Red Cell Materials
What is red team thinking?
Red team thinking is a strategy used in various fields, including military, cybersecurity, and business, where a group of individuals is assigned to challenge the assumptions and strategies of another group (the blue team) to identify weaknesses and potential threats. The goal is to improve preparedness and decision-making by considering alternative perspectives and potential scenarios.
Unlike traditional brainstorming, which typically involves generating as many ideas as possible, red team thinking encourages participants to take on the role of a potential adversary and identify weaknesses in a plan from that perspective. This approach can help to uncover blind spots and potential threats that might otherwise be overlooked. Additionally, red team thinking often involves testing and simulation, allowing teams to see how their plans hold up under different scenarios and conditions. Overall, critical team thinking is a valuable toolset to improve decision-making processes and enhance overall security posture through a deep understanding of the threats.
Thinking like an adversary allows to avoid cognitive bias and overcome groupthink, to identify unseen threats and missed opportunities, to better understand the challenges and to meet them with confidence, as well as to create more resilient plans and flexible strategies. In short, to make better decisions faster.
We teach the red teaming as a part of our Analytical Tradecraft Course. The Operational Tradecraft Course also covers all fundamental critical thinking techniques.
Here we have examples of adversarial statements. Can you drop your cognitive biases and see the facts and the contexts clealrly?