Red Team: How to Succeed By Thinking Like the Enemy

The Council on Foreign Relations released this video in 2015 but not much has changed in the way organizations view and actively seek out vulnerabilities so it's still quite relevant.

This is how I naturally view my environment but I have learned that it is absolutely a foreign concept to most. I frequently have to discuss vulnerabilities and threats with front-line staff and senior leaders and you can tell, almost immediately, that most people don't spend much time pondering threats. I don't blame them. It's human nature.

However, sometimes organizations and individuals just drop the ball. They should know better, they should be engaged, they should make identification and mitigation of internal and external threats part of their operational workflows. We're still not there in many cases, even in environments where you would assume that this would be second nature.

Red teaming has applications beyond security. It can also generate novel approaches to strategy and problem solving. It can define a culture (very rarely) or challenge one (almost always). It's an adversarial mindset deployed without malice. That's what this video, and the book, do a pretty good job of illustrating. Share it with your boss.