Red Team කියන්නෙ basically ethical hackersලා ගොඩක් real attackers වගේ act කරලා organisation එකේ defense system එක test කරන එක.
මෙකෙන් purpose එක simple — “Find the weak points before the real bad guys do!” 😈
🔎 What actually is a Red Team?
Red Team එකක් කියන්නෙ company එකකට ගෙවලා ගන්න ethical hackers group එකක්. ඔවුන්ගේ job එක — simulate කරන්න real-world cyber attack එකක්.
ඒ කියන්නෙ ඔයාලාගේ firewall, SOC, staff, access control — everything test කරන්න.
අපිට කියන්න පුළුවන් මේක basically “realistic hacking rehearsal” එකක්. 😅
ඒත් difference එක නම් — legally, ethically, and responsibly.
⚔️ Red Team vs Blue Team vs Pen Test
- 🧨 Red Team – attackers (simulate real threats, stay hidden, long-term plan).
- 🛡️ Blue Team – defenders (SOC, Incident Response).
- 💜 Purple Team – Red + Blue එකට එක්ක learn කරන එක.
- 💻 Pen Test – short test එකක්, mainly vulnerabilities find කරලා report කරන එක.
Red Team = mindset + stealth. Pen Test = checklist.
🧭 Typical Red Team Steps
1️⃣ Recon – public info gather කරන stage එක. (LinkedIn, DNS, emails, etc.)
2️⃣ Initial Access – phishing mail එකක්, weak password එකක් හෝ exposed web app එකක් exploit කරලා system එකට ඇතුළත් වෙන එක.
3️⃣ Foothold & Privilege Escalation – low-level access එක admin level එකට upgrade කරගන්න එක.
4️⃣ Lateral Movement – network එකේ other machines වලට move වෙන එක.
5️⃣ Persistence – “stay inside” even after reboot 😎
6️⃣ Data Exfiltration / Objective – simulate කරන එක sensitive info leak එකක් හෝ ransomware scenario එකක්.
7️⃣ Reporting – last part එක — findings deliver කරලා lessons explain කරන එක.
🧰 Tools & Tricks They Use
- 🕶️ Social Engineering – fake emails, USB drops, vishing calls.
- 💀 C2 Frameworks – Metasploit, Cobalt Strike, Sliver.
- 🔑 Credential attacks – pass-the-hash, brute-force, spraying.
- 🧩 Living off the Land – use කරන built-in tools (PowerShell, cmd, WMI) to stay stealth.
- 💾 Custom scripts – specially built tools avoid detection.
Basically, red teamers don’t “hack for fun”; they hack for truth. 😏
📜 Rules of the Game
Before they start, they agree on:
- Scope ✅
- Permissions ✅
- No system damage 🚫
- Emergency contact lines 📞
අපිට කියන්න පුළුවන් මේක controlled chaos එකක් 😅 — “we hack you to protect you.”
💡 What Companies Learn
- Real Visibility – system එක realistically attack වුණාම reaction speed එක check වෙනවා.
- Detection Gaps – SOC missed alerts find වෙනවා.
- Human Weakness – phishing click rate 😂
- Policy Weakness – incident handling process gaps.
- Tech Gaps – unpatched servers, privilege misconfigs.
එකම short answer එක — Red Teaming shows you the truth you can’t see with a normal audit.
🔄 Why It’s Important
Companies usually think they’re safe… until a red team proves otherwise.
මේ exercise එකෙන් ඔයාගේ blue team එක strengthen වෙනවා, SOC alert tuning better වෙනවා, employee awareness වැඩි වෙනවා.
Cybersecurity කියන්නෙ continuous game එකක්. Red Team එක කියන්නෙ game master. 🎯
🧠 Final Thought
Red Teaming is not about “getting hacked” — it’s about learning.
එකෙන් organisation එකේ culture එකම change වෙනවා.
From “We’re secure” 👉 to “We’re ready for anything.”