Picture this: you've signed up for a social engineering attack as part of your organization's penetration test, specifically an email-based phishing campaign. The penetration testing firm is asking you to allow list their campaign through your mail filters and other technical controls. You have all those advanced protections in place - spam filters, web proxies, next-generation phishing protections - designed to protect your end users from phishing attacks. Yet, when it comes to assessing the very risk these controls are meant to mitigate, should you lower them for the tester specifically for the purpose of the test?

If you’ve decided to undergo a red team assessment and engaged Schellman to perform it, you may be wondering what the next steps entail—as in, how will the next stages of the process work and what should you expect?

Penetration testing and red team assessments are often conflated or confused—though they’re both advantageous cybersecurity solutions, there are distinct differences between them that any organization considering either should know. Just to be clear, a penetration test is not a red team assessment.

Red teaming is a proactive approach to cybersecurity, where a group of ethical hackers simulates real-world attacks on an organization's systems to identify vulnerabilities and test its defenses. This process helps organizations improve their security posture by revealing weaknesses before malicious actors can exploit them.

There’s a Latin proverb that says, “if the wind will not serve, take to the oars.” If you’ve ever hunted for a (new) job, you likely can relate. Of course, every workplace has its idiosyncrasies, but you need to find the “wind” that serves you best.

When you’re applying for a new job, you have your reasons—whether it’s to find a new challenge or to escape a toxic workplace, you want to trust that somewhere else will be better for you and your career. But when you’re sending off applications, it’s hard to know what you might be getting yourself into—most times, you won’t know until you’ve signed your new employment contract and are in (a new set) of weeds.

Did you know that we’ve just come to the end of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month?

So, you’re investing in cybersecurity and are having a web application penetration test performed. No matter your reasons for doing so—whether you’re satisfying compliance requirements, a customer request, internally assessing your flagship service offering or confirming security policies—this is a great step towards strengthening your defenses.