Prevasio’s Role in Red Team Exercises and Pen Testing

Cybersecurity is an ever prevalent issue. Malicious hackers are becoming more agile by using sophisticated techniques that are always evolving. This makes it a top priority for companies to stay on top of their organization’s network security to ensure that sensitive and confidential information is not leaked or exploited in any way.

Let’s take a look at the Red/Blue Team concept, Pen Testing, and Prevasio’s role in ensuring your network and systems remain secure in a Docker container atmosphere.

What is the Red/Blue Team Concept? 

The red/blue team concept is an effective technique that uses exercises and simulations to assess a company’s cybersecurity strength. The results allow organizations to identify which aspects of the network are functioning as intended and which areas are vulnerable and need improvement. The idea is that two teams (red and blue) of cybersecurity professionals face off against each other. 

The Red Team’s Role

It is easiest to think of the red team as the offense. This group aims to infiltrate a company’s network using sophisticated real-world techniques and exploit potential vulnerabilities. It is important to note that the team comprises highly skilled ethical hackers or cybersecurity professionals. Initial access is typically gained by stealing an employee’s, department, or company-wide user credentials. From there, the red team will then work its way across systems as it increases its level of privilege in the network. The team will penetrate as much of the system as possible. It is important to note that this is just a simulation, so all actions taken are ethical and without malicious intent.  

The Blue Team’s Role

The blue team is the defense. This team is typically made up of a group of incident response consultants or IT security professionals specially trained in preventing and stopping attacks. The goal of the blue team is to put a stop to ongoing attacks, return the network and its systems to a normal state, and prevent future attacks by fixing the identified vulnerabilities. 

Prevention is ideal when it comes to cybersecurity attacks. Unfortunately, that is not always possible. The next best thing is to minimize “breakout time” as much as possible. The “breakout time” is the window between when the network’s integrity is first compromised and when the attacker can begin moving through the system. 

Importance of Red/Blue Team Exercises

Cybersecurity simulations are important for protecting organizations against a wide range of sophisticated attacks. Let’s take a look at the benefits of red/blue team exercises: 

• Identify vulnerabilities

• Identify areas of improvement

• Learn how to detect and contain an attack

• Develop response techniques to handle attacks as quickly as possible

• Identify gaps in the existing security

• Strengthen security and shorten breakout time

• Nurture cooperation in your IT department

• Increase your IT team’s skills with low-risk training

What are Pen Testing Teams? 

Many organizations do not have red/blue teams but have a Pen Testing (aka penetration testing) team instead. Pen testing teams participate in exercises where the goal is to find and exploit as many vulnerabilities as possible. The overall goal is to find the weaknesses of the system that malicious hackers could take advantage of.  Companies’ best way to conduct pen tests is to use outside professionals who do not know about the network or its systems. This paints a more accurate picture of where vulnerabilities lie. 

What are the Types of Pen Testing? 

Open-box pen test – The hacker is provided with limited information about the organization. 

• Closed-box pen test – The hacker is provided with absolutely no information about the company.

• Covert pen test – In this type of test, no one inside the company, except the person who hires the outside professional, knows that the test is taking place. 

• External pen test – This method is used to test external security. 

• Internal pen test – This method is used to test the internal network.

The Prevasio Solution

Prevasio’s solution is geared towards increasing the effectiveness of red teams for organizations that have taken steps to containerize their applications and now rely on docker containers to ship their applications to production. The benefits of Prevasio’s solution to red teams include: 

• Auto penetration testing that helps teams conduct break-and-attack simulations on company applications.

• It can also be used as an integrated feature inside the CI/CD to provide reachability assurance.

• The behavior analysis will allow teams to identify unintentional internal oversights of best practices.

• The solution features the ability to intercept and scan encrypted HTTPS traffic. This helps teams determine if any credentials should not be transmitted. 

Prevasio container security solution with its cutting-edge analyzer performs both static and dynamic analysis of the containers during runtime to ensure the safest design possible. 

Moving Forward

Cyberattacks are as real of a threat to your organization’s network and systems as physical attacks from burglars and robbers. They can have devastating consequences for your company and your brand. The bottom line is that you always have to be one step ahead of cyberattackers and ready to take action, should a breach be detected. The best way to do this is to work through real-world simulations and exercises that prepare your IT department for the worst and give them practice on how to respond. After all, it is better for your team (or a hired ethical hacker) to find a vulnerability before a real hacker does. Simulations should be conducted regularly since the technology and methods used to hack are constantly changing. The result is a highly trained team and a network that is as secure as it can be.

Prevasio is an effective solution in conducting breach and attack simulations that help red/blue teams and pen testing teams do their jobs better in Docker containers. Our team is just as dedicated to the security of your organization as you are. Click here to learn more start your free trial.