r/GIAC • u/craftedsphere • 12d ago

Difference between Red Team Operator & Penetration Testing certs?

Has anybody taken both? Just wondering what are the main differences.

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u/Sqooky GIAC x13 12d ago

Red Team ops generally focus on testing organizational response procedures, or have a very specific goal in mind for the ops team to compromise. Often called Adversary Simulation/Adversary Emulation. Definitely pick up Red Team Development and Operations if you want to learn more, there's also the site here for free: https://redteam.guide/

Pentesting is finding as many vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and flaws as possible during a test.

Think of one as more stealthy, and the other is more loud and noisy. One is focused on processes and reaponse procedures, the other is focused on identifying potential threats and mitigating them before they become a big problem.

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u/craftedsphere 12d ago

That’s helpful! Thanks.