Red Team

How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy

By: Micah Zenko

Narrated by: Christopher Lane

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Red teaming. It is a practice as old as the Devil's Advocate, the 11th-century Vatican official charged with discrediting candidates for sainthood. Today, red teams - comprised primarily of fearless skeptics and those assuming the role of saboteurs who seek to better understand the interests, intentions, and capabilities of institutions or potential competitors - are used widely in both the public and private sector. Red teaming, including simulations, vulnerability probes, and alternative analyses, helps institutions in competitive environments to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses, challenge assumptions, and anticipate potential threats ahead of the next special operations raid, malicious cyberattack, or corporate merger. But not all red teams are created equal; indeed, some cause more damage than they prevent.

In Red Team, national security expert Micah Zenko provides an in-depth investigation into the work of red teams, revealing the best practices, most common pitfalls, and most effective applications of these modern-day Devil's Advocates. The best practices of red teaming can be applied to the CIA, NYPD, or a pharmaceutical company, and executed correctly they can yield impressive results: red teams give businesses an edge over their competition, poke holes in vital intelligence estimates, and troubleshoot dangerous military missions long before boots are on the ground. But red teams are only as good as leaders allow them to be, and Zenko shows not only how to create and empower red teams, but also what to do with the information they produce.

Essential listening for business leaders and policymakers alike, Red Team will revolutionize the way organizations think about, exploit, compensate for, and correct their institutional strengths and weaknesses. Drawing on little-known case studies and unprecedented access to elite red teamers in the United States and abroad, Zenko shows how any group - from military units to friendly hackers - can win by thinking like the enemy.

©2015 Micah Zenko (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Beneficial Overview

This was a great listen regarding the understanding and introduction to Red Teaming. For those involved in any sort of “devil’s advocate” role, this provides the listener/reader with a baseline understanding of how to approach the role, potential fallacies involved in exercising the role, and guidelines for building upon the role.

This isn’t a how-to book in the technical/manual sense, so if you’re looking for a solve-all problem to your own Red Team approach, I wouldn’t rely solely on this, however, it provides (as stated) a good baseline upon which to build.

Interesting concept

Wasn't as good as I had hoped, but quite informative. The author repeats some of the same points and stories in part, but it's overall a well rounded, well researched, book. Would recommend to anyone in the intelligence community but not necessarily for the average reader.

A good book in need of bit more editing

good book with solid information about this nebulous concept of teaming. I think the book does a great job of respecting the complex emergent nature of red teaming techniques but I think this makes it a bit of a long slog since the author often avoids oversimplifying

bottom line up front: Read it!

To understand how to defend against the bad guys, you have to learn to think like the bad guys. However, thinking like the bad guys is simply not enough...You also have to understand the institutional barriers, paradigms, and cultural norms that may be preventing your organization from realizing its full potential in the war against cyber threats. This book helps explain the benefits of thinking like the enemy at various levels:

- challenging preconceived notions and organizational biases

- applying divergent thought processes to a business problem...most often playing the "Devil's Advocate" (an eleventh century Vatican official whose role was to discredit sainthood candidates, and is often considered the birth of true Red Teaming).

- discovering potential flaws and areas of opportunity in an organization's people, processes, and technology

Coming from a military and government cyber background, I loved this book. For those who didn't have a security clearance when they were 18 like I did, you are likely to learn about some very interesting real-world use cases you never heard before. I've had the luck and pleasure of being a member of, and leading multiple Red Teams, and have worked with one of the best in game today. Not just a book for those that work in a government setting...These principles can be applied to ANY industry vertical, and could very well become a standard part of your every day risk based decision making process.

Awesome

Very detailed and clear. The book is about the mindset of red teamers, the importance of red teaming to help organizations make critical decisions, avoid pitfalls, prepare for worse case scenarios and break away from group think.

Great perspective

I was challenged and fulfilled. I will try and put the ideas into good use. Thank you.
Rodney

Excellent story what Red Teaming is and what not

A balanced overview on the origin and practical use of critical thinking in the context of Red Teams.

A bit too military oriented but a great overview

I enjoyed how this audiobook covered a range of red teaming activities including each of the following: alternative analysis, physical penetration tests, and logical security assessments. There was also a notable focus on intelligence which really rounded it out for a great high level discussion. At times it was overly military focused for my needs but was a good overall listen.

it was fine

the first bit about what red teaming was was great. the author described red teaming and it's value and how it's distinct from red celling. the second half was disappointing because it then just described a bunch of red celling activities.

A bit unfocused, but still interesting

Is there anything you would change about this book?

More information regarding the process and thinking of red teaming would be useful. There are a lot of case studies, but you never really get inside them to see how the red teamers thought, except perhaps with the Verizon example. Some more like that would be good.

Was Red Team worth the listening time?

Yes, especially if someone doesn't have experience "thinking like the enemy". I think all the examples will provide some insights.