Test Whether You Would Actually
Catch a Real Attacker

Advanced offensive security testing is goal-based adversary emulation that tests your people, process and technology together, not just one application. IrisInfosec runs red, blue and purple team engagements, social engineering and physical intrusion against a real objective, mapped to MITRE ATT&CK, so you learn how well your team detects and responds, where a pen test stops short.

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People

Process and technology, tested as one system

ATT&CK

Every action mapped to a technique and tactic

Covert

Tests detection, not just whether a flaw exists

Uplift

Purple sessions turn gaps into fixed detections

Why it is different

A Pen Test Asks What is Broken.
A Red Team Asks Would You Notice.

You can pass every vulnerability scan and still miss an attacker living in your network for weeks. Most organisations do not have a vulnerability problem so much as a detection and response problem. Offensive testing is how you find that out before a real adversary does it for you.

This is the assessment you graduate to once basic hygiene is in place. It pressure-tests the muscle that matters most during a real breach: can your team see the attack, decide quickly, and shut it down.

Definition

Advanced offensive security testing

is goal-based adversary emulation that combines red, blue and purple teaming, social engineering and physical intrusion to test how well an organisation detects and responds to a realistic attacker, measured against MITRE ATT&CK.

Engagement types

Choose The Right Level of Pressure

From a collaborative detection workshop to a full covert breach simulation. We will
match the engagement to your maturity and your goal.

Red Team

A covert, objective-driven simulation of a real adversary. We pick a goal such as a crown-jewel system and see if your defenders can stop us getting there.

Blue Team Uplift

We work with your defenders to harden monitoring, tune detections and build the playbooks that turn an alert into a contained incident.

Purple Team

Attackers and defenders working side by side. Techniques run live while your team watches their tooling, so detection gaps get fixed on the spot.

Social Engineering

Email phishing, voice phishing and pretext calls that test whether your people, not just your firewalls, can be the way in.

Physical Intrusion

Tailgating, badge cloning and on-site access attempts that reveal whether your buildings protect the systems inside them.

Threat-Led Emulation

We replicate the specific threat actors that target your sector, modelled on real campaigns, in the style of intelligence-led frameworks.

Common question

Red Team Vs Penetration Test

Both are offensive. They answer different questions, and choosing the wrong one wastes
budget. Here is how they differ.

Penetration Test Red Team
Question What vulnerabilities exist in this scope? Would we detect and stop a real attacker?
Scope Defined assets, broad within them Whole organisation, narrow to one objective
Visibility Your team usually knows it is happening Covert, only a small control group knows
Measures Exposure and exploitability Detection, response and resilience
Maturity needed Any, a good starting point Higher, once basics are handled
Start here if New to testing? Begin with VAPT. Defences maturing? Graduate to red and purple teaming for the real test.

Methodology

How an Offensive Engagement Runs

We follow the attacker lifecycle, mapped to MITRE ATT&CK, with a trusted control group and
abort conditions in place at every stage.

01

Objectives & Rules

Agree the goal, off-limits systems, data handling and abort conditions with a small control group.

02

Recon & Access

Open-source intelligence, then initial access through phishing, exposed services or physical entry.

03

Foothold & Escalate

Establish persistence, escalate privilege and move laterally toward the objective, staying covert.

04

Objective & Debrief

Reach the goal, then a full readout: the attack narrative, every detection gap, and how to close it.

What you receive

Outcomes Your SOC Can Act on Monday

The value of a red team is not the breach, it is what your defenders learn from it. Every engagement ends with concrete detection and response improvements, not just a war story.

Attack narrative. A step-by-step account of how we reached the objective, with timestamps and evidence.

ATT&CK heatmap. Which techniques you detected, which you missed, and where to prioritise new detections.

Detection and response gaps. Specific tuning for your SIEM and EDR, with the logic to add, not vague advice.

Executive readout. A board-level summary of resilience and the few changes that move the needle most.

Maturity Check Before You Buy

A red team is wasted on an environment full of open basics. We will give you an honest read first, and point you to VAPT if that is the better spend right now.

  • Do you have monitoring and a SOC or MDR in place?
  • Have you run VAPT and closed the criticals?
  • Can your team respond to an alert out of hours?
Get an Honest Read

Scoped to your maturity

Find Out if Your Defences Hold Under a Real Attack

Tell us your objective and your current detection setup. We will recommend red, purple or a blue team uplift, and scope it so you get value, not a vanity exercise.

Let's Connect

Questions, answered

Offensive Testing FAQ

Advanced offensive security testing is goal-based adversary emulation that tests your people, process and technology together, not just a single application. It includes red, blue and purple team engagements, social engineering and physical intrusion, run against an objective such as reaching a crown-jewel system, and mapped to MITRE ATT&CK to measure how well you detect and respond.

A penetration test finds and proves as many vulnerabilities as possible in a defined scope. A red team has a single objective and stays covert, testing whether your detection and response can catch a real attacker on the way to that goal. A pen test measures exposure. A red team measures resilience.

A purple team engagement runs the offensive team and your defensive team together in the same room or channel. Attackers execute techniques while defenders watch their tooling in real time, so detection gaps are found and fixed collaboratively during the engagement rather than weeks later in a report.

Yes. Engagements can include email phishing, voice phishing, pretext calls and physical intrusion such as tailgating or badge cloning, always within agreed rules of engagement. People are part of your attack surface, so testing them safely is part of a realistic assessment.

Yes, when scoped properly. Rules of engagement define objectives, off-limits systems, data handling and abort conditions, and the team stays in contact with a trusted control group throughout. The exercise can pause at once and never risks safety or availability.

If you have not run regular testing, start with VAPT to fix known exposures, then graduate to red and purple teaming once your defences are mature enough to learn from a covert adversary. Spending on a red team while basic vulnerabilities are open usually wastes both budgets, and we will tell you honestly where you are.

Related disciplines

VAPT

Find and fix known exposures before you test detection with a red team.

Security Engineering & Architecture

Design out the weaknesses that make an attacker’s job easy in the first place.

See Your Defences Through an Attacker’s Eyes

Book a scoping call with a red teamer who will run your engagement. We match the right level of pressure to your maturity and send a fixed quote, no obligation.

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