Red team security refers to a service where a group of security experts attacks and attempts to break into IT systems. This is essentially an ethical way to identify attacking paths that breach an organization’s cyber security. If you think like a hacker, you may be able to better defend against them.
Red team security services are becoming increasingly popular, with the likes of industry-leading Tarlogic seeing high demand in recent years and hugely positive feedback. In a time when even the smallest of businesses operate online, here are four reasons why this demand may exist.
Reduce security vulnerabilities
At the forefront of red team security services is the idea of identifying vulnerabilities. By ethically hacking into systems, this exercise puts a company’s defense preparedness to the test. Any weak points will quickly be highlighted, and this is a key way to reduce these security vulnerabilities going forward. Identification is key. It is shown time and time again that red team security works to achieve this major goal.
Cost-effectiveness
What wouldn’t be cost-effective is to attempt any of these hacking exercises in-house. Firstly, companies would almost certainly lack such expertise and therefore need to hire staff in this area. Having such staff on the payroll would be a huge waste of resources because such penetrative testing doesn’t need to occur continuously. Instead, outsourcing red team security services is a way to conduct world-class hacking exercises and gain real feedback in a short space of time, making it much more cost-effective.
Furthermore, the results and feedback will allow a company to know where to invest when addressing and fixing these vulnerabilities. This is profoundly cost-effective because resources are allocated precisely where they’re needed.
Improved risk management
Improving risk management is a huge benefit when using red team security services. Security risks are better managed because the vulnerabilities are identified and subsequently prioritized. Potential attack vendors are also identified, as well as testing incident response plans and improving security controls.
Ultimately, such a service allows companies to better understand what types of threats they might face, as well as the impact that such threats could have on their operations.
Incident response capabilities
In order to improve risk management, a company must know how to help organizations develop and test their incident response plans. These procedures are vital to minimizing damage and costs, so assessing them becomes a part of understanding the capabilities of incident response.
Red team exercises help improve communication and coordination between different departments, ensuring that they know to respond effectively to a security breach. Ultimately, red team exercises can help organizations identify any gaps or weaknesses within their incident response plans, allowing them to make necessary improvements.
Final Word
In 2023, more and more companies will operate online and with remote employees – even very small enterprises. Cybersecurity is not just a constant threat but a constantly evolving one too.
In summary, red team security services are a time-effective way to gauge how a company can respond to real-world security breaches, identify their weaknesses, and improve how they respond to these going forward.