A team of burglars gathers and enters a secret military base – everyone has seen this in a movie or on TV. But such teams really exist in reality and are hired to test the security of the most important targets.
Many companies offer to test the security of information systems, trying to remotely break through defense barriers. This activity of computer intrusion is called White Hat Hacking, and corporations contract it to know if they are well protected from hacker attacks.
However, skills for breaking physical security measures, an activity called Red Teaming, are rare.
Companies offering this service need to recruit people with very special training, often former military or intelligence service members. The red teams are given only one question before getting to work: "How do you break into this top-secret project?"
Five Professionals in Action
Leonardo, a major defense company, offers such a service.
According to them, hostile states seeking to cause social disruptions and chaos are a real threat, so their experts from the Red Team make themselves available to governments to test the security of critical infrastructure and defense sector clients, as reported by BBC.
Greg, the team leader, has worked in the engineering and information sectors of the British army, studying the digital capabilities of potential enemies. "I spent a decade learning how to exploit enemy communications," he said. He now coordinates a team of five highly skilled individuals in infiltrating a forbidden and well-guarded place.
Intrusion means gaining access, and Greg's team must act as a hostile entity would. For example, their target could be to disrupt an operational process, such as the core of a nuclear power plant reactor, and the Red Team simulates such scenarios.
Greg and his team's first step is passive reconnaissance. Using an electronic device, for instance, a smartphone that could only be identified by the SIM card, the team obtains images of the target.
"We must avoid raising suspicions so the target doesn't know we're watching," Greg said.
No technology the team members use can be traced back through the internet address and is purchased with cash.
Charlie spent 12 years in military intelligence services, and his techniques include studying commercial satellite images of a location and checking job postings to find out what kind of people work there. "We start from the edges of the target, keeping a distance. Then we start moving into the target area, even observing how people working there dress," he explained.
This mode of operation is known as hostile reconnaissance. Team members approach the monitored target but keep their exposure low, wear different outfits each time they appear, and conduct surveillance in rotation so that the target's security personnel do not notice the same person passing by the gates.
People, the Weak Link in Security
Technology is designed by people, and the human factor is the weakest point in any security setup. This is where Emma comes in, who served in the Royal Air Force.
With a background in psychology, Emma knows that people always try to take shortcuts to bypass security protocols: "So we look for dissatisfied people on-site."
She listens to conversations in nearby cafes and pubs to find out what grievances the employees have. "Every organization has its quirks. We see what the likelihood is for people to open a suspicious email due to workload and fatigue."
A disgruntled security agent can become negligent on duty. "We look at access, sneak in with a delivery, for example," she detailed.
A high turnover rate highlighted by frequently advertised vacancies also signals dissatisfaction and neglect of security responsibilities. Surveillance on individuals suspected of leaving a loophole for an intruder is another technique.
Thus, security badges can be copied, and a Red Team member can enter the premises posing as an employee. Once inside, Dan knows how to open doors, cabinets, and desk drawers. He is armed with special keys (jigglers) that can open locks, looks for written passwords, or uses a smart USB adapter to simulate a computer keyboard, gaining access to a computer network.
Final Phase of the Operation
The final step is taken by Stanley. An expert in cybersecurity, he knows how to penetrate the most secure information systems. "In movies, it takes a hacker a few seconds to break into a system, but reality is different," he said.
Stanley has his approach, using a network administrator's access and looking for a system "confluence," a collection of shared information in one place, such as the workplace intranet. He accesses files and data using the administrator's access.
The intrusion operation ends when Stanley sends an email using the company's CEO's identity through the internal network, a trusted system.
Even though operating with the target client's approval, the Red Team penetrates as a foreign entity on the scene to highlight the vulnerability of the security system.
However, the Red Team ensures that someone from the targeted objective knows what is happening, and if caught red-handed, they are not shot. "We stay in touch so they can give the order 'do not shoot these people'," Charlie explained.
T.D.