Threat-Led Penetration Testing (TLPT)
Red team testing led by threat intelligence
We design scenarios from the threats relevant to you and test detection and response through a controlled red team exercise.
The yardstick is not a generic attack but the methods used by threat actors who target your organisation and industry. Threat analysis, scenario design, the controlled exercise and the review run as one piece of work, and where a supervisor or parent company sets a framework, we confirm its requirements first.
If the attackers relevant to us came for real, how would the organisation respond?
Prevention, detection and response, tested with scenarios grounded in threat intelligence.
Reviewed
When it fits
- You want to test against the threats that are relevant to you
Rather than generic attack assumptions, you want to test your defences against the threat actors and methods relevant to your organisation and industry.
- You have been asked to test under a specific framework
A supervisor or parent organisation requires threat-led testing under a defined framework. We confirm that framework's roles and requirements first.
- You want threat findings to lead into validation
You want the signs and attacker behaviour found in a threat investigation to become the basis of a real response test. Exposure Intelligence
How it runs
Scope and framework
We agree targets and objectives, whether a framework applies, and which part of it SAFE SQUARE takes on.
Threat analysis
We analyse the threat actors and attack methods relevant to your organisation and industry, recording where the evidence comes from and its limits.
Scenario design
From that analysis we set realistic scenarios, objectives, and safety and stop criteria.
Controlled run
The red team exercise runs within the agreed scope and controls, and prevention, detection and response are recorded at each stage.
Review and improve
We review the results with the teams involved, agree what to improve, and leave the items to check again.
When a framework applies
TIBER-EU, for example, is a controlled red-teaming framework that uses tailored threat intelligence to test people, processes and technology.
Such frameworks set their own roles, controls and reporting, and some set requirements for the providers who take part. We confirm these before starting and state exactly which part SAFE SQUARE takes on. Recognition under the framework, and any supervisory judgement, rest with the bodies concerned.
What you receive
The threat basis for the scenarios, a record of detection and response, and the improvements to make next.
Threat basis
Which threat actors and methods the scenarios were built on, with the sources, timing and limits of that information.
Detection and response record
What was blocked, detected and reported at each stage, and how the organisation responded.
Improvements and follow-up checks
Improvements agreed with the teams involved, and what to check again afterwards.