Think Like The Attacker. Before They Do.
Red Team Exercises simulate sophisticated, multi-stage attacks by real adversaries against your organization — testing your people, processes, and technology simultaneously, under conditions you can’t manufacture any other way.
241
IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025
31%
Breaches begin via vulnerability exploitation — new #1 vector
Verizon DBIR 2026
$4.88M
Average cost of a data breach — 2026 global figure
IBM X-Force 2026
108
Days saved with AI-assisted detection program
IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025
- ISO 17025 Accredited
- MITRE ATT&CK v15
- DORA TLPT Qualified Tester
- CBEST / TIBER-EU Aligned
- CREST Registered
What Is a Red Team Exercise?
Security Testing That Tells You the Truth
Red Team Exercises simulate sophisticated, multi-stage attacks against your organization using the tactics, techniques, and procedures of real adversaries. Unlike penetration testing, red teams pursue specific objectives — data theft, system compromise, physical access — while evading detection. These exercises test your entire security program including people, processes, and technology under realistic attack conditions.
A penetration test asks: can we get in? A red team exercise asks: can you stop us, detect us, and respond before we reach what matters most? The distinction determines whether your security investment is producing real resilience or a false sense of protection.
At GLI Secure®, every red team engagement is constructed around your specific threat profile — the adversary groups actually targeting your sector, the assets that matter most to your board, and the regulatory evidence your next examination will require. We do not run generic attack chains. We simulate the scenarios that keep your CISO awake.
Who Red Teaming Is For
Who Red Teaming Is For
- CISO
- CRO
- CIO
- Board / Audit Committee
- Head of Security Operations
- Compliance Officer
| Penetration Testing | Red Team Exercise |
|---|---|
| Tests specific systems or applications | Tests the entire security program — people, process, technology. |
| Blue team is typically notified or aware | Blue team operates blind — realistic covert engagement |
| Goal: find as many vulnerabilities as possible | Goal: achieve a specific objective while evading detection |
| Measures what is vulnerable | Measures whether you can detect, respond, and contain |
| Typically 1–2 weeks | Typically 4–12 weeks; sustained, patient adversary simulation |
| Compliance evidence: technical controls | Compliance evidence: DORA TLPT, CBEST, TIBER-EU, NIS2 Article 21 |
Engagement Objectives
We Target What Matters Most to You
Every red team engagement is scoped around specific, measurable objectives — not generic attack coverage. These are the objective categories we most commonly pursue.
01
Crown Jewel Data Access
Can we reach and exfiltrate your most sensitive data — customer records, financial data, intellectual property, patient records — without triggering an alert that results in containment?
02
Domain Compromise
Can we achieve Domain Admin or equivalent privileges within your Active Directory environment — the foothold that enables every subsequent attack in a Windows-based infrastructure?
03
Financial System Access
Can we access payment systems, financial controls, or treasury infrastructure sufficient to initiate fraudulent transactions or manipulate financial data?
04
OT / ICS Environment Reach
Can we traverse the IT/OT boundary and reach industrial control systems, SCADA environments, or safety critical infrastructure from a compromised corporate network position?
05
Physical + Cyber Combined
Can physical access to your facilities be used to establish network access, extract credentials, or compromise systems that are isolated from the internet — simulating an insider or physical intrusion scenario?
05
Cloud Environment Takeover
Can we escalate from a misconfigured cloud resource to administrative access across your cloud estate — reaching production systems, data stores, or CI/CD pipelines?
Engagement Objectives
Go Deeper
How a Red Team Exercise Works
The seven-phase attack timeline, from reconnaissance to objective achievement — and what we test across your people, processes, and technology.
- Learn More
01
Engagement Process & What You Receive
How an engagement runs from first briefing to boardroom, and the eight deliverables
it produces.
- Learn More
02
Regulatory Alignment
When Red Teaming Is a Regulatory Requirement
For organizations subject to the frameworks below, red team exercises are not optional—they are explicitly required. GLI Secure conducts threat-led testing against these frameworks across every region we operate in.
GLI Secure’s ISO 17020 and ISO 17025 accreditations qualify us to conduct the independent testing these frameworks mandate. For organizations subject to the frameworks below, red team exercises are not optional—they are explicitly required.
North America
- NY DFS Part 500
- CMMC 2.0
- NAIC MDL-668
- HIPAA/HITECH
- FFIEC CAT
- SEC Cybersecurity Disclosure Rule
Europe & UK
- DORA (Article 26 TLPT)
- CBEST
- TIBER-EU
- NIS2 (Article 21)
- UK Cyber Essentials Plus
- FCA SYSC 13
Middle East & Asia-Pacific
- NESA (UAE)
- MAS TRM (Singapore)
- APRA CPS 234 (Australia)
- NCA ECC (Saudi Arabia)
Latin America & Caribbean
- CJEF (Mexico)
- CNBV Circular (Mexico)
- SUSEP Resolution (Brazil)
- CMF Norma (Chile)
- Caricom Cybersecurity Framework
- Caribbean Gaming Commission Requirements
- OIPR (Panama)
Gaming & Lottery (All Jurisdictions)
- GLI-11
- GLI-33
- UKGC Licence Conditions
- Gaming Commission Requirements
“
A penetration test tells you that an attacker can get through the door. A red team exercise tells you that they already did — three weeks ago — and nobody noticed until we showed you the logs.
GLI Secure Red Team Lead
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a red team exercise different from a penetration test?
A penetration test systematically identifies vulnerabilities across defined systems, typically with the blue team aware. A red team exercise simulates a real adversary pursuing a specific objective — covertly, over weeks, against your entire security program. The outputs are different: a pen test tells you what is vulnerable; a red team exercise tells you whether your people, processes, and technology can detect and stop a determined attacker.
What sectors do you conduct red team exercises in?
Healthcare, Financial Services, Insurance, Manufacturing, Education, State and Local Government, and Retail. Each engagement is constructed using sector-specific threat intelligence — the adversary profile, the techniques, and the objectives all reflect the actual groups targeting your industry. We do not apply a generic enterprise attack template to every engagement.
Book a 30-minute red team briefing. We’ll walk through your specific threat profile, the objectives most relevant to your organization, and exactly how we’d structure an engagement — before you commit to anything.
