The State of Modern Offensive Security
Jacob G. Oakley · Apress eBooks · 2019
The benefits of implementing red teams or similar services in an organization by using ethical hackers has been belabored. It is important at this point to turn to a discussion of the current challenges and obstacles in regard to fielding a successful offensive security capability. The issues in this industry are innumerable; however, I have found that the most pervasive ones are related to a handful of specific areas. Red teams are essentially in an unwinnable race with the adversary they are attempting to emulate. Standards surrounding the offensive security industry are often misrepresentative or prohibitive of adequate assessment. The customer–client relationship is, by definition, adversarial as a result of the nature of services being provided—a fact that can manifest itself into real issues for the assessors and the customers. Assuming all these assessment-related constraints can be addressed, there is still the personnel issues related to staffing a successful red team. This chapter covers the state of modern offensive security offerings as it pertains to these challenges.