Red Team summary

What comes to your mind when you think of the US military? For many people, the instant association is with blind loyalty, absurd rituals and old men rambling on about the good old days when people stood up for their nation. This is not a flattering or particularly modern image, which is something the army realized themselves.

Before the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the operating military was repeatedly warned by both experts and Iraqi expats that an invasion could result in an insurgency by the Iraqi people. Military superiors decided to stick to their guns, as it were, and ignored this rather crucial advice. Chaos ensued and demonstrated how certain traditional attitudes were causing the military leaders to repeat the same avoidable mistakes. To shake things up, red teaming was institutionalized.

Though we’d perhaps like to believe otherwise, the life of a spy isn’t all gadgets, glamor and car chases. The CIA is more about the best and brightest science nerds joining forces to collect intelligence on anybody or anything that may help officials make the right move.

However, even intelligence groups make mistakes. The most significant intelligence output is the National Intelligence Estimate, which gathers data about specific countries or regions, and reveals corresponding trends. This data is highly confidential, accessible only to a handful of influential policymakers. But despite the crucial nature of this information, the National Intelligence Estimate has featured mistaken and misleading findings for decades.

Red teams can be of tremendous service to the public when highlighting security gaps and thus offering citizens better protection against terrorists; of course, this is only when they’re listened to.

Long before 9/11, red teams had used their strategies to test the safety of air traffic. A 1996 operation saw a red team assess the security of Frankfurt’s International Airport, with frightening results. Out of 60 simulated attempts to smuggle a suitcase bomb onto a flight, none were unsuccessful. No airport staff detected what should have been a severe hazard.

For some reason, companies seem to think that one aspect of their business they can skimp on is security. Sure, an investment in security might reduce immediate profits. But failing to tie up loose ends can prove disastrous.

A 2008 episode of the reality show Tiger Team follows a red team as they demonstrate just how easy it is to rob a car dealership. By scoping out the office through an unsecured skylight, the team was able to find out which IT company supported the dealership.

Do you enjoy getting recognition for your efforts, receiving praise and being patted on the back by others? Then don’t join a red team.

Red teams don’t get to call the shots; they just advise the decision makers. If their advice is taken on board, it’s that decision maker who gets the credit for success, not the red team. This is nearly always the case, even in the capture of Osama bin Laden by American forces. Huge resources were deployed in order to determine whether bin Laden was hiding inside a well-secured Pakistani mansion.