Founder-Led Red Teaming
A pentest finds your vulnerabilities. A red team proves whether a real attacker can chain them into a breach, and whether you would even notice. We start from an objective (reach the production database, exfiltrate a sample of customer data, make an internal tool act without authorization), then emulate an adversary end to end and map every move to MITRE ATT&CK. Custom-scoped. Led by a named OSCP co-founder, not a crowd.
Red Team vs Penetration Test
They are not the same product, and one is not better than the other. They answer different questions. If you are not sure which fits your situation, tell us on a call and we will point you to the right one, even if it is the cheaper option.
Coverage-driven. Find the vulnerabilities.
A pentest enumerates weaknesses against known classes (OWASP Top 10, API abuse, auth flaws) across a defined scope, then reports everything found with severity and fix guidance. The goal is breadth: surface as many real issues as possible so you can close them. Choose this when you need audit evidence, a diligence report, or a full picture of one application or API.
Objective-driven. Reach the goal like an attacker.
A red team starts from a goal, not a checklist. Given an objective (reach the production database, exfiltrate a sample of customer data, make an internal tool take an unauthorized action), we chain techniques the way a real adversary would, often quietly, and test whether you detect and respond. The goal is depth: prove an attack path end to end. Choose this when you already run pentests and want to know if a determined attacker gets through, and whether anyone notices.
Need coverage and audit evidence for one application? Start with SaaS penetration testing. Want to test the whole attack path? Read on.
What a Red Team Engagement Covers
Scope is shaped to your objective. The building blocks below combine into the path we take toward the goal you set.
Objective-Based Adversary Emulation
We agree on a concrete objective before the engagement starts. Every technique we run serves that goal. This is how we keep the test honest: success is reaching the objective, not filling a report.
External to Internal Attack Path
We start from the outside, the way a real attacker does, and work toward internal access. Exposed services, weak edges, and the path from your public surface into the systems that matter.
Initial Access
Gaining the first foothold: exposed credentials, an unpatched service, a weak authentication flow, or (if in scope) a phishing email that lands. We document exactly how the door opened.
Privilege Escalation and Lateral Movement
Once inside, we escalate from a low-privilege position and move sideways toward the objective, mapping the path a real intruder would take through your environment.
Business Logic and Tenant Isolation Abuse
Cross-tenant access, authorization gaps, and workflow abuse that scanners miss. On multi-tenant SaaS this is often the fastest path to the objective.
Social Engineering (If In Scope)
Targeted phishing or pretext campaigns against a defined, consented set of employees. Only run with written sign-off, tightly scoped, and never against customers.
Detection and Response Validation
Did your logging, alerting, and on-call catch us? We test whether your defenders see the activity and what they do about it. This is often the most useful finding of the whole engagement.
Purple Team Collaboration (Optional)
Instead of testing blind, we can work alongside your defenders in real time: we run a technique, they check whether it fired an alert, and you close detection gaps as we go. Faster learning when your priority is building defensive muscle.
Our Adversary-Emulation Method
A structured engagement, aligned to industry adversary-emulation methodology and mapped to MITRE ATT&CK at every stage. You know the objective, the boundaries, and the stop condition before we begin.
Scope and Rules of Engagement
PlanningWe agree on the objective, the boundaries, the systems in and out of scope, safe hours, and a stop condition. You get a written rules-of-engagement document and a named emergency contact before any activity begins.
Reconnaissance
Recon, Resource DevelopmentWe map your external surface the way an attacker would: exposed assets, technologies, people, and the paths between them. Passive first, then active enumeration within the agreed scope.
Initial Access
Initial Access, ExecutionWe establish the first foothold through the weakest viable path: an exposed credential, a vulnerable service, or (if in scope) a phishing lure. Every step is logged for the narrative report.
Escalation and Lateral Movement
Privilege Escalation, Lateral Movement, PersistenceFrom the foothold we escalate privileges and move toward the objective, chaining findings that would each look minor on their own but combine into a real breach path.
Objective and Detection Check
Collection, Exfiltration, ImpactWe reach the agreed objective (or document how far we got and what stopped us), then check whether your team detected the activity along the way and how they responded.
Debrief and Retest
ReportingWe walk your team through the full attack narrative, hand over the report, and answer questions live. After you remediate, we retest the specific findings at no extra cost.
Stage tags reference MITRE ATT&CK tactics. We align to industry adversary-emulation methodology; we do not claim accreditation under any regulated red-team scheme.
Deliverables
A red team is only as useful as what you can act on afterward. Everything below is built to be read, understood, and fixed.
Attack Narrative Report
The story of the engagement, step by step: how the objective was reached, which techniques chained together, and where the path could have been broken. Written to be read, not skimmed.
Executive Summary for the Board
A one-page account your board, investors, or enterprise buyer can read without a security background. What we set out to do, what we achieved, and what it means for the business.
MITRE ATT&CK Mapping
Every technique we used mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, so your team can cross-reference tactics and check their detection coverage against a common language.
Prioritized Remediation
Fixes ranked by how much they shorten the attack path, not just by raw severity. Close the right three things and the whole chain breaks.
Live Debrief and Free Retest
A working session with your team to walk the narrative, plus a free retest of the specific findings once you have remediated.
Is a Red Team Right for You?
Red teaming suits teams that have already done the basics. If you have never run a pentest, start there first. If one of the situations below matches, a red team is the right next step.
Funded SaaS Facing Enterprise Security Review
A large customer or prospect is asking harder questions than a standard pentest report answers. They want proof that a real attacker cannot walk from your front door to their data.
Teams That Already Run Pentests
You test your applications regularly and close what you find. The next question is whether a determined attacker chains those closed-off edges into a path you have not seen. Red teaming answers it.
Post-Incident or Post-Near-Miss
Something happened, or nearly did. You want to know how far an attacker could actually get today, and whether your detection would have caught them the second time.
Testing Detection and Response
You have invested in logging, alerting, and an on-call rotation, and you want to know if it works under a real attack. A red team, or a purple-team session, tells you exactly what fired and what stayed silent.
Built for AI-first and API-first SaaS startups. Not sure if you are ready? A scoping call is the fastest way to find out.
A Named Operator, Not a Crowd
Rathnakara GN, co-founder and Chief Hacking Officer (M.Sc Cyber Security, OSCP), runs the engagement and has delivered red team and internal red team work directly. Both founders are on every engagement. There is no anonymous crowd, no junior handoff, and no account manager between you and the people running the test.
That matters for a red team more than for any other service, because the value is in the judgment: knowing which path to chain, when to stay quiet, and when to stop at proof rather than cause harm. You get a named operator you can talk to before, during, and after the engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is red teaming?
Red teaming is objective-driven adversary emulation. Instead of enumerating vulnerabilities against a checklist like a pentest does, a red team is given a concrete goal (for example, reach the production database or exfiltrate a sample of customer data) and chains techniques the way a real attacker would, often stealthily, to reach that goal. A red team also tests whether your organization detects and responds to the activity. The output is a story of how the objective was reached, not just a list of findings.
What is the difference between a red team and a penetration test?
A penetration test is coverage-driven: it enumerates vulnerabilities against known classes across a defined scope and reports everything found, which is ideal for audit evidence and a full picture of one application. A red team is objective-driven: it starts from a goal, chains techniques into a real attack path, often works stealthily, and tests whether you detect and respond. Choose a pentest when you need breadth and audit evidence. Choose a red team when you already run pentests and want to know if a determined attacker gets through and whether anyone notices.
How long does a red team engagement take?
It depends on the objective, the size of the attack surface, and whether social engineering or detection testing is in scope. Because a red team is custom-scoped rather than packaged, we set the timeline together during the scoping call. As a rough guide, focused engagements run over a small number of weeks. We give you a firm timeline in writing before the engagement starts.
How much does a red team engagement cost?
Red teaming is custom-scoped, so there is no sticker price. The cost depends on the objective, the size of your environment, and what is in scope (initial access, social engineering, detection testing, purple-team collaboration). Talk to the founders on a scoping call and we will give you a written quote tied to a defined objective and rules of engagement. This is different from our fixed-price penetration testing packages.
Do you do social engineering?
Yes, if it is in scope and you sign off on it in writing. We run targeted phishing or pretext campaigns against a defined, consented set of your employees, never against your customers. Social engineering is tightly scoped and agreed in the rules of engagement before the engagement begins. If you would rather keep people out of scope, we run the engagement against technical surfaces only.
Will a red team engagement disrupt production?
No. We agree safe hours, a stop condition, and out-of-scope systems in writing before we start, and we keep a named emergency contact open throughout. Our goal is to prove the attack path, not to break your service. Where an action carries real risk to production, we demonstrate it in a controlled way or stop at proof rather than execute it. You stay in control the entire time.
Do you test our detection and response?
Yes, and it is often the most useful part of the engagement. As we work toward the objective, we check whether your logging and alerting fired and whether your on-call team saw and acted on the activity. The report maps what we did to MITRE ATT&CK so you can see exactly which techniques you detected and which you missed. If you prefer, we run it as a purple-team session where we work alongside your defenders in real time to close detection gaps as we go.
Is a red team report SOC 2 or ISO 27001 evidence?
It can support your audit. A red team report and its remediation trail are evidence your auditor can use toward SOC 2 or ISO 27001 controls around threat detection, incident response, and security testing. We are not a certification body and we do not certify or audit you. We deliver the offensive-security evidence and control mapping, and your auditor decides how it applies to your framework.
Who runs the engagement?
A named founder runs it. Rathnakara GN, our co-founder and Chief Hacking Officer (M.Sc Cyber Security, OSCP), leads the engagement and has delivered red team and internal red team work directly. Both founders are on every engagement. There is no anonymous crowd, no junior handoff, and no account manager between you and the people running the test.
Can you test our AI or LLM features?
Yes, as AI and LLM penetration testing. If your product uses an LLM, we test for prompt injection, jailbreaks, and retrieval-augmented-generation data leakage, and we can fold an objective around your AI feature into a broader engagement (for example, making an AI agent take an unauthorized action). This is a focused test of the AI surface, scoped alongside the rest of the engagement.
How is this different from your penetration testing packages?
Our penetration testing packages are fixed-price and coverage-driven: a defined scope, a fixed timeline, and audit-ready findings. Red teaming is custom-scoped and objective-driven: we start from a goal, chain an attack path, and test detection and response. Many teams run pentests first to close known issues, then bring in a red team to test whether a real attacker still gets through. If you are not sure which you need, tell us your situation on a call and we will point you to the right one, even if that is the cheaper option.
Set the Objective. We Emulate the Adversary.
A red team is custom-scoped, so the first step is a conversation. Tell us the goal you want an attacker to fail at, and we will scope the engagement, the rules, and a written quote. Founder-led, no pitch deck.