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The Beginnings of Offensive Security

What it is, and why it’s important.

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What is Offensive Security?

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Two Simple Answers.

You have a company, and you have a field of cyber security.

Let’s begin with the company!

Provides recognised certifications, like OSCP.
Offers courses and labs.
Covers pentesting, digital forensics, and more.
Red teaming!

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You probably aren’t interested in the company though, are you. Let’s get to business

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Offensive security as a job.

What offensive security is:

The practice of testing security measures from an adversary or competitor’s perspective.�
Validation of security controls or postures through negative testing.�

The difference between Red Teaming and Penetration Testing:

Red teaming aims to test processes.�
Focuses on assessing the effectiveness of the technical implementation, most of the time. Pentesting outside of this definition often encompasses testing the security of a third party, like in bug bounties.

In other words, this definition says that Offensive Security is about testing security postures from the viewpoint of an adversary or competitor. For example, let’s pretend that a product has the best security ever constructed for protecting user passwords. However, a competitor wants to reverse engineer the source code of the product to make a copy. If the product doesn’t have protections in place to prevent a competitor from stealing their product then the overall security of the product is inadequate, regardless of how well it performs its intended purpose.

Organizations can improve their security through the understanding and application of adversarial tactics. Applying test and system engineering theory leads us to our second definition.

While Red Teaming and Penetration Testing are not the only types of testing in Offensive Security, they are the primary tests run by companies like BC Security and are what this series will focus on. They are also where we see the most confusion when dealing with customers who often use the terms interchangeably and misunderstand their testing objective. Red Teaming and Penetration Testing objectives are fundamentally different, which makes the two types of tests distinct. Red Team assessments typically aim to test processes, while penetration tests focus more on assessing the effectiveness of the technical implementation. Let’s take a few minutes to do a more in-depth examination of Red Teaming and Penetration Testing.

Red Flag gives us a great example of what Red Teaming is looking to achieve. It trains operators on the tactics employed by enemies and allows for the refinement of Blue Force tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). It is a test and training of the processes used and employed, not of the technical capabilities or defenses employed. For example, it is not testing whether the flares that Air Force assets use are effective. It tests at what point in the engagement, those flares should be used and if pilots know when to use them. Similarly, a Red Team assessment main goal should not be to identify if the password encryption used is the best one out there, but whether the phishing training is working, the blue team has proper response protocols, if they know how to properly use their monitoring tools, or if those tools are properly configured. On the other hand, Penetration Testing is attempting to test the technical capabilities and implementation of an organization. Going back to our Air Force analogy, this is the type of testing that looks at how effective the flairs are at drawing enemy weapons or if the plane’s maneuverability is suitable enough to compete with adversaries

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Why it matters.

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Pentesting and red teaming go hand in hand.

And they are not mutually exclusive.

Often times these two cross or even overlap in ways. However it's imperative that you as a student understand how they function and why they’re different at times.

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How to get started in Offensive Security

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Before we begin, I want to give some unwarranted advice.

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Now, the juicy stuff, getting started in pentesting/offsec.

Things you should focus on:

Understanding core concepts.�
Certifications�
A degree�
Working hands on. �
Developing soft skills too, not just hard ones.�
CTFs�
Grasp other fields of cyber security too�
Small scale projects, and later, bug bounty!

Other useful tips:

When applying for jobs, try to:

Understand market needs�
Stay up to date on tech and security �Advancements�
Find a mentor!�
Network with people, and surround yourself in them.�

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And most importantly!

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Do what makes you happy!

If you’re not interested in what you do, you’ll never get as far as you could.

Cyber security is a constant state of learning, and your love/passion of cyber security is a big motivating factor, with out that, you will not succeed. Please understand that it’s important to find what you enjoy doing. Cyber security is hard. If you don’t love challenges and learning, you will struggle in this field.

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Thanks for attending the class!

Discord: (ASV) Mrs Skelli#9072

Twitter: @Mrs_Skelli

Email: EdenStroet@gmail.com

Website: https://skelli.win