Why choose Bulletproof for assumed breach engagements
Bespoke Scenarios
Meet your organisation’s unique risk profile & engagement objectives with tailored, optimised scenarios
Expert TLPT Teams
Seasoned assumed breach pen test personnel bring years of adversarial expertise and insight to every engagement
Unique Insights
Expert assumed breach testing gives you unparalleled security insights to power prioritised improvements
Regulated Experience
Bulletproof's red team and threat intelligence providers are highly experienced in regulated sectors
What is an assumed breach engagement?
An Assumed Breach engagement is a targeted Red Team exercise that starts from a point of compromise, such as domain user access, valid credentials, or network foothold. The goal is to simulate a post-exploitation scenario and evaluate how your organisation detects, responds to, and contains an internal threat.
Unlike full-scope Red Teaming, Assumed Breach focuses solely on lateral movement, privilege escalation, and impact delivery, offering faster turnaround and high-value insight — especially for organisations with limited time, scope, or external exposure.
It is an ideal approach for testing internal defences and validating security controls within the network, without the time and resource requirements of end-to-end intrusion simulation.
Benefits of assumed breach engagements
Rapid assessment of internal resilience
Test how your organisation responds to an attacker who already has a foothold.
Focused scope
Removes the overhead of initial access testing, allowing deep assessment of lateral movement, escalation, and impact.
Ideal for Blue Team training
Supports replay sessions, detection validation, and incident response exercises in a controlled and measurable way.
Enhanced defensive readiness
Improve detection, response, and mitigation capabilities across people, processes, and technology.
Continuous improvement
Use findings to refine your cyber defence strategy over time, integrating lessons learned into policies, controls, and team training for ongoing resilience gains.
Actionable insights
Gain a clear understanding of how threats could impact your organisation, where gaps exist, and how to close them.
Why your organisation needs assumed breach testing
Assumed Breach is ideal for:
Organisations with strong perimeter defences who want to test internal segmentation and detection
Security teams preparing for Red Teaming but not ready for a full-scope engagement
SOC and IR teams looking to validate tooling, alerting, and response workflows
Time-sensitive engagements where quick, focused assessment is preferred over full-scale campaigns
Organisations that want clear visibility into post-exploitation risks and internal attack paths
This engagement type offers an efficient way to validate critical controls and accelerate Blue Team maturity without the resource demands of traditional Red Teaming.
Assumed breach engagement phases
Assumed Breach engagements begin with a predefined entry point, simulating an attacker who has bypassed external defences. From that position, we follow realistic post-compromise behaviour to test your internal security layers and response capabilities.
Scope Definition
We work with your internal control group to define the engagement scope, critical assets or functions (crown jewels), and the objectives of the test. This phase ensures testing is targeted, safe, and aligned with your operational priorities.
Initial Access Placement
We simulate attacker access based on agreed entry vectors, such as valid credentials, workstation access, or VPN entry, avoiding unnecessary time spent on perimeter attacks.
Post-Exploitation Simulation
From the foothold, our team conducts:
Privilege escalation
Credential harvesting
Internal reconnaissance
Lateral movement
Command and control
Objective-based attacks (e.g. domain admin, file exfiltration, business process disruption)
Detection and Response Evaluation
Throughout the engagement, we assess what is detected, how quickly, and how effectively your internal teams respond — helping you validate visibility, alerting, and response procedures.
Reporting and Replay
We deliver a comprehensive report outlining attack paths, defensive gaps, and prioritised remediation guidance. Optional replay sessions and workshops are available to help your teams learn from the exercise.
Learn more about assumed breach engagements (FAQs)
Assumed Breach engagements start from a point of internal compromise, skipping initial access. This allows the Red Team to focus on post-exploitation behaviours like lateral movement and data access.
Yes. Many real-world breaches involve attackers gaining internal access through phishing, supply chain compromise, or stolen credentials. This engagement models what happens after that foothold is established.
We typically use credentials, VPN access, or a dropped agent on an agreed internal host all carefully controlled and scoped to ensure safety and relevance to the desired scenario and outcomes.
While not a regulated framework itself and it alone wont meet regulatory requirements, Assumed Breach approaches are often used within TIBER-EU, STAR, or DORA testing programmes as a component to validate internal defences, or as a leg up / de-chaining action.
Our Full Red Team Service Suite
Red Team
Put your defences to the test against a real, persistent adversary.
Black Team
Put your physical security defences to the ultimate test.
Purple Team
Take a collaborative approach to improve the detection & prevention capabilities of your organisation.
Threat-Led
Simulate high-impact, intelligence-driven attacks tailored to your threat landscape.
EDR/XDR Evaluation
Maximise the effectiveness of EDR/XDR systems with an in-depth test of its ability to detect & remove threats.
Get an assumed breach engagement quote
or discuss any of our Red Team services
Advanced security testing from UK experts
Model a determined real-world attacker
Find hidden security weaknesses
Uncover assumptions & bias in your security
One of the leading security testing providers in the UK
Test defence in depth & incident response
What our customers say
Bulletproof took the time to understand our penetration testing objectives, which showed in the results. The pen test was delivered on our tight timeframe and the threat management platform made it easy for us to remediate the penetration test results quickly and effectively.
Bulletproof's security qualifications
With OSCP & CREST certified expert pen testers and 7+ years in the industry, Bulletproof penetration testing services have a proven track record of finding flaws and helping businesses stay ahead of the hackers.
More red teaming learning resources
Meet our red team
The breadth of skills we have in the red team allows us to be ultra-flexible and find innovative ways to circumvent the most mature cyber defences. We’re always pushing our capabilities and I’m proud of my team’s collective skills and expertise, not to mention the security outcomes we generate for our customers.DominicBulletproof Red Team SpecialistSee blogs by DominicFollow Dominic on LinkedIn
Trusted by top brands
Rated 5 stars on Google
We’ve always been very impressed with the cyber security services Bulletproof provide us. Their professional approach, knowledge and flexibility have ensured they have become a key trusted partner in our supply chain.
Discover more cyber & compliance resources from Bulletproof
Trusted cyber security & compliance services from a certified provider
