Continuous Automated Red Teaming

What is Continuous Automated Red Teaming?

Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART) is an offensive security process in which organizations utilize automated security tools to continuously simulate real-world attacks on their IT environments. CART is an important aspect of proactive security because it enables organizations to seek out, identify, and subsequently remediate vulnerabilities in their systems to pre-emptively strengthen their defenses against potential threats.

Continuous Automated Red Teaming (CART) employs continuous, automated testing to identify vulnerabilities as they emerge, aligning with Automated Penetration Testing practices for real-time defense validation.

How does Continuous Automated Red Teaming differ from traditional penetration testing (BAS)?

Continuous Automated Red Teaming differs from traditional penetration testing and Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) primarily in terms of coverage and adaptiveness.

Traditional manual penetration testing is typically conducted periodically and identifies vulnerabilities within a specific time frame, providing a moment-in-time image of the state of the IT environment. BAS on the other hand, though automated, concentrates on testing predetermined scenarios.

Continuous Automated Red Teaming is unique from these methods in that it provides continuous, real-time testing, and focuses on emulating the behaviors of real-world attackers by using their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). This means that CART enables organizations to assess their security more comprehensively and remain agile in responding to emerging threats. 

What are the benefits and challenges of Continuous Automated Red Teaming?

As with any methodology, it has benefits and challenges to consider.

Benefits

• Proactivity: CART empowers organizations to identify and address vulnerabilities before attackers can attempt to exploit them. This helps to enhance overall security and mitigate risk.
• Real-time intelligence: Continuously testing security measures enables security teams to gather up-to-date intelligence on security vulnerabilities so they can adapt to evolving threats.
• Scalability: The automated nature of CART means that it can easily be scaled up to ensure comprehensive coverage as IT environments grow larger and more complex.
• Cost-effectiveness: Automated red teaming reduces the need for organizations to work with third-party manual testing vendors, thereby cutting operating costs.

Challenges

• Resource intensive: Though CART offers economic advantages in the long term, it can be resource-intensive to set up and maintain an automated red teaming environment appropriately.
• Complexity: Depending on network infrastructure and existing systems already in place, integrating CART can prove a complex task, and may require additional specialized expertise.
• False positives/negatives: Automated testing tools may generate false positives or negatives on occasion due to a lack of contextual understanding, particularly in complex custom environments. In these cases, manual verification and remediation may be required.
• Continuous monitoring: Leveraging CART requires a continuous, ongoing commitment to network monitoring and adjustment so as to effectively keep pace with evolving threats.

What are some best practices for Continuous Automated Red Teaming?

To achieve optimal results with the implementation of CART, it’s advisable to follow best practices.

• Establish clear goals: First, outline clear goals for what the CART process is intended to achieve. This can include details of specific threats to simulate and types of vulnerabilities to identify.
• Integrate CART with incident response: Integrating the findings of CART processes with an incident response plan ensures that there is a framework for swift remediation when vulnerabilities are identified.
• Conduct regular updates: Security teams should ensure that automated tools and attack scenario libraries are updated regularly so that CART processes are reflective of the most relevant threat intelligence.
• Leverage CART for continuous improvement: Use the insights gained from CART to continuously improve security measures and policies.

What types of attacks can be simulated with Continuous Automated Red Teaming?

Continuous Automated Red Teaming can simulate a wide range of cyberattacks. These include the following:

• Phishing: Simulating email-based attacks to test an organization’s resilience against social engineering tactics.
• Malware Injection: Simulating the introduction of malicious software on a network device to evaluate endpoint protection and response measures.
• Ransomware: Testing the organization’s ability to detect, respond to, and recover from ransomware attacks.
• Lateral movement & privilege escalation: Simulating how attackers move across networks and gain higher access, so as to assess internal security controls.
• Data exfiltration: Mimicking techniques used to extract sensitive data so as to test data loss prevention measures.

Employing CART for an adaptive, proactive defense

Continuous Automated Red Teaming is an integral part of the next iteration of security testing. By enabling organizations to continuously and comprehensively test their defenses against emerging threats, CART provides the insights that security teams need to take a more adaptive, proactive, and preventative approach to cybersecurity.