01
Threat-led penetration test
Can the techniques used by relevant threat actors succeed across an agreed technical scope?
Defined scope · actor-informed
Test the whole defence, safely
Red Teaming and Adversary Simulation
Adversary · Pressure-Test Your Real-World Defences
Adversary safely simulates credible attacker behaviour to test whether your people, processes and technology can detect, contain and respond before a realistic objective is reached.
In plain English
Safely pressure test your team’s response to a real cyber attack.
Strong controls on paper do not always work together under pressure. Gaps often appear between tools, teams and procedures—exactly where a real attacker looks for a route through. Pentesys designs a threat-led exercise around your business, likely adversaries and agreed objectives. Every action is controlled, evidenced and translated into practical improvements for prevention, detection and response.
Choose the resilience question
Different exercises answer different questions.
Start with the outcome your organisation needs to prove. We then choose a proportionate level of realism, collaboration, governance and operational pressure.
02
Purple team exercise
Which techniques are detected, and how can attackers and defenders improve coverage together?
Collaborative · detection-led03
Red team operation
Can a covert adversary reach an agreed objective before your organisation detects and contains them?
Objective-led · realistic pressure04
TIBER-aligned exercise
Can a governed intelligence-led test produce the evidence expected by regulated stakeholders?
White-cell governed · regulator-readyFour example attack paths
Four ways an attacker may gain access.
Real attacks rarely begin with a dramatic technical exploit. They often start with an ordinary gap in identity, process or external access that can be combined with other weaknesses.
Phishing, vishing or impersonation persuades a colleague or supplier to reveal information, approve access or run an attacker-controlled action.
Dormant accounts, delayed access removal and retained privileges can leave a valid route into systems after somebody has changed role or left.
Reused passwords, stolen session tokens and weak identity controls can turn one exposed account into a wider organisational foothold.
Misconfigured remote access, internet-facing systems or trusted third-party connections can provide a route around stronger internal controls.
What you gain
Realistic pressure. Measured response. Owned improvement.
- 01Model realistic objectives, tactics and attack paths
- 02Test detection and response—not only prevention
- 03Exercise security, technology and leadership teams together
- 04Turn the narrative into a prioritised resilience plan
How Pentesys works
From credible threat to measurable defensive improvement.
Model
Define credible threats, goals and rules of engagement.
Simulate
Follow realistic attack paths under strict control.
Measure
Record prevention, detection and response performance.
Improve
Convert lessons into an owned resilience plan.
Resilience loopLearn · improve · replayRepeat as threats change
→↓←↑What you receive
A measured view of how your organisation responds under pressure.
Ready to get started- Controlled attack narrative with a complete timeline and evidence
- MITRE ATT&CK coverage showing detected, partial and missed techniques
- Detection and response measures with a prioritised engineering backlog
- Executive debrief, owned resilience plan and supported retesting or replay
Anonymous customer outcome
From assumed coverage to measurable detection improvement.
A regulated organisation wanted to understand whether its defensive controls would recognise techniques used by a credible sector threat. A controlled exercise established the baseline, followed by collaborative replay and an owned detection-engineering backlog.
“For the first time, we could see exactly which attacker behaviours were detected, missed or escalated too slowly.”Let Pentesys test your defences
Scope and depth
What Adversary can exercise.
Choose the exercise type that answers the resilience question without adding unnecessary operational risk or complexity.
01
Full-scope red team
A covert, objective-led operation following the complete attack chain against agreed crown jewels and organisational boundaries.
02
Assumed breach
Start from an internal foothold or compromised identity to focus effort on privilege, lateral movementi and detection.
03
Purple team
Attackers and defenders execute techniques together, tune detections live and create a repeatable engineering backlog.
04
Threat-led penetration testing
A defined penetration-test scope shaped by the tactics, techniques and procedures of actors relevant to your sector.
05
Human and physical vectors
Phishing, vishing, pretexting and physical access testing where those routes form part of the agreed threat model.
06
TIBER-aligned exercises
Intelligence-led testing with white-celli governance, controlled execution and board or regulator-ready debriefing.
One working view
Plan the objective, capture the evidence and own every improvement in one place.
The Pentesys Portal records scope, rules of engagement, evidence, technique coverage and the improvement backlog. It connects Adversary with Expose intelligence, Validate findings and Foundation assurance.
Explore the Pentesys PortalPRIMARY OBJECTIVETest access to sensitive data
Phishing simulationExternal intrusionPhysical accessCloud compromiseSocial engineeringPersistence testing
FAQ
Adversary simulation, with clear boundaries.
How is red teaming different from penetration testing?
Penetration testing examines an agreed technical scope for exploitable weaknesses. Red teaming is a broader, objective-led simulation that tests whether people, processes and technology can prevent, detect and respond to a credible attacker.
What is the difference between red teaming and purple teaming?
A red team normally operates covertly to measure detection and response under realistic conditions. In a purple team exercise, operators and defenders work together technique by technique, tuning detections and transferring knowledge as the exercise runs.
What is threat-led penetration testing?
Threat-led penetration testing uses the tactics, techniques and procedures of actors relevant to your sector to shape a defined penetration-test scope. It is more targeted than a standard test but narrower and less covert than a full red-team operation.
Can an engagement align with TIBER?
Yes. Pentesys can structure intelligence-led engagements around TIBER principles, including threat intelligence, white-cell governance, controlled execution, detection review and a structured debrief. Formal applicability and regulatory expectations must be agreed with the relevant stakeholders.
Will an adversary exercise disrupt production?
Rules of engagement, deconfliction, escalation routes and a white-cell contact are agreed before testing. Destructive actions are excluded unless explicitly authorised, and every activity is controlled to protect operational stability.
When is an organisation ready for red teaming?
Red teaming provides most value when a reasonable security baseline exists and the organisation wants to test detection, response and cross-team resilience. If basic weaknesses are still unknown, a penetration test is often the more useful first step.
Trusted experience
Supporting recognised organisations.
Pentesys has continuously performed admirably during our collaboration, giving us faith in their knowledge. They delivered work that above our expectations by approaching each project with a deep understanding of our specifications. Their team demonstrated a remarkable degree of proficiency by effectively pinpointing weaknesses and offering practical suggestions to reduce possible hazards.
Unlike previous pentests that produced generic outputs, this engagement gave us clear, prioritised actions with real-world attack scenarios. The platform visibility into assets, vulnerabilities and remediation progress has helped us mature our security posture significantly. The team were professional, responsive, and genuinely cared about improving our security rather than just ticking a box.
The red team and external attack surface management work highlighted blind spots we didn't know existed. What stood out was the strategic guidance alongside the technical delivery – helping us shape a longer-term security roadmap rather than a one-off engagement. This felt like a partnership, not just a transactional assessment.
Pentesys has continuously produced excellent work. Their group demonstrated extraordinary technical proficiency by spotting crucial flaws and offering clever fixes that greatly strengthened our security stance. Their meticulous approach and attention to detail ensured that every facet of the project was covered in full.
We engaged Pentesys and the team for a complex penetration test and adversary simulation. The quality of the technical findings, realism of the attack paths, and clarity of reporting were outstanding. The recommendations were practical and mapped clearly to business risk, which made board-level conversations much easier. We've since built Pentesys into our ongoing security assurance programme.
Assurance that joins up
Recognised expertise, built around your environment.
Pentesys combines independent assurance, qualified testers and practical integration with the systems your teams already use.
INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIEDCREST member companyPenetration Testing · EMEA
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SECURITY TESTINGCREST approvedAssured company standards and delivery
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RESPONSIBLE AIAI Charter signatoryTransparent, trustworthy use of AI
Our assurance approach →
ORGANISATION-WIDECyber Essentials certifiedCurrent to 12 August 2027
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Design an exercise that produces measurable improvement.
Tell us what you need to understand, test or prove. We'll recommend the smallest useful next step and prepare the right specialist for the conversation.
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