Next Generation Red Teaming

Author: Henry Dalziel
Pages: 46
Publisher: Syngress
ISBN: 0128041714

Introduction

Do you know the difference between penetration testing and red teaming? This book will explain it through attack case studies, and point out the things you should keep in mind if you want to engage in the latter activity.

About the author

Henry Dalziel is an education entrepreneur and founder of Concise Ac Ltd. He writes for the Concise-Courses.com blog and has developed numerous cybersecurity continuing education courses and books.

Inside the book

The book is aimed at cyber security pros: it does not contain explanations about attack techniques – the author assumes you know about them already.

Penetration testers have a target, red teamers have a goal, he explains, and they will do everything they can to achieve it. A red team is a stand-in for real attackers, and in order to be successful, it needs to come up with atypical approaches.

This book will give you advice on how to build a successful red team (basically, you need to avoid the perils of groupthink); how to pinpoint the most likely adversaries and how to quantify them (estimate what their motivation is and what their capabilities are in terms of time, personnel, skills, resources); will show you the importance of brainstorming and of a long, thorough initial assessment of the target, and that of the red team testing and ranking risk from the adversaries’ perspective.

The author reviews the standard industry approach to red teaming, and offers his own thoughts on how to improve it.

Final thoughts

This book – booklet, really – is a sort-of crash course / introduction to red teaming. It’s a fast read that introduces the main things you need to keep in mind if you want to engage in red teaming, and offers a fresh perspective on the subject, but that’s all – for more instructions on how to perform each step, you’ll need to find other sources.