Red-Team Analysis
A method for identifying security risks, red-team analysis pits one hypothetical team (the Red Team) acting as an aggressor against another (the Blue Team) which acts as a defender. These activities are not limited to physical simulations but can be logical exercises. The goal is to deepen our understanding of how our adversaries may behave and to identify the vulnerabilities in a particular location or system.
Team members with a high level of subject matter expertise are critical to the success of a red-team analysis. The Managing Director of Gryphon Scientific, Dr. Rocco Casagrande, was trained in the design of biological and chemical munitions as part of his training as a biological weapons inspector. With his deep understanding of the systems used to detect or counter attacks, he can readily assess the actions of a hypothetical red-team action.
Example Projects
Red Team Assessment of Biodefenses
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the primary responsibility for the evaluation and deployment of systems for the early detection of a biological attack on our cities. Although there are several systems used in biological defense, these detection systems rely on only a few specific molecular techniques. When used on pure samples of biological material, these systems are generally robust, and can be used reliably on any pathogen. However, biological agents are rarely expressed into the environment as pure microbes and are often adulterated with materials to enhance their dispersal or survival in the environment. These materials, although not added for this purpose, could potentially interfere with these detection techniques or make the agent resistant to collection from the environment. Of higher concern, a terrorist, cognizant of the nature of biological agent detection schemes, could intentionally add materials to their agent mixtures for the express purpose of making the attack undetectable. Currently, it is unknown what technology is accessible to terrorists to make their biological agents "invisible" to current detection schemes. In order to fully evaluate the robustness of our current defensive systems and to anticipate future science and technology needs, the following information is needed:
- What technologies (or release strategies) could be used in the production of a biological agent to make it evade detection?
- What information would be available to terrorists without access to classified information and how could they use this information to answer the question above?
- How can current detection systems be improved to counter the possibility of a "stealthy" biological weapon?
To execute this project, we divided it into several tasks as follows:
- Determine what a terrorist can learn about our biological defenses
- Determine what compounds have historically been added in the formulation process of making a biological weapon that could adversely affect biological defenses
- Determine what a terrorist can learn from the scientific literature about intentionally disguising, cloaking or confounding collection of BW agents
- Based on these findings, make suggestions on improvements of current biological defenses
To accomplish these goals we used the following techniques:
- Red-team analysis to analyze defense systems from a terrorist-point of view
- Analysis in biochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology to determine the efficacy of scientific schemes to defeat detection assays and systems.
- Modeling to estimate the detection efficiency of the system and the likelihood that an attack would go undetected.
Working with Abt Associates, Gryphon Scientific provided the project director for this entire effort, lending intellectual and managerial leadership to successfully complete the project and deliver the report to the client.