Government Agency Red Team Exercise
How we helped Federal Government Department enhance their cyber security posture
How we helped Federal Government Department enhance their cyber security posture
A federal government department handling sensitive citizen data required an advanced security assessment to test their detection and response capabilities against sophisticated threat actors. The exercise needed to simulate real-world advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques whilst maintaining the confidentiality of sensitive government operations.
Our red team conducted a comprehensive multi-week exercise simulating advanced persistent threat techniques:
**Initial Access Phase** - Spear-phishing campaigns targeting key personnel - Watering hole attacks on frequently visited websites - Supply chain compromise simulation - Physical security testing of government facilities
**Persistence & Lateral Movement** - Living-off-the-land techniques to avoid detection - Credential harvesting and privilege escalation - Network reconnaissance and lateral movement - Data exfiltration pathway development
**Social Engineering Component** - Targeted phishing campaigns based on OSINT gathering - Vishing (voice phishing) attacks on IT help desk - Physical social engineering at government facilities - USB drop testing in parking areas
**Purple Team Collaboration** - Real-time collaboration with defensive team - Continuous improvement of detection capabilities - Playbook development and refinement
**Detection Capabilities Assessment:** - Initial compromise detection: 72 hours (industry average: 207 days) - Lateral movement detection: 45% of techniques detected - Data exfiltration prevention: 80% of attempts blocked - Incident response activation: 4 hours (target: 2 hours)
**Improvements Implemented:** - Enhanced endpoint detection and response (EDR) deployment - Improved security awareness training programme - Strengthened email security controls - Enhanced network segmentation and monitoring
**Long-term Benefits:** - 60% improvement in threat detection capabilities - Reduced mean time to detection from 72 to 24 hours - Enhanced staff security awareness scores by 85% - Improved compliance with government security frameworks