Red teaming

Red teaming is a full-scope, adversarial simulation where a dedicated team of ethical hackers emulates the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of real-world threat actors — including advanced persistent threats (APTs) — to test your organisation's detection, response and resilience capabilities. Unlike a penetration test, which enumerates known vulnerabilities within a defined scope and timeframe, a red team engagement is objective-driven (e.g., access the CFO's mailbox or exfiltrate customer data), covert and unconstrained by a fixed checklist. The blue team (your internal security staff) is typically unaware the exercise is happening, making the test a realistic measure of your actual security posture.

Any organisation that has already deployed foundational security controls — firewalls, EDR, SIEM, SOC — and wants to know whether those controls actually work under real attack conditions should consider red teaming. In India, this includes large enterprises, banks and NBFCs subject to RBI guidelines, insurance companies under IRDAI cyber directives, listed companies with SEBI cyber-resilience obligations, critical infrastructure operators and technology companies that process sensitive personal data under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act 2023. Organisations that have completed one or more penetration tests and want to graduate to a more mature security validation programme are ideal candidates.

CyberSigma works with you to define realistic crown-jewel objectives before the engagement begins. Typical objectives include: gaining unauthorised access to core banking or ERP systems, exfiltrating a defined dataset without triggering alerts, achieving domain administrator privileges, compromising a production cloud environment, or demonstrating physical access to a secure data centre. The engagement is declared successful or unsuccessful based on whether the red team achieves those objectives — not on how many CVEs were found. This outcome-based model gives leadership a clear answer: can a real attacker achieve Business Impact X?

A full-scope CyberSigma red team engagement covers the complete kill chain across multiple domains: external network intrusion (perimeter attacks, VPN exploitation, exposed APIs), spear-phishing and vishing (social engineering of employees), physical intrusion attempts (tailgating, rogue device planting), internal lateral movement and privilege escalation, Active Directory and cloud identity attacks (Azure AD, AWS IAM), supply-chain simulation and evasion of your EDR, SIEM and SOC detection logic. Scope is agreed upfront and can be narrowed to specific vectors (e.g., assume-breach or purple-team variants) based on maturity and budget.

A full red team engagement for an Indian enterprise typically runs 4 to 12 weeks depending on scope complexity, number of target objectives, geographic spread of offices, and whether physical intrusion is in scope. The engagement phases are: reconnaissance and planning (1–2 weeks), active adversary simulation (2–8 weeks) and debrief, report and purple-team knowledge transfer (1–2 weeks). Shorter engagements of 2–3 weeks are available for assume-breach or targeted purple-team exercises where the starting position is already inside the network.

CyberSigma delivers a full red team report containing an executive narrative (suitable for board and CISO presentation), a detailed attack path story-board mapping every step taken from initial foothold to objective achievement, a MITRE ATT&CK heat-map showing which techniques succeeded and which were detected, specific detection gaps with recommended SIEM/EDR rule tuning guidance and a prioritised remediation roadmap. Optionally, we conduct a purple-team workshop where our red team works alongside your SOC analysts live to replay attack techniques and build detection content in real time.

Yes. The Reserve Bank of India's Cyber Security Framework for banks and its CSCRF (Cyber Security and Cyber Resilience Framework) explicitly recommend threat-led penetration testing (TLPT) and adversarial simulation for Tier I and Tier II regulated entities. SEBI's cyber resilience circular for market infrastructure institutions references advanced testing beyond standard VAPT. CERT-In's 2022 directions on incident reporting create implicit pressure on organisations to demonstrate detection and response readiness — which red teaming directly validates. DPDP Act compliance programmes benefit from red teaming as evidence that personal data stores are protected against sophisticated attackers. CyberSigma, as a CERT-In empanelled firm, produces reports that carry regulatory credibility.

A red team engagement is typically covert — your blue team does not know it is happening — and measures your SOC's organic detection capability. A purple team exercise is collaborative: red team operators and blue team defenders work together in real time, with the red team explicitly sharing each technique so the blue team can observe, tune detections and verify alerts. Purple teaming is faster and more training-focused; red teaming provides a more accurate benchmark of real-world resilience. CyberSigma recommends starting with red teaming to establish a baseline, then following up with purple-team workshops to accelerate detection improvement.

Before any active testing begins, CyberSigma executes a formal Rules of Engagement (RoE) document signed by both parties. The RoE defines out-of-scope systems (e.g., production payment switches, life-safety systems), emergency stop procedures with named contacts available 24/7, data handling obligations for any sensitive information accessed during the engagement and liability clauses. All red team operators hold NDAs. A secure, out-of-band communication channel is maintained with your authorised point of contact throughout the engagement so activity can be paused instantly if a real incident occurs or a critical system is at risk.

Key cost drivers include: scope breadth (number of target objectives, number of offices or cloud environments), duration of active simulation, whether physical intrusion testing is included, number of red team operators deployed and the level of post-engagement purple-team support required. Full-scope, multi-vector red team engagements for large Indian enterprises typically start at ₹8–15 lakh and scale upward for complex, multi-site or regulated-sector work. Assume-breach or cloud-focused red team exercises with a narrower scope can be structured at a lower investment. CyberSigma provides a fixed-price proposal after a scoping call so there are no billing surprises.

CyberSigma is CERT-In empanelled and PCI QSA authorised, with over 1,000 clients across India and the UAE — credentials that matter when presenting red team findings to regulators, auditors and boards. Our red team operators are senior practitioners with real-world threat intelligence experience, not junior staff working through a checklist. We use current APT tradecraft mapped to MITRE ATT&CK, including techniques observed in attacks against Indian financial, healthcare and critical infrastructure sectors. Our reports are written for both technical and executive audiences, and we offer purple-team follow-through to ensure findings translate into measurable detection improvements — not just a PDF on a shelf.

Contact CyberSigma through cybersigmacs.com to schedule a no-obligation scoping call. During that call, our senior consultants will discuss your organisation's threat profile, existing security controls, regulatory context and the crown-jewel assets you most want to protect. We will then propose a tailored red team programme with clear objectives, timeline, team composition and fixed pricing. Most engagements can be mobilised within two to three weeks of contract signing. To prepare, you will need to identify an internal authorised point of contact, confirm out-of-scope systems and obtain any third-party cloud provider permissions if applicable.