Red teaming is an adversary-focused security assessment in which Bishop Fox experts emulate real-world threat actors to test how well an organization can prevent, detect, and respond to advanced attacks. Rather than evaluating individual vulnerabilities in isolation, red teaming simulates realistic attack campaigns that mirror how attackers actually operate across people, processes, and technology.

Penetration testing focuses on identifying and validating specific technical vulnerabilities within defined systems or applications. Red teaming goes further by chaining techniques together to achieve real objectives, such as accessing sensitive data or bypassing detection controls. Red team engagements are stealthy, objective-based, and designed to measure not just exposure, but the effectiveness of monitoring, detection, and response capabilities.

Red teaming reveals gaps that traditional testing often misses — including blind spots in detection, response workflows, escalation processes, and security assumptions. It helps organizations understand how attackers could move through their environment, where controls fail under realistic pressure, and what changes will most meaningfully reduce risk.

Bishop Fox red team engagements follow a proven methodology and are tailored to each client’s environment, threat profile, and objectives. Our teams emulate real adversaries using proven tactics and techniques, operate covertly within agreed rules of engagement, and provide clear, actionable reporting. Clients gain insight into how attacks unfold, how their defenses perform, and what improvements will have the greatest impact.

Red teaming is best suited for organizations with mature security programs that want to validate real-world resilience. It is especially valuable for enterprises facing sophisticated threats, organizations undergoing major technology changes, and teams seeking to assess detection and response readiness beyond basic vulnerability testing.

Social engineering can be incorporated into red team engagements when it aligns with client objectives and approved rules of engagement. This may include techniques such as phishing, pretexting, and other human-factor attack simulations designed to evaluate awareness, controls, and response processes. Where appropriate, engagements can also assess organizational readiness for emerging threats such as AI-enabled impersonation or deepfake-driven fraud scenarios. All social engineering activities are conducted ethically, transparently, and within clearly defined boundaries.

The length of a red team engagement depends on scope, objectives, and complexity. Most engagements include planning and threat modeling, active attack simulation over several weeks, and detailed reporting and debriefing. This approach ensures realistic execution while maintaining safety and alignment with business goals.

Clients receive comprehensive reporting that documents attack paths, techniques used, and achieved objectives. Deliverables include prioritized findings, clear risk context, and actionable recommendations to improve security posture. Bishop Fox also conducts debrief sessions to ensure stakeholders understand the results and next steps.

Red teaming is most effective when performed periodically as part of an ongoing security improvement program. Many organizations schedule red team engagements annually or after significant changes to infrastructure, applications, or security controls. Frequency should be aligned to risk tolerance, threat landscape, and regulatory requirements.

Bishop Fox uses a threat-informed, objective-based red team methodology grounded in real-world adversary behavior. Engagements are designed to test defenses holistically, from initial access through post-exploitation and detection response, while providing clear insights into both tactical and strategic risk.

Red teaming helps organizations evaluate how effectively attacks are detected, investigated, and contained in real-world conditions. By simulating stealthy adversary behavior, red team engagements expose gaps in alerting, logging, escalation, and response workflows. This allows security teams to validate controls, refine processes, and improve coordination before a real incident occurs.

Yes. Bishop Fox red team engagements are informed by real-world adversary tactics and techniques and align closely with frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK. This alignment helps organizations understand which techniques were used, how defenses performed, and where coverage gaps exist — providing a common language for improving security operations.

Red teaming is highly customizable and objective-driven. Bishop Fox works with clients to define goals such as testing ransomware readiness, assessing cloud security exposure, or evaluating the risk to critical business processes. Engagements are designed to reflect realistic threat scenarios relevant to each organization’s industry, environment, and risk profile.

Red teaming can help organizations demonstrate operational resilience by validating security controls against realistic, threat-led attack scenarios. For organizations subject to regulations such as the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), red team engagements can support alignment with Threat-Led Penetration Testing (TLPT) expectations by emulating real adversaries and testing end-to-end defensive capabilities. While red teaming is not a compliance exercise, it provides meaningful evidence of preparedness, detection, and response maturity that supports regulatory and resilience objectives.

Red teaming focuses on emulating adversaries to test defenses without defender involvement. Purple teaming builds on this by fostering collaboration between offensive and defensive teams during or after the engagement. Bishop Fox supports both approaches, depending on whether the goal is independent validation or hands-on improvement of detection and response capabilities.