A red teamer is a cybersecurity professional that works to help companies improve IT security frameworks by attacking and undermining those same frameworks, often without notice.
The term “red teaming” is often used interchangeably with penetration testing. While the terms are similar, however, there are key distinctions. First and foremost is the lack of notice from red teams. Pen testing may be scheduled in advance to assess the ability of specific security measures to handle a simulated attack; red team exercises are carried out with no warning. This, in turn, forces company IT teams to respond as if red team efforts were a real attack.
The History of Red Teams
Red teams began with the military to evaluate the efficacy of strategies against enemies without engaging in actual combat.
By creating a red team tasked with attacking the so-called blue team using whatever tactics they deemed most effective, military organizations were able to pinpoint problems before they reached the battlefield, in turn helping to reduce the risk of personnel and material loss.
Over time, the term red team came to refer to a business using internal resources to assess current defensive readiness.
How In-Demand is this Role, and Why?
Much like other cybersecurity jobs, red teamers are in-demand. Consider data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which notes that information security analyst roles — which include red team members — are in high demand, growing at a rate of 35% over the next 10 years. A quick search of job sites such as Indeed or ZipRecruiter reveals hundreds of open red team positions nationwide.
The continued popularity of this role sho ..
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