Red teaming isn't just pen testing. Red team approaches and techniques are used widely in the military, intelligence community, and throughout the private sector. Every institution, from the Marine Corps to pharmaceutical giants, experiences the same organizational pathologies that make them unable to identify blind spots, challenge assumptions, or consider adversarial perspectives. In this talk, I’ll share examples of where red teams were sorely needed (yet not used), where they were authorized (yet failed), and where they actually made a difference. I’ll also offer some "best practices" (an unfortunate phrase) for what tends to make red teams succeed. Some may be useful to the community.
Micah Zenko is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, he worked at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Congressional Research Service, and the State Department's Office of Policy Planning. His blog, Politics, Power, and Preventive Action, covers US national security policy and conflict prevention, and he writes a column on ForeignPolicy.com. Zenko consults with military commands, law enforcement agencies, the private sector, and nonprofit research organizations. He is the author or co-author of five Council Special Reports, on topics such as armed drones and nuclear weapons, and author of two books: Between Threats and War and Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy. Zenko has a PhD in political science from Brandeis University, and a Wisconsin bartender license.