Red Team Assessments
How a Red Team Assessment exposes real attack paths
A professional Red Team Assessment tests whether your systems, people, and processes would detect and stop a genuine attack. Many organisations compare a red team assessment vs penetration test when deciding how best to validate their cyber security controls.
See how far an attacker could move inside your environment, before it happens for real.
A Clear, Low-Risk Approach to Real-World Testing
Every Red Team engagement is tailored to your organisation’s risk profile, objectives, and operational environment.
All testing is delivered by CREST-accredited and CHECK-assured specialists and aligned to recognised rules of engagement.
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Request your Red Team Assessment Consultation
Speak with one of our CREST-accredited and CHECK-assured specialists about your organisation’s cyber risk, detection capability, and resilience.
This confidential, no-obligation consultation will help you understand whether a Red Team Assessment is right for you, and what level of testing makes sense.
Red Team Assessment FAQs
Red team assessments are controlled, real-world cyber attack simulations designed to test how effectively an organisation can detect, respond to, and contain advanced security threats. They replicate the techniques used by real attackers to identify weaknesses across systems, people, and processes.
A red teaming assessment is an advanced form of security testing that simulates how real attackers would attempt to compromise an organisation over time, using a combination of technical, physical, and social engineering techniques to bypass defences.
The cost of a red team assessment varies depending on your organisation’s size, complexity, objectives, and the scope of testing required. Most engagements are tailored to reflect real-world risk, so pricing is based on the level of effort and expertise needed rather than a fixed package. A consultation is the best way to receive an accurate estimate.
A red team engagement typically lasts between several weeks and a few months, depending on the scope, objectives, and complexity of the environment being tested. Longer engagements allow for more realistic attacker simulation and more meaningful assessment of detection and response capabilities.
The purpose of a red team review is to evaluate how effectively an organisation can detect, respond to, and recover from realistic cyber attacks by identifying weaknesses in security controls, processes, and decision-making under real-world conditions.
The objectives of red teaming are to simulate real-world attack techniques, test detection and response capabilities, identify weaknesses across systems and processes, and provide clear, actionable insight to strengthen an organisation’s overall cyber resilience.
Most organisations should conduct red team assessments annually or following major changes to their systems, infrastructure, or threat landscape. High-risk or highly regulated environments may benefit from more frequent testing to maintain strong detection and response capabilities.
The red team process involves defining objectives and scope, gathering intelligence, simulating realistic attacks, testing detection and response, restoring systems, and delivering a detailed report with prioritised recommendations for improvement.
The red team process framework is a structured approach that guides how realistic attack simulations are planned, executed, and evaluated, covering scoping, reconnaissance, attack simulation, detection testing, reporting, and remediation planning. It ensures assessments are consistent, controlled, and aligned to recognised security standards.
When comparing a red team assessment vs penetration test, the key difference is scope and realism. A penetration test focuses on identifying technical vulnerabilities at a specific point in time, while a red team assessment simulates a real attacker over an extended period to test detection, response, and resilience across people, processes, and technology.
A red team assessment report includes documented attack paths, evidence of compromise, detection gaps, risk prioritisation, and clear recommendations to improve security controls and response capability.