise without prior knowledge of the system they are attempting to infiltrate to mimic a real-life external attack as much as possible.
Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly common, with over 50% of UK businesses reporting being targeted in 2024, according to a GOV.UK survey. This continued rise means that red teaming is as important now as it has ever been for business continuity.
Red, blue and purple team cybersecurity jargon takes a moment to get used to. If there’s a term you’re unfamiliar with, our A-Z cybersecurity glossary is here to help.
How does a red team work?
In a red team engagement, the red team are the attackers. They are usually a third-party cybersecurity provider, hired to find and exploit weaknesses the way a real adversary would and to show how far an attacker could get if they came after your business. Good red teamers are methodical and patient, and they work to stay undetected for as long as possible, because an attack that trips every alarm on the first day tells you very little.
The defenders are the blue team: your internal security staff, who monitor systems and respond to incidents. In a standard engagement they are not told the test is happening, which keeps their response realistic and shows how well your incident response protocols hold up under real pressure. The way the two sides interact is a subject in its own right, so we cover it properly in our guide to red team vs blue team vs purple team.
Why is Red Teaming Important?
There are far too many reasons to name in one article, so we have picked out a few reasons why red teaming is so important.
Identifying Security Gaps
Arguably, the most important aspect of red teaming is that it reveals weaknesses in your business’s infrastructure, policies, and personnel that may go unnoticed during routine audits.
It provides insights into exploitable vulnerabilities, giving you a full understanding of your security personnel’s capabilities and the size of the attack surface available to any attacker.
Using all of this information, you can patch vulnerabilities to ensure future attacks can be prevented.
Testing Incident Response
By simulating attacks, red teaming evaluates how well your business can detect, respond to, and recover from a breach. This helps identify deficiencies in incident response protocols and strengthens defence mechanisms.
Click to learn more about developing an effective incident response plan.
Do you have an incident response plan? If not, check out our article on why incident response plans are important and how to create one.
Understand Real-World Readiness
At a fundamental level, red teaming will show you just how prepared you are to face a genuine cyberattack. More often than not, this is the main reason why large organisation use red team engagements so regularly.
Types of Red Teaming
Red teaming is not delivered in one fixed format. The scope can be broad or narrow depending on what you need to learn, and engagements tend to fall into one of three shapes.
Full-scope red teaming covers every avenue an attacker might use: digital, physical and human. There are few rules beyond staying within the law and the agreed boundaries, so the team will try to get in by any route a real attacker would, from exploiting a misconfigured server to talking their way past a reception desk. It gives the most complete picture of your defences, which also makes it the most demanding to run.
Targeted red teaming narrows the focus to specific systems, applications or departments. It suits high-risk areas or newly introduced controls, for example a backup server that should never be reachable from the standard corporate network. You get a sharper read on the part of the business that matters most, without the cost and disruption of testing everything at once.
Continuous or automated red teaming runs in the background rather than as a one-off project. It uses tooling to simulate attacker techniques on a regular basis, which helps you catch new gaps as your environment changes. It works best alongside a periodic full-scope or targeted engagement rather than as a replacement for one.
Benefits of Red Teaming
Much like the importance of red teaming, the benefits are far too many to name. So, we have picked three of the main benefits. In fact, most of these are a direct result of the very things that make red teaming important.
Improve Business Security
Quite obviously, the most important benefit of red teaming is its ability to improve your business security. By identifying vulnerabilities and providing actionable insights to address them, red teaming ensures that your defences can withstand sophisticated attacks.
Warning: the success of a red team assessment depends entirely on your desire and ability to patch the vulnerabilities identified.
Improve Incident Response
Simulated attacks enable your business to refine its detection and response capabilities. Lessons learned during red teaming exercises enhance blue team readiness for real-world scenarios.
It’s easy for blue teams to panic if this is their first encounter with an attack (remember, they think it’s genuine), so this practice will be invaluable for them in helping them to deal with genuine attacks.
Maintain Industry Compliance
Red teaming is useful for ensuring adherence to regulatory standards regarding the protection of sensitive data. Regular red teaming demonstrates due diligence and proactive risk management, which are often required by PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance frameworks.
Penetration Testing vs. Red Teaming
Penetration testing and red teaming overlap, and because neither is a protected term, different providers draw the line in different places. The short version: a penetration test aims to find as many vulnerabilities as possible in a defined environment within a set timeframe, while a red team is objective-led and far more concerned with how a real attack would unfold, including whether anyone notices it. A pentest gives you quick, thorough assurance and clear remediation advice, while a red team shows you how your people, processes and technology would cope against a determined adversary.
If you want the full comparison, including where a shorter, lower-cost option sits between the two, read our guide to red teaming vs penetration testing. You can also see our penetration testing services if a pentest sounds closer to what you need right now.
To learn more about penetration testing, check out our comprehensive guide.
Is red teaming right for your business?
Red teaming is not the right starting point for everyone because it assumes you already have defences worth testing: monitoring in place, an incident response process, and a security team that can act on what the engagement uncovers. For an organisation at that level of maturity, a red team is one of the most revealing investments you can make, because it shows how all of those parts perform together against a real attack.
If you are earlier in that journey, you will usually get more from doing the groundwork first. A penetration test will surface the vulnerabilities that need fixing, and basic monitoring and response should be working before a full red team is worth the spend. There is also a middle option called a micro red team, which tests your highest-risk scenarios in a shorter, lower-cost format, which makes it a sensible way to get a realistic assessment without committing to a full engagement straight away.
A simple way to decide. If your main question is “what are our weaknesses?”, start with a penetration test. If your question is “how would we cope with a real attack?”, you are ready for red teaming. When you want to talk it through, our team can help you scope the right approach: book a call or read about our red and purple teaming services.
Red teaming FAQs
What does red teaming mean?
Red teaming is a security assessment in which ethical hackers simulate a real cyberattack on your business to see how far they can get and whether your team detects them. The aim is to test your defences the way an attacker would, then report back on what they found and how to put it right.
What is a red team in cyber security?
The red team is the group playing the attacker. They are usually external specialists hired to find and exploit weaknesses, while your internal blue team defends. Running the two against each other shows how your security performs under realistic pressure rather than on paper.
How often should you run a red team?
Many organisations run a full engagement once a year, with smaller targeted tests after significant changes such as a major system migration or a move to new infrastructure. The right frequency depends on how quickly your environment changes and on any compliance requirements you need to meet.
What is the difference between red teaming and penetration testing?
A penetration test looks for as many vulnerabilities as it can within a defined scope and timeframe. A red team is goal-led and focuses on how a full attack would play out, including whether it gets noticed. Our guide to red teaming vs penetration testing covers this in more depth.
Is red teaming the same as ethical hacking?
Not quite. Ethical hacking is the broad practice of testing systems with permission. Red teaming is one form of it, set apart by its focus on a realistic, objective-led attack carried out without tipping off the defenders.
Conclusion
Red teaming is vital for businesses seeking to strengthen their cybersecurity defences. Simulating real-world attacks uncovers vulnerabilities, enhances incident response, and fosters a culture of proactive security.
While not suitable for every business, red teaming is an invaluable investment for those with mature security frameworks. It offers the insights needed to stay ahead of evolving threats in an increasingly complex digital landscape.