Red teaming goes beyond traditional penetration testing. Where a pentest focuses on finding technical vulnerabilities, a red team simulates the full attack chain of an advanced threat actor. This includes reconnaissance, initial access via social engineering or technical exploitation, lateral movement through the network, privilege escalation and reaching strategic objectives, exactly as a real attacker would.
In the financial sector, red teaming has been formalised through the TIBER-EU framework and the Dutch implementation TIBER-NL. These intelligence-led red team tests are conducted under the supervision of De Nederlandsche Bank and are mandatory for systemically relevant financial institutions. TIBER tests require certified red team providers and operators with proven experience in advanced attack simulations.
Purple teaming is rapidly gaining popularity as a complementary discipline. By having red and blue teams work together in an iterative process, detection gaps are identified and resolved faster. Attack path analyses map the routes an attacker can take, so the defence can be specifically strengthened where it matters most.
The market for red team specialists is exceptionally tight. Experienced operators with TIBER experience and certifications such as OSCP, OSEP and CRTO are particularly scarce. MVPeople Group has an exclusive network of offensive security professionals who have earned their stripes at leading red team providers and financial institutions.