What is Red Teaming and how is it different from penetration testing?

Red teaming is a full-scope, intelligence-led adversary emulation exercise that simulates real-world cyber attacks against your organisation. Unlike traditional penetration testing, which focuses on identifying technical vulnerabilities, red teaming tests your entire cyber resilience capability including people, processes, detection controls and incident response. The engagement replicates real threat actor tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) to assess how effectively your organisation can prevent, detect, respond to and recover from a sustained, targeted attack.

Why is Red Teaming important for demonstrating cyber resilience?

Modern cyber threats are persistent, targeted and highly sophisticated. Boards, regulators and executive leadership increasingly require evidence that security controls work in real-world conditions. It provides measurable proof of resilience by: 1. Validating detection and response capabilities under realistic attack scenarios 2. Identifying gaps between technical controls and operational processes 3. Stress-testing incident response and escalation procedures 4. Benchmarking security maturity against known adversary behaviour 5. Supporting regulatory requirements such as TIBER and TLPT This evidence-based approach delivers far deeper assurance than vulnerability scanning or standard testing methods.

What is TIBER and TLPT?

TIBER-EU (Threat Intelligence-Based Ethical Red Teaming) is a European regulatory framework developed by the European Central Bank. It requires financial institutions to conduct intelligence-led red team exercises based on realistic threat scenarios relevant to their sector. Threat-Led Penetration Testing (TLPT) is a regulatory-driven form of adversary emulation aligned with supervisory expectations, including requirements under frameworks such as Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). Both TIBER and TLPT are designed to provide regulators with validated assurance that organisations can withstand sophisticated cyber attacks targeting critical systems and services.

How do I know if my organisation actually needs Red Teaming?

If you’re asking whether your defences would withstand a targeted, real-world cyber attack - you likely need Red Teaming. Organisations typically benefit if they: 1. Operate in regulated sectors such as financial services or critical infrastructure 2. Must meet supervisory requirements such as TIBER-EU or Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) 3. Want board-level assurance that detection and response capabilities truly work 4. Have mature security controls but need proof of operational resilience 5. Have recently invested in SOC, EDR, or incident response capabilities and want validation It's most valuable when leadership needs evidence - not assumptions - about how their organisation performs under genuine adversarial pressure.

Red teaming that tests your real-world cyber resilience

Pressure-test how your organisation actually holds up against today’s most advanced cyber threats

What is red teaming?

Red teaming is a realistic cyber-attack simulation designed to mimic how real-world threat actors operate. Instead of simply identifying technical vulnerabilities like a traditional penetration test, Red Teaming tests how well your organisation can prevent, detect, respond to and recover from a sustained, targeted attack.

A red team engagement recreates a full attack scenario from start to finish.

It combines technical exploitation, social engineering, and stealth techniques to test your defences in a live environment. The result is a clear, evidence-based understanding of how your security controls, teams, and processes perform under real attack conditions.

Read the case study

Developers and testers working on automation and test execution

Why red teaming matters

Security leaders need clear evidence that their defences work in real-world conditions.

Red teaming helps you:

test how well your detection and response capabilities perform during a realistic attack
identify gaps between your security tools, processes, and people
pressure-test incident response and escalation procedures in real scenarios
measure your security maturity against known attacker tactics and techniques
meet regulatory expectations by demonstrating proven cyber resilience

Whether driven by regulation, risk appetite or board-level assurance demands, red teaming delivers evidence that traditional testing methods simply cannot produce.

Digital forensics being conducted in a data centre

Resillion’s red team simulated a realistic attack on a multi-million-pound pension fund, uncovering critical weaknesses and delivering clear, evidence-based insights to strengthen overall cyber resilience.

Case study: Red Team’s simulated pension fund breach

Red Team exercise for a large UK public sector organisation

Our red teaming approach

Resillion delivers red teaming using a clear, intelligence-led, and risk-focused approach:

Threat-led scoping

We define clear objectives, identify your most critical assets, and map realistic attack paths based on your business priorities and current threat landscape. The scope is tailored to what matters most to your organisation, not a generic checklist.

Adversary emulation

Our red team uses real-world tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) observed in active threat campaigns. We simulate attackers that are relevant to your sector and region.

Stealth-driven execution

Engagements are carried out covertly, with little or no warning to defenders. This allows us to accurately measure detection capability, monitoring coverage and response effectiveness.

Measured outcomes

We evaluate not just whether a breach is possible, but how far an attacker can progress, how quickly your team detects the activity and how effectively it is contained.

Actionable reporting

Our reporting links technical findings directly to business risk. Each issue includes clear, practical remediation steps, prioritised by real-world impact and likelihood of exploitation.

Advanced red teaming capabilities

Resillion provides a comprehensive range of advanced Red Teaming services, including:

TIBER (Threat Intelligence-Based Ethical Red Teaming)

We deliver red team exercises aligned to TIBER frameworks, using tailored threat intelligence specific to your sector and organisation. These engagements provide regulators and senior leaders with clear, evidence-based assurance of your cyber resilience across people, processes and technology.

TLPT (Threat-Led Penetration Testing)

Our TLPT engagements align with regulatory frameworks such as DORA. We use targeted threat intelligence to build realistic attack scenarios focused on your critical systems and business functions, meeting supervisory expectations.

Advanced Red Teaming (ART)

Three professionals reviewing documents on a illuminated table in a dark office

For organisations not bound by formal regulatory frameworks, our advanced red teaming approach offers flexible, tailored testing. We scale the scope and complexity to match your maturity and risk profile while maintaining realistic, real-world attack simulation.

Why Resillion for red teaming?

Our red teaming services combine strong technical expertise, up-to-date threat intelligence, and proven experience in high-risk environments.

testing based on real-world attacker behaviour, not assumptions or outdated methods
red team specialists with both offensive and defensive experience
full assessment of technical controls, processes and people
clear executive reporting supported by detailed technical findings
proven delivery across regulated sectors, financial services and critical infrastructure

We don’t just highlight vulnerabilities, we help organisations improve their ability to detect, respond, recover and strengthen their defences over time.

Man at laptop looking at digital assurance

Who we work with

We work with organisations where cyber resilience is operationally critical financial institutions, regulated industries, critical national infrastructure, government bodies and multinational enterprises.

Our red team engagements equip CISOs and security leaders with the evidence they need to demonstrate assurance, close gaps in preparedness and build confidence at board and regulatory level.

Start your red teaming engagement

Find out how your organisation performs against realistic, targeted cyber attacks. Whether you need to meet regulatory obligations, validate your resilience strategy or test your team’s readiness under pressure. Resillion’s red teaming services deliver evidence you can act on.

Get in touch with our red team specialists to scope your engagement.

Find out more about red teaming today

Red teaming that tests your real-world cyber resilience

What is red teaming?

Why red teaming matters

Resillion’s red team simulated a realistic attack on a multi-million-pound pension fund, uncovering critical weaknesses and delivering clear, evidence-based insights to strengthen overall cyber resilience.