Regulated Threat-Led Penetration Testing (TLPT)

Realistic adversary simulation, delivered with regulator-grade risk management

Regulated Threat-Led Penetration Testing is not a traditional security test. Done properly, it is a controlled confrontation between your organisation and a credible adversary – designed to show whether your people, processes, and technology can actually protect critical business functions under pressure.

Prism Infosec delivers regulated TLPT engagements that are realistic enough to matter and controlled enough to be safe. Our focus is not on generating dramatic findings or technical noise, but on producing defensible evidence of operational resilience that stands up to executive, audit, and regulatory scrutiny.

If a determined attacker targeted your organisation tomorrow, TLPT answers the question that boards actually care about: would we detect them in time, and could we stop them without making the situation worse?

What makes regulated TLPT different - and why it often goes wrong

Many organisations have run “red team” exercises that looked impressive on paper but delivered limited value in practice. The common failure modes are familiar:

  • Testing that prioritises spectacle over business risk
  • Poorly controlled activity that introduces operational or reputational exposure
  • Findings that are technically interesting but strategically unusable
  • Exercises that tell defenders nothing about how they actually performed

Regulated TLPT exists to avoid those outcomes. It replaces ad-hoc testing with formal governance, realistic threat intelligence, and continuous risk management – without diluting the realism of the attack.

That balance is difficult to achieve. It requires experience, judgement, and the confidence to stop or adapt testing when risk outweighs learning.

That is where Prism Infosec differentiates.

Deep expertise in regulated Red Teaming

Prism Infosec specialises in regulated and regulator-aligned threat-led red team engagements, with a strong track record across UK and EU frameworks.

We deliver TLPT aligned to:

  • CBEST (UK) – for systemically important financial institutions
  • STAR-FS (UK) – extending regulated-style testing across a broader financial sector population
  • TIBER-EU (EU) – intelligence-led testing of critical functions with formal closure and learning expectations
  • DORA (EU) – enhancing digital operational resilience through mandatory ICT risk management, threat-led testing, and incident response obligations for financial entities
  • UK Government frameworks including GBEST and GCASE, where similar governance and control standards apply

Our consultants hold formal CBEST and STAR-FS accreditations, supported by CREST CCRTM and CCRTS qualifications. More importantly, they have operated inside real control groups, managed live risk decisions, and delivered outcomes that regulators accept.

This is not generic red teaming adapted to a regulated label. It is regulated delivery by design.

Our approach: realism without recklessness

A credible TLPT engagement must feel real to defenders. It must also protect the business.

We achieve that through active risk management throughout the lifecycle of the engagement, not just at the planning stage.

That means:

  • Clear governance from day one, with defined decision-makers and escalation paths
  • Threat scenarios grounded in current adversary behaviour and your actual business context
  • Continuous assessment of operational risk as testing progresses
  • The discipline to pause, adapt, or constrain activity when risk changes

Where controlled assists are required to test deeper controls, those are agreed, documented, and reported transparently. Nothing is hidden, and nothing is presented as “organic” when it was not.

The objective is learning and assurance – not theatre.

How a Prism Infosec TLPT engagement works

Initiation and governance

We begin by establishing scope, objectives, and – critically – governance. Control group structure, risk tolerance, decision rights, and communication routes are agreed upfront. In regulated contexts, this phase sets the tone for the entire engagement.

Threat intelligence and scenario design

Scenarios are built using relevant threat intelligence or agreed threat hypotheses, mapped directly to critical business services. We focus on what a real adversary would attempt to achieve, not on arbitrary test cases.

Simulated intrusion

Our red team emulates the chosen adversary under strict rules of engagement. Testing is adaptive, intelligence-led, and continuously risk-assessed. The aim is to reach meaningful outcomes while protecting business operations.

Detection and response assessment

After testing, we work with your defensive teams to analyse what they saw, what they missed, and how decisions were made under pressure. This is where most organisations gain the greatest value – and where superficial red team exercises usually fall down.

Closure and resilience uplift

Findings are tied back to business impact, control effectiveness, and maturity priorities. Senior leaders receive clear direction on what matters most and why.

Reporting that drives decisions

Our reporting is written for the whole organisation, not just security specialists.

You receive:

  • A clear account of what was tested and how
  • A narrative of the attack path, showing how risk unfolded in practice
  • Evidence of detection and response effectiveness
  • A management summary suitable for boards, auditors, and regulators
  • Prioritised recommendations grounded in business impact, not technical severity

Executive and technical debriefs are delivered separately, so each audience can focus on what they need to act.

Why organisations choose Prism Infosec

Clients engage Prism Infosec because they want confidence, not surprises.

They want a partner who understands how regulators think, how attackers operate, and how businesses fail under stress – and who can balance all three without compromising safety or realism.

Regulated TLPT is not just a test. It is a judgement call, repeated many times over the course of an engagement. Our value lies in making those calls well.

Speak to us

Whether you are preparing for CBEST, STAR-FS, or TIBER-EU – or you want to run a regulated-style TLPT to strengthen operational resilience – Prism Infosec can help you design and deliver an exercise that is realistic, controlled, and genuinely useful.

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