red team meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

red team

noun

Etymology Red was the color of the Soviet Union on maps during the Cold War, so "red team" represented the adversary during military simulations.

An independent group employed to challenge an organization by assuming an adversarial role or point of view.

verb

Etymology Red was the color of the Soviet Union on maps during the Cold War, so "red team" represented the adversary during military simulations.

To challenge an organization by assuming an adversarial role.

Operationally, fielded systems are red teamed by the Air Force Information Warfare Center (AFIWC) under the Air Force's Computer Security Assessment Program (CSAP).1998, Hearings Before the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate, page 218:
[…]Senator Diane Feinstein, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, aptly characterized the alternative analyses applied to the bin Laden intelligence: “They red-teamed it, and red-teamed it, and red-teamed it.”2015, Micah Zenko, Red Team: How to Succeed By Thinking Like the Enemy, Hachette UK, →ISBN: