Building an Internal Red Team

External assessments provide point-in-time snapshots. An internal AI red team offers continuous security evaluation and faster response to emerging threats.

Team Structure Options

Different organizations require different approaches:

Model	Size	Best For
Embedded	1-2 people per product team	Large enterprises
Centralized	3-5 dedicated specialists	Mid-size companies
Hybrid	Core team + embedded champions	Growing organizations
Virtual	Part-time from existing security	Resource-constrained

Core Competencies

AI red team members need diverse skills:

from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import List
from enum import Enum

class SkillCategory(Enum):
    TECHNICAL = "technical"
    DOMAIN = "domain"
    SOFT = "soft"

@dataclass
class RedTeamSkill:
    """Skill required for AI red teaming."""
    name: str
    category: SkillCategory
    importance: str  # critical, important, nice-to-have
    development_path: str

# Core skills for AI red team members
REQUIRED_SKILLS = [
    RedTeamSkill(
        name="LLM Architecture Understanding",
        category=SkillCategory.TECHNICAL,
        importance="critical",
        development_path="Study transformer architecture, attention mechanisms"
    ),
    RedTeamSkill(
        name="Prompt Engineering",
        category=SkillCategory.TECHNICAL,
        importance="critical",
        development_path="Practice crafting prompts, study injection techniques"
    ),
    RedTeamSkill(
        name="Python Proficiency",
        category=SkillCategory.TECHNICAL,
        importance="critical",
        development_path="Build tools, automate testing workflows"
    ),
    RedTeamSkill(
        name="Traditional Security Background",
        category=SkillCategory.DOMAIN,
        importance="important",
        development_path="OWASP Web Top 10, penetration testing basics"
    ),
    RedTeamSkill(
        name="Machine Learning Basics",
        category=SkillCategory.DOMAIN,
        importance="important",
        development_path="Training, fine-tuning, embeddings concepts"
    ),
    RedTeamSkill(
        name="Report Writing",
        category=SkillCategory.SOFT,
        importance="critical",
        development_path="Technical writing courses, practice executive summaries"
    ),
    RedTeamSkill(
        name="Stakeholder Communication",
        category=SkillCategory.SOFT,
        importance="important",
        development_path="Present findings, translate technical to business"
    ),
]

def assess_candidate(
    candidate_skills: List[str]
) -> dict:
    """
    Assess a candidate against required skills.
    Returns coverage percentage and gaps.
    """
    critical_skills = [
        s for s in REQUIRED_SKILLS if s.importance == "critical"
    ]

    covered = []
    gaps = []

    for skill in critical_skills:
        if skill.name.lower() in [s.lower() for s in candidate_skills]:
            covered.append(skill.name)
        else:
            gaps.append(skill)

    return {
        "coverage": len(covered) / len(critical_skills) * 100,
        "covered_skills": covered,
        "skill_gaps": [
            {"name": g.name, "development": g.development_path}
            for g in gaps
        ]
    }

Team Charter Template

Define your team's mission and scope:

from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import List
from datetime import date

@dataclass
class TeamCharter:
    """Define red team mission and boundaries."""
    team_name: str
    mission: str
    scope: List[str]
    out_of_scope: List[str]
    stakeholders: List[str]
    reporting_cadence: str
    escalation_path: str
    effective_date: date

    def to_document(self) -> str:
        scope_list = "\n".join(f"- {s}" for s in self.scope)
        oos_list = "\n".join(f"- {s}" for s in self.out_of_scope)
        stake_list = "\n".join(f"- {s}" for s in self.stakeholders)

        return f"""
# {self.team_name} Charter

**Effective Date:** {self.effective_date}

## Mission
{self.mission}

## In Scope
{scope_list}

## Out of Scope
{oos_list}

## Stakeholders
{stake_list}

## Reporting
- Cadence: {self.reporting_cadence}
- Escalation: {self.escalation_path}
"""


# Example charter
charter = TeamCharter(
    team_name="AI Security Red Team",
    mission="""
    Continuously assess the security posture of AI systems through
    adversarial testing, identify vulnerabilities before attackers do,
    and provide actionable remediation guidance to product teams.
    """,
    scope=[
        "All production LLM-powered applications",
        "RAG systems and vector stores",
        "AI agent integrations",
        "Third-party AI API usage",
        "Prompt templates and system instructions"
    ],
    out_of_scope=[
        "Physical security assessments",
        "Social engineering of employees",
        "Third-party vendor infrastructure",
        "Non-AI application security (covered by AppSec)"
    ],
    stakeholders=[
        "CISO - Executive sponsor",
        "VP Engineering - Product coordination",
        "AI Platform Team - Technical liaison",
        "Legal - Compliance oversight"
    ],
    reporting_cadence="Weekly summary, monthly deep dive, quarterly board report",
    escalation_path="Critical findings → CISO within 4 hours",
    effective_date=date(2025, 1, 1)
)

print(charter.to_document())

Operational Workflow

Establish a consistent testing rhythm:

Weekly Rhythm:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Monday    │ Review new deployments, plan week's tests  │
│ Tue-Thu   │ Execute assessments, document findings     │
│ Friday    │ Write reports, knowledge sharing session   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Monthly Rhythm:
Week 1-2: Deep dive on priority system
Week 3:   Tool development, technique research
Week 4:   Reporting, stakeholder meetings, planning

Metrics for Team Success

Track team effectiveness:

Metric	Target	Measurement
Vulnerabilities found	Trend up initially	Monthly count
Mean time to report	< 24 hours	From discovery to ticket
Remediation rate	> 80%	Findings fixed within SLA
False positive rate	< 10%	Confirmed vs reported
Coverage	100% of AI systems	Systems tested / total

from dataclasses import dataclass
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from typing import List

@dataclass
class TeamMetrics:
    """Track red team performance metrics."""
    period_start: datetime
    period_end: datetime
    vulnerabilities_found: int
    reports_delivered: int
    findings_remediated: int
    findings_total: int
    false_positives: int
    systems_tested: int
    total_systems: int

    def calculate_kpis(self) -> dict:
        """Calculate key performance indicators."""
        remediation_rate = (
            self.findings_remediated / self.findings_total * 100
            if self.findings_total > 0 else 0
        )

        fp_rate = (
            self.false_positives / self.vulnerabilities_found * 100
            if self.vulnerabilities_found > 0 else 0
        )

        coverage = (
            self.systems_tested / self.total_systems * 100
            if self.total_systems > 0 else 0
        )

        return {
            "period": f"{self.period_start.date()} to {self.period_end.date()}",
            "vulnerabilities_found": self.vulnerabilities_found,
            "remediation_rate": f"{remediation_rate:.1f}%",
            "false_positive_rate": f"{fp_rate:.1f}%",
            "system_coverage": f"{coverage:.1f}%",
            "reports_per_week": self.reports_delivered / 4
        }


# Example quarterly metrics
q4_metrics = TeamMetrics(
    period_start=datetime(2025, 10, 1),
    period_end=datetime(2025, 12, 31),
    vulnerabilities_found=47,
    reports_delivered=12,
    findings_remediated=38,
    findings_total=44,
    false_positives=3,
    systems_tested=8,
    total_systems=10
)

print(q4_metrics.calculate_kpis())

Career Development

Provide growth paths for team members:

Level	Focus	Responsibilities
Junior	Learning techniques	Execute test plans, document findings
Mid	Independent testing	Lead assessments, mentor juniors
Senior	Strategy & tools	Design methodology, build automation
Lead	Program ownership	Stakeholder management, roadmap