Red team engagements are no longer limited to Fortune 100 companies. As a proactive approach to assess their real-world defence readiness, forward-thinking CISOs and security leaders from mid-market and high-growth companies are adopting red teaming. These ethical hacker-conducted simulated attacks show you exactly how adversaries could enter your network, move laterally, and compromise important resources.
But here’s the catch: even the most skilled red team can’t save a poorly prepared organization. Without alignment, clear objectives, and internal readiness, you risk wasting valuable resources—and missing out on the deep insights red teaming can offer.
A free CISO Checklist that you can use with your internal teams is included in this guide, which will take you through the seven crucial steps to get ready for a red team engagement.
Download the Red Team Prep Checklist & Book a Free Consultation Call
Step 1 – Define Your Red Teaming Objectives
You must be clear about what you want to test and why before you run the first line of code or send the first phishing email. Red teaming aims to validate your organization’s detection and response capabilities under realistic attack conditions, not just to see if someone can get in.
Questions to Ask:
- What are our most critical business risks?
- Are we testing blue team response, executive escalation paths, or specific detection capabilities?
- Do we want to simulate a specific threat actor (e.g., APT29 tactics)?
Examples of Objectives:
- Test how quickly and accurately the SOC can detect lateral movement.
- Evaluate how well executives respond to a simulated ransomware scenario.
- Assess the resilience of remote work infrastructure against phishing and privilege escalation.
Pro Tip:
Align red team goals with your current threat model and business objectives—not generic attack paths. A well-scoped objective makes the difference between a valuable exercise and a noisy distraction.
✅ Document your red teaming goals before involving any vendors.
💬 Need help defining high-impact objectives? Book a strategy call with BlueFire’s Red Team Specialist
Step 2 – Identify the Critical Assets to Protect
A red team exercise should mimic the way actual attackers would try to gain access to your company’s most valuable assets—those systems, information, or procedures that, if compromised, could result in tangible harm.
Start Here:
- What data do we absolutely need to protect? (e.g., PII, PHI, source code, financials)
- What systems run our core operations or house sensitive IP?
- Which third-party integrations, if breached, could create lateral access points?
Build Your “Target Asset Map”:
- Data: Client records, employee databases, code repos
- Infrastructure: Domain controllers, internal Git servers, SSO platforms
- People: Executives, privileged users, developers, finance personnel
Common Mistake:
Some organisations believe that “everything is in scope,” but your red team and attackers don’t share that belief. Setting clear, high-value goals gives the simulation a purpose and makes it easier for your internal team to understand the results.
📌 Tip: Share asset priorities with your red team early. It sharpens the realism and value of the entire engagement.
Step 3 – Establish Internal Rules of Engagement
The distinction between simulation and reality is blurred during red team operations. They are powerful because of this, and if boundaries aren’t established up front, they could be disruptive.
Here’s where your Rules of Engagement (RoE) are useful. Consider it the “contract” that outlines what is permitted, what is not, and the extent to which the simulation should proceed between your company and the red team.
Key Elements to Define:
- Scope of Testing: Which networks, systems, cloud environments, and physical locations are in scope?
- Timeframe: When does the operation start and end? Will it occur during business hours only?
- Exclusions: Are there any systems (e.g., production databases, payment processors) that must remain untouched?
- Safety Clauses: What’s the escalation path if critical systems are accidentally impacted?
Legal & Risk Considerations:
Early on in this stage, involve the compliance, HR, and legal departments. They can reduce risk exposure, guarantee appropriate waivers, and guard against unforeseen repercussions—particularly if the test includes social engineering or physical intrusion.
Example Boundaries:
- Social engineering allowed, but no impersonation of C-level executives
- No testing of systems that process customer transactions
- Physical entry is restricted to HQ only, not satellite offices
✍️ Final Tip: Don’t assume your red team “knows the line.” Define it. Document it. Get internal signoff.
Step 4 – Notify and Align Internal Stakeholders
A red team engagement is a test of your organisational preparedness as well as your technical controls. Key stakeholders must be included early and effectively in order for it to provide full value (and prevent internal chaos).
Who Needs to Know:
- Executive Leadership: Ensure the CISO, CTO, or board sponsor is aligned on objectives and scope.
- Legal & HR: Handle liability, privacy implications, and internal communications safeguards.
- IT & Engineering: Know what to expect and when—not to interfere, but to stay aware.
- Blue Team/SOC: If it’s a “closed” test, only a designated white team member may be aware; otherwise, define how detection responses will be monitored.
Suggested Communication Structure:
- Kickoff Meeting: With leadership and red team to clarify mission
- Role-based Briefings: Short sessions tailored for SOC, IT, and engineering leads
- Pre-drafted Internal Memos: So you’re ready to explain anomalies or false alarms during the test
During the Engagement:
To maintain safety, monitor progress, and coordinate any emergency stop signals, designate a “white team” contact who stays in touch with the red team.
💬 Bonus: Use our pre-formatted stakeholder alignment email template (included in the downloadable checklist) to streamline your prep.
Step 5 – Prepare Logging & Detection Infrastructure
Knowing what your security teams and tools actually detect—and what they miss—is one of the most beneficial results of a red team engagement. However, this is only effective if your detection, alerting, and logging systems are fully operational and adjusted.
What to Validate Before Launch:
- Log Aggregation: Ensure logs from endpoints, servers, firewalls, and cloud assets are flowing to your SIEM (e.g., Splunk, Sentinel).
- Time Sync: All systems must have synchronized time for coherent incident correlation.
- Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR): Confirm agents are deployed and actively reporting on all key systems.
- Alerting Rules: Tune detection logic for common red team behaviors (e.g., PowerShell abuse, credential dumping, privilege escalation).
Questions to Ask:
- Will your blue team see lateral movement?
- Will your alerts include enough context to investigate?
- Do you have visibility into cloud infrastructure, VPN activity, and identity access logs?
Pro Tip:
One week prior to the red team’s start, conduct a “pre-flight” detection audit. This guarantees you won’t be caught off guard and allows your SOC to demonstrate its competence.
📞 Need help running a readiness audit? Bluefire Redteam offers a pre-engagement diagnostic call to walk through your detection maturity. Book a call.
Step 6 – Decide on White Team & Communication Plan
The white team serves as mission control during a red team engagement. By bridging the gap between attackers and defenders, this small, reliable group keeps the operation valuable, moral, and safe.
Who Belongs on the White Team?
- CISO or security leader (executive sponsor)
- Lead security engineer or SOC manager
- Red team liaison (internal or from vendor)
- Legal/compliance rep (for oversight)
Particularly in a closed test, this team should be the only one with knowledge of the entire scope and schedule of the engagement. They are responsible for handling communications, keeping an eye on developments, and serving as a backup.
Communication Protocols:
- Establish a secure Slack channel or Signal thread for real-time updates
- Set up a daily or milestone-based check-in cadence
- Define an “emergency abort” process (e.g., service disruption, real-world incident collision)
Key Responsibilities:
- Ensuring the red team stays within bounds
- Coordinating internal messaging if alarms are triggered
- Debriefing with internal teams post-engagement
💡 Tip: Choose white team members who are level-headed and decisive—they’re the pressure valve if things get noisy.
Step 7 – Know What to Expect During the Debrief
The debrief—the post-operation review where findings are disclosed, gaps are analysed, and remediation priorities are established—is the true gem of any red team engagement.
This readout is more than just technical. Now is the time to strategically align your security posture.
What a Proper Debrief Includes:
- Initial Access Paths: How the red team got in
- Lateral Movement Techniques: How they navigated your environment
- Target Compromises: What assets were accessed, exfiltrated, or controlled
- Detection Timeline: When (and if) your team noticed each phase
- Response Evaluation: How your people, tools, and processes performed
Deliverables to Expect:
- Executive summary (non-technical, for leadership)
- Full technical report with MITRE ATT&CK mapping
- Recommendations by priority (quick wins to strategic improvements)
- Replay sessions or tabletop exercises, if requested
What to Do With the Results:
- Share them with all stakeholders—this isn’t a shame session; it’s an opportunity to level up.
- Integrate findings into training, tool enhancements, and future tabletop scenarios.
- If you didn’t detect them? Celebrate the red team. Then get to work.
🔁 Bonus: Bluefire Redteam provides not just a debrief, but a 90-day action roadmap to close critical gaps fast.
Bonus: Download the Full CISO Prep Checklist (PDF)
The seven essential steps that create the conditions for a successful red team engagement have now been shown to you. Let’s make it even simpler for you, though.
We’ve compiled everything into a ready-to-use CISO Preparation Checklist, including:
- Key questions to ask at every stage
- Stakeholder alignment prompts
- Technical readiness indicators
- Communication planning tips
This PDF is perfect for sharing internally with your security team, IT leads, and executive stakeholders.
📥 Download the Red Team Prep Checklist + Get a Free 30-Minute Strategy Call With Our Red Team Lead
You’ll leave knowing exactly how prepared you are, and you’ll have the opportunity to ask an experienced red team leader how your company should go about its first or next engagement.
Ready to Engage a Red Team?
Preparing for a red team engagement is more than a technical exercise—it’s a leadership decision that says:
“We take our security seriously, and we’re willing to test it under real-world pressure.”
You’re already ahead of 90% of businesses that use reactive or unstructured approaches to red teaming if you’ve followed the steps in this guide. It’s time to act now.
Whether you need help defining your objectives, validating your detection coverage, or running your first simulation, BlueFire Red Team is here to lead the charge.
📞 Book Your Free Strategy Call Now
Get personalized insights from our Red Team Lead on how to tailor your first—or next—engagement for maximum business impact.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Red Team Engagement
- What is a red team engagement?To test an organization's real-world security defences, detection capabilities, and incident response readiness, ethical hackers conduct simulated cyberattacks known as "red team engagements."
- How is red teaming different from penetration testing?Red teaming assesses how well your people, procedures, and technologies react to real-world threats over time, while penetration testing finds technical flaws. It is more adversary-emulative and more expansive.
- Who should be involved in preparing for a red team engagement?Your CISO or security lead, IT/security engineers, SOC analysts, legal/compliance teams, and a designated white team for internal coordination are important stakeholders.
- What happens if the red team breaks something or causes downtime?This risk is greatly decreased by engagements that are appropriately scoped and have explicit rules of engagement. A white team is assigned to keep an eye on the test and stop operations if needed.
- What should I expect in a red team debrief?You’ll receive a detailed report outlining attack paths, detection failures/successes, gaps in controls, and prioritized remediation steps. BlueFire also provides a 90-day action plan.