CREST CCRTM-SC Exam Syllabus Topics:

CREST Certified Red Team Manager - Scenario Sample Questions:

Question #1
Background: You are scoping a red team engagement for Kestrel Logistics Group, a large freight and warehousing company that has approached your firm directly (this is a voluntary, non-regulator-mandated engagement). During scoping workshops, Kestrel's IT Director is enthusiastic about maximum realism and requests that scope include the warehouse automation systems that control robotic pallet-moving equipment on the floor of their largest distribution centre, arguing "if an attacker could get in there, we need to know - plus it would make a great case study for our board." The systems in question are programmable logic controllers (PLCs) connected to a segregated operational technology (OT) network, with direct physical safety interlocks but a known history of the interlocks occasionally being manually overridden by floor staff during high-volume periods.
Separately, Kestrel's Head of HR asks whether the engagement's planned phishing simulation could specifically target "the three employees currently under a formal performance improvement plan in the finance team, since if they fall for it, it'll help build the case for their upcoming review." Kestrel's budget for the engagement is fixed and was set based on an initial, narrower scope discussion that did not include either the OT environment or an expanded phishing target list.
Question: How should you respond, during scoping, to (a) the request to include the warehouse robotic PLC/OT environment, and (b) the HR request regarding the three employees on a performance improvement plan?
Explain the scoping and ethical principles that should guide your response, and address the budget implication.

Question #2
Background: You are the Red Team Manager for a 12-week TIBER-EU-aligned engagement. In week 7, your firm wins a large, unrelated new contract that your firm's leadership is keen to staff quickly, and you are asked by your own Practice Director to release your firm's second-most-senior consultant on the current engagement
- who has been leading the more technically complex of two parallel attack paths - to begin work on the new contract "part-time, starting Monday, just two days a week for now," while remaining nominally on the TIBER-EU engagement the other three days.
The consultant in question tells you privately that they do not believe they can properly context-switch between a slow-paced, patient, intelligence-led campaign requiring sustained situational awareness of a live target environment, and a fast-moving new client kickoff, without a real risk of errors or missed detail on one or both engagements. Separately, the client's Control Team Lead has no visibility yet of this proposed change and has previously stressed how much they value consistency of personnel on such a sensitive, lengthy engagement.
Question: As Red Team Manager, how would you handle this internal resourcing request from your own firm's leadership, balancing your firm's commercial interests against your professional obligations on the current TIBER-EU engagement? Explain your reasoning and the steps you would take.

Solutions: