OUR SERVICES
Breach and Attack Simulation Services
Cyndicate Labs delivers breach and attack simulation services that help organisations understand how well they can withstand, detect and respond to real-world cyber attacks.
Our engagements simulate realistic adversary behaviour across people, processes and technology, helping security teams validate controls, identify attack paths and improve defensive capability.
We deliver both regulatory-led and non-regulatory assessments, from red team and purple team exercises through to advanced threat-led penetration testing aligned with DORA, TIBER, CREST STAR, CREST STAR-FS and CBEST.
What is breach and attack simulation?
Breach and attack simulation is a controlled cyber security assessment that emulates how a real attacker could target your organisation.
It can include red teaming, purple teaming, threat-led penetration testing, detection validation, adversary emulation and scenario-based attack simulation. The objective is to understand how your security controls, monitoring, response processes and business-critical systems perform against realistic attack behaviour.
Unlike traditional penetration testing, which is often focused on identifying vulnerabilities within a defined scope, breach and attack simulation looks at how weaknesses could be combined into attack paths. It helps answer practical questions: could an attacker gain access, move laterally, escalate privileges, reach sensitive systems, evade detection or achieve a defined objective?
Breach and attack simulation can be delivered as a standalone resilience exercise, as part of a wider security programme, or under recognised regulatory and industry frameworks.
Breach and attack simulation use cases
Breach and attack simulation is valuable when organisations need to move beyond theoretical assurance and understand how their defences perform in practice.
It can be used to validate security controls, test detection logic, assess SOC performance, improve incident response, evaluate red team resilience, exercise blue team processes, or demonstrate security maturity to executives and regulators.
For non-regulatory engagements, simulations can be tailored to your organisation’s threat profile, business objectives and security maturity. This may include testing a specific attack scenario, validating recent security investment, assessing a new environment or improving detection and response capability.
For regulatory-led engagements, breach and attack simulation can support DORA threat-led penetration testing, TIBER engagements across European jurisdictions, CREST STAR, CREST STAR-FS and CBEST assessments for the Bank of England. These programmes require careful planning, controlled delivery, experienced testers and clear evidence aligned to framework expectations.
Our breach and attack simulation solutions
01
Red teaming
Simulate realistic, objective-led attacks to assess whether a determined adversary could compromise critical systems, evade detection and achieve agreed objectives.
02
Purple teaming
Bring offensive and defensive teams together to improve detection, response and resilience through collaborative, evidence-led testing.
Who can benefit from breach and attack simulations?
Breach and attack simulation is valuable for organisations that need deeper assurance over their ability to withstand realistic cyber attacks.
Financial services organisations use these engagements to support CBEST, TIBER, DORA, CREST STAR-FS and wider operational resilience requirements. Government and defence organisations use them to validate security controls across sensitive and high-assurance environments. Retail, technology and commercial organisations use them to protect customer data, payment systems, internal networks, cloud services and critical business operations.
Security teams benefit from detailed evidence of what worked, what was missed and where controls can be improved. Executives benefit from clear insight into business risk, operational resilience and investment priorities.
Whether your organisation is preparing for a regulatory assessment or seeking independent assurance outside a formal framework, breach and attack simulation provides a realistic view of cyber resilience.
Why choose Cyndicate Labs for breach and attack simulation?
Cyndicate Labs combines advanced offensive security capability with deep experience delivering regulated and non-regulated breach and attack simulation engagements. Our team has over 10 years’ experience delivering red teaming, purple teaming, threat-led penetration testing and adversary simulation globally across financial services, retail, commercial, government and defence sectors.
We understand the expectations behind DORA, TIBER, CBEST, CREST STAR and CREST STAR-FS, while also delivering flexible non-regulatory assessments that help organisations improve resilience without unnecessary complexity.
01
Adversary-led simulations
Our simulations are based on how real attackers operate, using realistic tactics, techniques and procedures to assess your exposure to targeted compromise.
02
Threat-informed scenarios
We tailor each engagement around relevant real-world threats, business objectives, critical assets and the attack paths most likely to matter to your organisation.
03
Detection-focused outcomes
We assess whether attack activity is prevented, detected, escalated and responded to effectively, helping improve SOC visibility and operational response.
04
Red and purple teaming expertise
We deliver both covert red team assessments and collaborative purple team exercises, allowing organisations to measure resilience and accelerate defensive improvement.
05
Real-world attack paths
Our testing shows how weaknesses can be chained together, from initial access through to privilege escalation, lateral movement and objective completion.
06
Actionable improvement plans
Every engagement ends with clear findings, evidence and prioritised recommendations that help security teams strengthen controls and reduce real-world risk.
Client Testimonials
As a CISO, our chosen partners’ professionalism and quality are paramount. I aim to work with what I believe to be the best in the industry and with that in mind, I am more than happy to fully endorse the services Provided By Mitchell, Daniel and Paula at Cyndicate Labs.
As a Professional Virtual/Fractional CISO, the partners I bring into client environments are a direct reflection of my own reputation and standards. I have exceptionally high standards and am extremely selective about who I recommend. I can say with absolute confidence that I am proud to work with Cyndicate Labs and to introduce them to my clients.
I have worked with Paula and Mitch before on a red team and various penetration testing agreements during my time at [Insurance Company] between 2018 and 2022 and due to the positive and mutual respectful relationship formed, was delighted to continue to work with them.