CHOOSING WHEN TO BUILD AN INTERNAL RED TEAM OR WORK WITH A PROVIDER

Building an internal red team involves hiring and managing offensive security experts who specialize in stealthy adversary emulation and threat intelligence. These professionals design and execute scenarios that test organizational resilience under realistic conditions.

An internal red team typically:

• Develops tailored attack scenarios aligned to business risks
• Maintains deep knowledge of internal systems and infrastructure
• Works closely with security engineering, SOC, and incident response teams
• Supports ongoing testing across multiple domains (cloud, physical, social engineering)

Building a team from the ground up requires significant time and investment, as well as support from executive leadership.

• Embedded Knowledge: Internal teams understand business processes and internal culture, allowing for highly targeted and relevant simulations.
• Continuous Engagement: Internal red teams can operate year-round and adjust priorities dynamically as new risks emerge.
• Institutional Integration: Close alignment with SOC, detection engineering, and IT enables long-term strategic influence across the security program.

• Hiring Challenges: Red teamers require specialized skills that are difficult and expensive to recruit.
• Resource Constraints: A fully staffed and effective red team may require multiple FTEs across various offensive disciplines.
• Bias and Blind Spots: Internal familiarity can lead to unconscious bias and limit creativity in scenario design.
• Tooling and Infrastructure: Building safe, stealthy infrastructure (e.g. C2, implants, OPSEC) takes time and expertise.

For many organizations, these challenges delay program impact or lead to underpowered teams.

Buying red teaming involves partnering with a third-party provider that delivers tailored engagements based on defined objectives. External red teams bring specialized expertise, and fresh perspective to adversary simulation.

A third-party red team engagement typically includes:

• Objective-based testing aligned to real-world TTPs
• Scenario planning and threat modeling
• Attack narrative reporting with remediation guidance
• Post-engagement debriefs and purple team collaboration

Organizations work with external red teams for one-time assessments or continuous partnerships.

• Immediate Access to Expertise: External providers offer experienced operators skilled in cloud, physical, application, and hybrid attack chains.
• Scalability: Third-party teams can scale resources and techniques based on engagement needs.
• Operational Independence: Outsiders approach environments without internal assumptions or blind spots.
• Controlled Risk: Providers bring mature infrastructure and playbooks that minimize production impact.

Partnering with a firm also enables exposure to emerging TTPs and threat intelligence from across industries.

• Limited Internal Familiarity: External teams require ramp-up time to understand business and technical context.
• Engagement Timing: Engagements may be limited by contract scope or calendar availability.
• Knowledge Retention: Unless integrated with internal purple teaming, knowledge transfer may be short-lived.

These factors can be mitigated by choosing providers that offer long-term partnerships and integrated engagement models.

Building an internal red team is typically the right choice when:

• The organization has high security maturity and executive support
• Security leadership is prepared to invest in team development
• There is a long-term plan for continuous testing and purple teaming
• The business requires frequent, agile testing across lines of business

Buying red teaming is ideal when:

• The organization needs immediate insight into its real-world readiness
• Internal resources are constrained or unavailable
• Objective third-party validation is required for board or audit reporting
• Threat simulation requires advanced skills or infrastructure not available in-house

External providers also offer an opportunity to benchmark internal capabilities and jumpstart red teaming programs.

Many organizations adopt a hybrid model:

• Internal red teams conduct regular scenario planning and assumed breach testing
• External partners deliver annual deep-dive red team operations or purple team assessments
• Combined efforts support maturity benchmarking and strategic planning

This model maximizes internal knowledge while leveraging external expertise to expand coverage and raise the bar.