How secure are you? Let Blue and Red teams establish a robust system for your organization.
What is a blue team?
A blue team consists of security professionals with an inside-out view of their organization. Their task is to protect the organization’s critical assets against any threat. They are well aware of the business objectives and organization’s security strategy; therefore, their task is to strengthen the castle walls so that no intruder can compromise the defenses.
How do blue teams work?
The blue team first gathers data documents for precisely what needs to be protected and carries out a risk assessment. Then they tighten up access to the system in many ways including introducing more robust password policies and educating staff to ensure they understand and conform to security procedures. Monitoring tools are often put in place, allowing information regarding access to the systems to be logged and checked for unusual activity. Blue teams will provide regular system checks, such as DNS audits and internal or external network vulnerability scans, and capture sample network traffic for analysis.
What is a red team?
A red team consists of security professionals who act as adversaries to overcome cybersecurity controls. Red teams often consist of independent ethical hackers who objectively evaluate system security. They utilize all the available techniques to find weaknesses in people, processes, and technology in order to gain unauthorized access to assets. The information gathered from these simulated attacks allow red teams to make recommendations that strengthen an organization’s security posture.
How do red teams work?
Red teams spend more time planning an attack than they do performing attacks; in fact, red teams deploy many methods to gain access to a network Social engineering attacks, for example, rely on reconnaissance and research to deliver targeted spear phishing campaigns. Before performing a penetration test; packet sniffers, and protocol analyzers are used to scan the network and gather as much information about the system as possible.
The typical information gathered during the reconnaissance phase includes uncovering operating systems in use like Windows, Mac, or Linux. Identifying the make and model of networking equipment like servers, firewalls, switches, routers, access points, and computers is vital to creating a map of the network. Once the red team has a working model of the system, they develop a plan of action designed to target vulnerabilities specific to the information they gathered above.