What is the goal of a red versus blue team exercise?

Red Team vs Blue Team Exercise: Its Role in Finding Your Cybersecurity Flaws Red Team vs Blue Team Exercise: Its Role in Finding Your Cybersecurity Flaws Find out how this industry-standard exercise works and all the benefits it can bring to organizations, from security to teambuilding and more December 17, 2021 by Kate Priestman • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • What Is the Red Team Vs Blue Team Exercise? The red team vs blue exercise is an industry-standard exercise for testing security processes. It originated from a military ‘wargames’ model. The strategy pits the teams against each other in simulated attempts to breach or defend a company’s security systems. The red team is usually made up of professionals with experience as ethical hackers. It attempts to find and exploit flaws in a security system. They will assess vulnerabilities and plan simulated penetration tests against The blue team handles maintaining the security systems defences. They will proactively attempt to strengthen systems against attacks. Protecting critical assets and data. The system also includes ‘ purple teams’. These mix red team and blue team members to share knowledge and develop more advanced attack and defence methods. The philosophy of the method is like the idea behind malicious-attacker style. So, what are the exact benefits of this colour-coded team exercise? Let’s take a closer look and find out more. It Provides Your Team a Bonding and Training Experience The experience of deal...

Red team vs. blue team exercises are a valuable learning tool for security teams. In these scenarios, the red team simulates an attack that the blue team needs to defend against. By doing this, the blue team has the opportunity to test their skills in an active environment and better prepare for real attacks. What is the Red Team? The red team is a group of individuals experienced in penetration testing and vulnerability scanning that are tasked with simulating a cyber attack. By utilizing the same tools, techniques, and tactics that criminals use, these team members can launch a highly realistic attack. Specialized training is needed to successfully execute these roles, and many learn in the military. Others participate in labs, take classes, and practice on their home networks. Each member within the team has a role based on their specific specialty (network, privilege escalation, etc.). Unlike standard penetration testing done by a singular person or automated tool, which are more easily recognizable, the goal of the red team is to be sneaky. Their aim is to get into the network, steal data, and get out undetected. Their attacks are always different because they are operating with the mindset of a criminal, always asking “what would the criminal do?”. Red teams will also have clear objectives from the company. These might include gaining access to the domain controller or an email system to see if sensitive information can be stolen. When red teams are launching an atta...

If you want to combat against today’s dangerous and constantly evolving threat landscape, you’ll need to use every cybersecurity tool at your disposal. Simply relying on firewalls and antivirus software is not enough to keep motivated hackers out of your IT environment. As part of a strong security posture, you’ll want to consider red team vs. blue team exercises. So, what are they, and how can they help improve your security stance? Let’s break it down. Red teams and blue teams represent the two competing forces involved in a cyberattack. Think of it as A red team is a group of skilled technical personnel you hire to ‘attack’ your systems. Their goal is to carry out a successful cyberattack or intrusion on a specific target in your organization’s computing environment. As part of this, they’ll employ similar techniques and methods to those used by actual threat actors. This helps to replicate a real attack as closely as possible. The blue team is tasked with defending your organization’s IT environment from the simulated attack of the red team. The team is usually comprised of technical personnel from within the organization whose cybersecurity posture is being tested. Ideally, they have deep knowledge of the application or system under attack by the red team, and understand how to effectively protect it. A red team vs. blue team exercise is performed by organizations that want to verify the strength of their security of specific elements in their IT environment. It pits ...

Cyber attack seems to be increasing at a high rate, and for this, a company has to secure their details and information from theft and corruption. To do things related to cyber security like finding and solving the vulnerability an organization keeps Red Team and Blue Team. Red Team vs Blue Team is one of the important parts of any company and plays an important role in defending the organization from cyberattacks that can leak organization’s crucial data like user’s sensitive data, trade data or secret business communication. Check the Blue Team vs Red Team Check the major differences between team red vs team blue: Blue Team Red Team Activities Blue team defends against attack and respond to it. Red Team plays a role of attacker by finding and exploiting vulnerabilities. Main Aim Main practice of blue team is protecting the infrastructure and monitoring. Main practice is ethical hacking and Penetration Testing. Skills Uses skills like digital forensics, secure attack areas and protect the organization’s infrastructure. Use methods like Social Engineering, vulnerability exploit, etc. Tools Operational Security (protects the data from getting into the wrong hand). Black box Testing (Not aware about internal working). Exercise Blue team contains digital forensics. Red team contains web App scanning. Activities Blue team will control the damage. Red team will exploit the vulnerability 1. Area of Difference First, the common part between blue team and red team is both of their...

By • Executive Editor Conducting red team vs. blue team exercises can be an eye-opening experience. Whether they're testing an organization's cybersecurity defenses against threats or assessing the talent of security team members, such simulated attacks can be beneficial for companies of all shapes and sizes. These exercises involve two teams. Tipping their hats to their military ancestors, red teams are the adversaries, with the blue team the defendants. Recently, the term "purple team" has entered the mix. Read on to learn more about each team and how each works to benefit your security operations center. What is a red team? The red team attacks and attempts to break the blue team's defenses. Ideally, these Red teams use real-world cyber attack techniques to exploit weaknesses in a company's people, processes and technologies. They circumvent defense mechanisms, aiming to infiltrate corporate networks and simulate data exfiltration -- all without being noticed by the blue team. Download 1 Download this entire guide for FREE now! Common red team techniques include: • • phishing, social engineering and other forms of credential theft mechanisms; • port scanning; and • vulnerability scanning. In addition to these common hacker techniques, red team members use custom-made tools to get into networks, and then often escalate privileges to successfully breach the company. Because exercises are performed to improve security, red team members Comparing red, blue and purple teams....

Pick a side. It’s game time, and nothing is off the table. — For most organizations, a true Red Team exercises differ from penetration testing in that they don’t focus on a single application or system, but instead set out to exploit multiple systems and potential avenues of attack. The gloves are off, and “Think like an attacker” is the rule of play. Usually, Red Teams are part of your internal security team, though sometimes they can be from external or dedicated agencies. While thinking like an attacker, a Red Team group acts as (and provides security feedback from the perspective of) a malicious threat or challenger. It’s up to the business’s dedicated security team – the Blue Team – to provide a suitable response in detecting, combating, and weakening their opposition. Prior to the Red Team exercise, it’s usual that the Blue Team won’t know the plan or what is coming. This is in order to make the exercise as realistic as possible. Red Team vs Blue Team may seem like a time-consuming game of cops and robbers, but there’s far more to it than that. These exercises highlight vulnerabilities and help your cybersecurity staff to get a truer understanding of the risks and exposure that your company might be facing. Tests might range from adding harmless Red Team exercises encourage security teams to think as a protagonist, helping to recognize and fix all identified security weaknesses and processes, and so be in a state of readiness and already pre-prepared, boosting team c...

The military does it. The Government Accountability Office does it. So does the NSA. And the concept is making its way into the corporate world, too: war gaming the security infrastructure. Red team-blue team exercises take their name from their military antecedents. The idea is simple: One group of security pros--a red team--attacks something, and an opposing group--the blue team--defends it. Originally, the exercises were used by the military to test force-readiness. They have also been used to test physical security of sensitive sites like nuclear facilities and the Department of Energy's National Laboratories and Technology Centers. In the '90s, experts began using red team-blue team exercises to test information security systems. "Really, this is a capability and expertise that developed naturally here out of the Lab's mission as one of the national nuclear security agency laboratories," says John Clem, Information Design Assurance Red Team program manager at the DoE's Sandia National Laboratory. Sandia experts helped advise the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection in the 1990s, which led to the group's current focus on information security. Clem's team has "red-teamed" Sandia's infrastructure and worked with other federal agencies, and, as part of the Lab's infrastructure protection mission, the team works with private-sector companies as well. Clem notes the commonly held view that 85 percent of the U.S.'s critical infrastructure is owned by ...

In the arsenal of cybersecurity defenses is the exercise that goes by the name of red team/blue team simulated attack. These simulations are designed to closely mimic real-world conditions. For example, one red team member might take on the role of an employee clicking on a phishing link that deposits malware on the network. The defending team members must then find this malware before it spreads across their network and infects web servers and other applications. To make things more realistic, the simulation replays real network traffic to obscure the attacks, just like in the real world. Let’s talk about the red and blue designations. Red team members usually play the role of attackers and try to overcome security protocols. They use the same tools and techniques that attackers use, similar to how penetration testers operate but on a much broader scale. “Red teams don’t just test for vulnerabilities, but do so using the tools, tips and techniques of their likely threat actors, and in campaigns that run continuously for an extended period of time,” wrote John, a retired IBM architect who has worked in large IT shops, tells CSO that “threats are going to emerge that red teams will never test for. There are threats that can overwhelm blue teams and possibly put companies out of business.” According to Cris Thomas, global lead of strategy for IBM X-Force Red consulting organization, “Some companies just think about red teams in terms of a physical security break-in.” The blu...

By • Executive Editor Conducting red team vs. blue team exercises can be an eye-opening experience. Whether they're testing an organization's cybersecurity defenses against threats or assessing the talent of security team members, such simulated attacks can be beneficial for companies of all shapes and sizes. These exercises involve two teams. Tipping their hats to their military ancestors, red teams are the adversaries, with the blue team the defendants. Recently, the term "purple team" has entered the mix. Read on to learn more about each team and how each works to benefit your security operations center. What is a red team? The red team attacks and attempts to break the blue team's defenses. Ideally, these Red teams use real-world cyber attack techniques to exploit weaknesses in a company's people, processes and technologies. They circumvent defense mechanisms, aiming to infiltrate corporate networks and simulate data exfiltration -- all without being noticed by the blue team. Download 1 Download this entire guide for FREE now! Common red team techniques include: • • phishing, social engineering and other forms of credential theft mechanisms; • port scanning; and • vulnerability scanning. In addition to these common hacker techniques, red team members use custom-made tools to get into networks, and then often escalate privileges to successfully breach the company. Because exercises are performed to improve security, red team members Comparing red, blue and purple teams....

If you want to combat against today’s dangerous and constantly evolving threat landscape, you’ll need to use every cybersecurity tool at your disposal. Simply relying on firewalls and antivirus software is not enough to keep motivated hackers out of your IT environment. As part of a strong security posture, you’ll want to consider red team vs. blue team exercises. So, what are they, and how can they help improve your security stance? Let’s break it down. Red teams and blue teams represent the two competing forces involved in a cyberattack. Think of it as A red team is a group of skilled technical personnel you hire to ‘attack’ your systems. Their goal is to carry out a successful cyberattack or intrusion on a specific target in your organization’s computing environment. As part of this, they’ll employ similar techniques and methods to those used by actual threat actors. This helps to replicate a real attack as closely as possible. The blue team is tasked with defending your organization’s IT environment from the simulated attack of the red team. The team is usually comprised of technical personnel from within the organization whose cybersecurity posture is being tested. Ideally, they have deep knowledge of the application or system under attack by the red team, and understand how to effectively protect it. A red team vs. blue team exercise is performed by organizations that want to verify the strength of their security of specific elements in their IT environment. It pits ...