Reasons to Hire a Red Team Assessor for the IT Infrastructure

 

Red team assessors are professional hackers who are hired to assess the IT Infrastructure of an organization. They are hired to evaluate and perform hacks on systems in a way a malicious hacker would perform an attack and break in into the systems. They basically simulate an attack to exploit gaps in the organization’s IT Infrastructure.

This is precisely the way how a red team assessor evaluates the effectiveness of an organization’s security controls in place. Compared to the penetration test, the red team assessment is broader in scope involving a full-scale attack on the IT Infrastructure which lasts for hours, days, or even weeks.

This type of hack provides insightful data on how and for how long a hacker managed to maintain access within their systems and network. Such assessments help organizations improve and strengthen their cyber security posture. Covering more of this in detail we have today shared the top 5 reasons why we believe organizations must hire red team assessors.

Top 5 reasons to hire a red team assessor

1) Identify Gaps in the IT Infrastructure

Red Team Assessors are often hired by IT firms and businesses to help them identify potential gaps in the systems. More than often the internal team fails to identify gaps, vulnerabilities, or weaknesses in systems that a hacker would possibly find. Such loopholes and gaps are essential to be identified and fixed immediately to prevent incidents of breaches and hacks.

The exercise is performed for finding gaps in terms of operational disruptions, coding errors, misconfigured patches, insider threats, and weaknesses in processes, workflows, technology, and negligence of people involved such as employees, suppliers, and business vendors. So, for these reasons, it is recommended that organizations annually perform a thorough red team assessment to identify such gaps and remediate vulnerabilities in systems. After all, even the best of defense can fall prey to attacks by hackers, given the dynamics of the evolving cybersecurity industry.

2) Evaluate the Effectiveness of Security Controls

Evaluating the effectiveness of security controls is crucial for a business looking to strengthen its cyber security posture. So, Red team assessment is one of the best ways of evaluating the effectiveness and performance of security controls established within the organization. Although internal assessment of security controls and systems may suggest strong security in place, yet a third-party assessment may suggest otherwise.

This is because internal teams may tend to overlook certain things that a third party may detect. So, in that sense, the Red team assessment is a perfect exercise as it gives the organizations a third-party perspective of their cybersecurity posture. Further, their assessment and reports give more credibility to the stakeholders of the organizations.

Moreover, the red team assessment exposes vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the infrastructure and verifies the effectiveness of the security control implemented in the organization. This helps the organization fix gaps and improve the security controls while also allowing the organization to strengthen the overall cybersecurity posture in the industry.

3.Risk Exposure & Impact

Performing red team assessment involves simulating a real attack on systems and infrastructure. This helps the organization understand the risk exposure to the organization and the potential impact of a security breach or compromise on business.

The assessment demonstrates different ways and means by which a hacker can stage an attack on systems and IT infrastructure. It also demonstrates the amount of damage that the attack could have on the organization and the extent of data leakage in case of a compromise.

Not just that, the assessment also helps an organization understand and prioritize their resources on assets and processes that need immediate attention. This is especially for those assets that are highly exposed to risk. Overall, the assessment conducted by the red team assessor highlights the vulnerabilities and their implications on the IT infrastructure and operations.