Offensive Red Team Testing
See your defences through an attacker’s eyes. CodeShield’s advanced red team testing goes beyond standard tests, challenging your people, processes, and technology against realistic attack scenarios to reveal your true security gaps.
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Experienced Red Team Experts Delivering Realistic Threat Emulation
Real-World
Scenarios
Simulate sophisticated threats with realistic, tailored scenarios revealing hidden weaknesses in your security that standard testing can’t uncover.
Targeted
Objectives
Every assessment targets your most critical assets and aligns with your business priorities, delivering insights that are truly relevant to your organisation.
Professional
Reporting
Get clear, comprehensive reports that detail attack paths, risks, and step-by-step recommendations, so you know exactly what needs attention.
Continuous
Support
Benefit from ongoing expert advice to help you close security gaps, strengthen your defences, and stay prepared for evolving threats.
Understanding Red Team Assessments and Offensive Security Testing
Red team testing is a comprehensive, adversarial assessment that goes far beyond traditional penetration testing. CodeShield’s experts simulate determined attackers, using any means necessary to test your organisation’s true security posture across people, processes, and technology.
During testing, CodeShield’s red team will employ a variety of techniques, including social engineering, phishing attacks, network security testing, physical security breaches, and more in attempt to reach the objective which has been outlined in scoping.
What you get with CodeShield’s red team testing:
Detailed reconnaissance to map potential attack paths to your key objectives
Open-source intelligence gathering to identify information an attacker could exploit
A combination of network, application, and physical security testing techniques
Targeted social engineering and phishing campaigns to assess employee awareness
Comprehensive reporting with clear findings and actionable, best-practice remediation guidance
Trusted by organisations across the UK
Common Red Team Attack Simulations and Tactics
Red team testing is a specialist service that combines multiple advanced techniques to challenge your organisation’s security from every angle. For example, information gathered through social engineering might be used to breach internal networks, mimicking how real attackers operate.
Every CodeShield red team engagement is tailored to your unique environment and objectives, following a thorough scoping phase.
Common techniques our red team experts use include:
- Attack planning and pretexting
- Network penetration testing
- Phishing attacks
- Defence evasion
- Peer monitoring
- Insider threat simulation
- Exploitation
- Physical on-site breach
Benefits of red team testing
Thinking about red teaming? Here’s what you gain with CodeShield:
Simulate a true adversary targeting your organisation’s most critical assets
Get a holistic view of your overall security, not just technical gaps, but also human and physical vulnerabilities
Experience real-world attack scenarios to see how your defences hold up under pressure
Leverage a combination of advanced techniques for maximum impact and insight
Meet and maintain compliance standards such as ISO 27001, GDPR, PCI DSS.
Is red team testing right for you?
If you’re responsible for your organisation’s security, consider:
Are there weak points in your defences that haven’t been tested under real-world conditions?
Have you gone beyond standard measures to prepare for targeted attacks?
How would your business respond to a sophisticated, multi-stage breach?
Would your stakeholders value independent assurance of your overall security?
If you’re uncertain about any of these, a red team assessment from CodeShield will provide clarity, confidence, and a roadmap for improvement.
Get in touch today for a free consultation from our red teaming experts & no obligation quote
Our Red Team Exercise Process - How We Simulate Real-World Attacks
1. Scoping
Our team works closely with you to define the objectives, rules of engagement, and scope for the red team exercise. This includes identifying key assets, business processes, and potential targets that represent critical areas of risk to your organisation. The scope may include internal and external networks, employees, physical locations, and cloud environments. Clearly defining acceptable and prohibited actions ensures alignment with organisational goals while minimising operational disruptions.
2. Intel Gathering
During this phase, we collect detailed information about your organisation using both open-source intelligence (OSINT) and reconnaissance techniques. This includes identifying key personnel, network infrastructure, exposed assets, email addresses, and potential attack vectors. The gathered information is used to plan realistic attack scenarios that mimic the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of advanced threat actors targeting your organisation.
3. Planning & Preparation
Our team develops a strategic plan for executing the red team engagement based on the intelligence gathered. This includes designing scenarios to test various aspects of your defences, such as social engineering, phishing campaigns, lateral movement within networks, and physical access attempts. The plan is tailored to simulate real-world attack methodologies while ensuring the safety and integrity of your systems and data.
4. Attack Execution
This phase involves executing the planned attack scenarios to test your organisation’s detection, response, and resilience. Our team uses stealthy and sophisticated techniques to gain access, maintain persistence, and achieve predefined objectives, such as accessing sensitive data or compromising critical systems. The engagement may include phishing attempts, exploitation of vulnerabilities, privilege escalation, and lateral movement. Activities are designed to stay within the agreed-upon scope while accurately simulating real-world adversaries.
5. Detection & Response Evaluation
During the engagement, we continuously monitor how your organisation’s security controls, monitoring systems, and incident response teams react to the simulated attacks. This assessment provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your detection and response capabilities, highlighting strengths and areas for improvement. If necessary, we adapt our tactics to further test your defences in a controlled manner.
6. Reporting
We document the red team engagement in a comprehensive report that outlines the attack scenarios, techniques used, and objectives achieved. The report details how vulnerabilities were exploited, highlights gaps in detection and response, and provides actionable recommendations to address identified weaknesses. Each finding is contextualised to help prioritise remediation efforts and enhance your organisation’s overall security posture.
7. Debriefing
The engagement concludes with an in-depth debriefing session where we review the results with your stakeholders. This session provides a walkthrough of the attack scenarios, demonstrates the methods used, and discusses the implications of the findings. We offer tailored recommendations to improve your defensive capabilities and build resilience against real-world threats. Questions and discussions during this phase ensure a clear understanding of next steps and long-term security improvements.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What’s the difference between red team testing and a penetration test?
While a penetration test is a focused cyber security assessment intended to identify, exploit, and report vulnerabilities on a target area such as networks and applications. A Red Team Operation is typically an extended engagement conducted over a longer period designed to achieve a set objective such as data exfiltration. An organisations detection and response procedures are evaluated during the process. Unlike common penetration testing engagements, red team exercises follow a black-box methodology to as accurately as possible simulate a genuine attack.
Do I need red team testing?
While all companies can benefit from a red team exercise, its typically recommended for companies who have an established security system in place and already conduct regular penetration testing. Our expert team of security consultants will be able to advise you on the best approach for your business to maximise the value from your engagement.
How long does it take to conduct a red team testing operation?
The duration of a red team operation can differ depending on the scope and desired objectives of each company. An accurate length of time can be concluded following a 30–60-minute scoping call with one of our penetration testers.
Could a red team operation cause any damage or disruption?
While we cannot guarantee there will be no disruption all our engagements are designed to have as little as possible and be non-destructive while still having the best opportunity to maximise results. We are sure to follow pre-agreed rules of engagement and uphold strong legal and ethical standards throughout all our projects.
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