Red Teaming

1. Security Leadership

• Defines the ISO’s role, competencies, and mindset, including the different types of ISOs.
• Establishes the security organisation’s structure, charter, and board-level mandate.
• Aligns with industry standards and frameworks to develop a comprehensive security strategy.
• Covers setting up budgets, initiating security programs, and embedding the function into enterprise governance.

2. Security Culture

• Emphasizes that humans are the final line of defense and central to effective security.
• Promotes a human-centric approach through awareness, training, and behavior-shaping initiatives.
• Uses phishing simulations, access hygiene practices, and continuous reinforcement to improve behaviors.
• Encourages a feedback-driven culture of continuous improvement and user engagement.

3. Security Governance

• Establishes governance through policies, frameworks, ISMS, and the 3 Lines of Defense model.
• Defines risk management approaches, including qualitative/quantitative methods, tolerance, and appetite.
• Integrates compliance, audit, and control mechanisms to align security and business risk.
• Addresses fraud prevention, governance councils, and harmonization between compliance and security.

4. Security Advisory

• Advises on security trends, frameworks, and standards, supporting strategic and operational decisions.
• Applies a layered defense model and reviews risks across technology domains.
• Offers guidance on integrating emerging technologies and securing IT/OT environments.

5. Security Operations

• Aligns security operations with business goals through a service-based SOC model.
• Plans and executes incident and crisis management using structured detection and response frameworks.
• Defines SOC team roles and leverages platforms like SIEM, SOAR, and threat intelligence tools.

6. Security Reporting

• Delivers tiered reporting for operational, management, and board-level audiences.
• Ensures regulatory, legal, and external stakeholder reporting meets compliance obligations.
• Uses KPIs, KRIs, dashboards, and threat intelligence to communicate performance and risk posture.
• Follows best practices for effective, actionable, and transparent security reporting.

Key Objectives

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• Simulate Realistic, Multi-Stage Cyber Attacks
  • Emulate threat actor behavior drawn from current intelligence and sector-specific profiles
  • Execute full kill chain campaigns, not isolated technical tests
  • Align simulations with your unique business risk and critical assets
• Evaluate Detection, Escalation, and Response
  • Test how quickly and effectively SOC, IR, and operational teams detect and respond
  • Measure the coordination between security, IT, legal, communications, and executive teams
  • Validate playbooks, runbooks, and escalation protocols in realistic conditions
• Test the Robustness of Technical Controls
  • Evaluate endpoint, identity, network, cloud, and privileged access controls
  • Identify misconfigurations, blind spots, and exploitable weaknesses
  • Stress-test detection content, alerting rules, and automation
• Identify Vulnerabilities in Privileged Access and Critical Paths
  • Surface weaknesses in lateral movement controls, segmentation, and trust boundaries
  • Expose crown jewel exposure and attack paths to critical data and systems
  • Highlight risks in identity architecture, access hygiene, and privilege management
• Enhance Leadership Awareness and Decision-Making
  • Expose executives, boards, and business leaders to real-world attack dynamics
  • Improve crisis decision-making, communication, and coordination
  • Translate technical findings into strategic, business-aligned insights

Business Outcomes & Benefits

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• Authentic Adversary Emulation
  • Defenses tested against the same TTPs used by real threat actors
  • Full visibility into attack logic, objectives, and adversary decision-making
  • Realistic view of “how bad could it really get?” under live conditions
• Board-Aligned Risk Visibility
  • Red team objectives tied directly to business processes and critical assets
  • Executives gain actionable insight into true organizational risk exposure
  • Credible, evidence-based narrative for boards, committees, and regulators
• Detection and Response Maturity
  • Measured performance of SOC, IR, and detection technologies in live conditions
  • Quantitative insight into mean time to detect, respond, and contain
  • Clear roadmap to improve detection engineering and response playbooks
• Playbook and Control Validation
  • Real-world assessment of policies, alerting rules, and endpoint configurations
  • Validation of privileged access protections and identity controls
  • Evidence-based input into control rationalization and investment decisions
• Collaborative Learning Experience
  • Structured knowledge-sharing between red and blue teams
  • Adversary Q&A and debrief sessions that accelerate analyst skill development
  • Building of a continuous improvement culture across security operations
• Improved Cyber Resilience and Readiness
  • Proactive discovery and closure of critical gaps before adversaries exploit them
  • Measurable uplift in people, process, and technology capabilities
  • Stronger posture against ransomware, APT, and insider threat scenarios
• Stronger Alignment With Threat Intelligence and Detection Strategy
  • Findings tied to MITRE ATT&CK, kill chain, and current adversary behavior
  • Input to detection content, threat hunting hypotheses, and intelligence requirements
  • Closed-loop improvement across CTI, SOC, and IR functions
• Regulatory and Assurance Value
  • Foundations for ongoing capability development and benchmarking
  • Structured lessons learned and post-incident review processes
  • Sustainable improvement aligned with evolving threats and regulations

Key Features

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• Threat Scenario Development
  • Custom-built attack campaigns informed by industry intelligence and your unique threat landscape
  • Sector-aligned adversary profiles (finance, healthcare, public sector, critical infrastructure, technology)
  • Scenarios tailored to your business risk, crown jewels, and threat model
• Full Kill Chain Execution
  • Simulated tactics across reconnaissance, initial access, execution, persistence, privilege escalation, defense evasion, credential access, discovery, lateral movement, command-and-control, exfiltration, and impact
  • Realistic use of phishing, misconfigurations, supply chain vectors, and identity-based attacks
  • Evaluation across on-prem, cloud, hybrid, SaaS, and identity environments
• Intelligence-Led Methodology
  • TTPs informed by current threat intelligence and sector-specific adversaries
  • Continuous alignment with MITRE ATT&CK, Cyber Kill Chain, and Diamond Model frameworks
  • Integration with threat intelligence sources and adversary behavior research
• Operational Security (OPSEC) Controls
  • Engagement conducted under defined rules of engagement (ROE)
  • Structured safety mechanisms to prevent operational disruption
  • Clear “white cell” coordination and escalation protocols
• Real-Time Collaboration With Blue Team (Optional)
  • Option for live detection and response simulation with SOC teams (Purple Team)
  • In-the-moment skill development and validation
  • Collaborative hypothesis testing and content tuning
• Adversary Emulation Using MITRE ATT&CK
  • Every TTP mapped to known attacker behaviors
  • Alignment with threat intelligence, detection engineering, and continuous improvement
  • Clear, repeatable framework for benchmarking and re-testing
• Executive and Board Engagement
  • Structured briefings before, during, and after the engagement
  • Translation of attack outcomes into business, risk, and investment language
  • Support for governance, board, and regulator communication
• Alignment With Industry Frameworks and Eristotle Standards
  • Alignment with TIBER-EU, CBEST, iCAST, and CREST STAR where applicable
  • Grounded in ISOBOK™, CWBOK, and Eristotle competency frameworks
  • Consistent, credible, and transferable approach across engagements

Deliverables

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Depending on the scope of the engagement, typical deliverables include:

Engagement & Reporting Deliverables

• Red Team Engagement Report
  • End-to-end documentation of actions taken, methods used, and attack path analysis
  • Detection gaps, control failures, and opportunities identified
• Attack Path Visualizations
  • Graphs and timelines outlining attacker movement, privilege escalation, and asset access
  • Visual mapping of detection opportunities missed and identified

Metrics & Scorecard Deliverables

• Compromise & Detection Scorecards
  • Metrics on attack visibility, dwell time, containment, and blue team engagement
  • MTTD, MTTR, and detection coverage performance measures
• MITRE ATT&CK Coverage Heatmap
  • Mapping of tested vs detected TTPs for strategic planning

Intelligence & Technical Deliverables

• Indicator of Compromise (IOC) & TTP Summary
  • Complete list of behavioral and technical indicators identified during the simulation
  • Ready for integration into SIEM, SOAR, and threat hunting platforms
• Detection Engineering Recommendations
  • Specific improvements to rules, use cases, and detection content
• Remediation & Hardening Roadmap
  • Prioritized, phased plan addressing identified weaknesses

Executive & Board Deliverables

• Executive Presentation & Strategy Briefing
  • High-level summary of findings with strategic recommendations
  • Business-risk framing for leadership, governance teams, and boards
• Board Briefing Pack(where applicable)
  • Board-level narrative on posture, risk, and required investment

Learning & Enablement Deliverables

• Blue Team Debrief & Knowledge Transfer
  • Structured sessions covering attack logic, detection opportunities, and response performance
• Purple Team Workshop Outputs(where applicable)
  • Collaborative tuning, hunting, and detection improvement outcomes
• Lessons Learned Report
  • Observations across people, process, and technology
  • Actionable improvements with owners and timelines

How We Deliver

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Eristotle’s Red Team engagements follow a phased delivery model, tailored to your objectives, risk tolerance, and operating environment. Every engagement is carefully scoped, governed, and executed to maximize insight while protecting operational stability.

• Project Initiation
  • Define attack objectives, risk boundaries, and engagement scope
  • Agree rules of engagement, escalation protocols, and safety controls
  • Establish white cell coordination and secure communication channels
  • Align with legal, regulatory, and stakeholder requirements
• Reconnaissance & Access
  • Simulate attacker discovery, targeting, and open-source intelligence gathering
  • Execute initial access through phishing, misconfigurations, or supply chain vectors
  • Validate perimeter, identity, and user-awareness controls under realistic conditions
• Privilege Escalation & Lateral Movement
  • Emulate stealthy expansion across production systems and identity infrastructure
  • Test privileged access, segmentation, and trust boundary controls
  • Pursue access to crown jewels, business-critical systems, and sensitive data
• Impact Simulation
  • Demonstrate plausible business-impacting outcomes under controlled conditions:
    • Data exfiltration scenarios
    • System disruption or ransomware precursors
    • Financial manipulation or fraud pathways
  • Capture evidence of real-world impact potential without operational disruption
• Blue Team Evaluation & Debrief
  • Assess effectiveness of SOC, IR, and technology response throughout the engagement
  • Optional real-time response practice (Purple Team mode) for live skill development
  • Review coordination, decision-making, and tooling performance with stakeholders
• Final Reporting & Recommendations
  • Delivery of detailed technical, operational, and strategic findings
  • Roadmap to enhance detection engineering, process maturity, and crisis readiness
  • Executive-level briefings and board engagement
• Continuous Improvement & Re-Testing (optional)
  • Follow-on testing to validate remediation and uplift
  • Integration with threat intelligence, threat hunting, and detection engineering
  • Pathway into related Eristotle services for sustained resilience

Throughout the engagement, Eristotle operates with full evidentiary rigor, OPSEC discipline, and business awareness, ensuring that every finding is defensible, every action is safe, and every outcome supports real, lasting improvement.

Related Services

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Red Teaming

Blue Teaming

Purple Teaming

Gold Teaming