FedRAMP Penetration Testing & Red Team Exercises
Testing across the six mandatory attack vectors, plus the CA-8(2) red team exercise required at Moderate and High. Deliverables built to survive 3PAO validation.
Two distinct obligations that are frequently conflated. First, an annual penetration test conducted per the FedRAMP Penetration Test Guidance, which prescribes six mandatory attack vectors rather than leaving scope to the tester. Second, control CA-8(2), added to the FedRAMP Moderate and High baselines with the move to NIST SP 800-53 Revision 5, which requires a red team exercise simulating adversary attempts to compromise organizational systems under agreed rules of engagement. The penetration test measures exposure. The red team exercise measures whether your organization detects and responds. Both are assessed at initial authorization and at each annual assessment, and red team exercises are not required for LI-SaaS.
We reconcile the authorization boundary against the six vectors, identify which apply to your architecture, and produce rules of engagement covering authorized targets, testing windows, prohibited techniques, evidence handling, hosting-provider notification, deconfliction, and the named authorizing official.
The guidance expects the assessment organization to leverage your threat intelligence to establish agreed objectives for the exercise. We run that session with your security team, so the exercise emulates adversaries plausibly interested in your service rather than a generic attacker, and the objectives are documented in the test plan.
Penetration testing produces exploitable findings with CVSS vectors and evidence. The red team exercise runs current real-world tactics, techniques, and procedures and measures detection, defense, and response at each stage. Critical findings are reported on discovery. A deconfliction contact can attribute activity to the exercise within minutes.
You receive a Red Team Test Plan documenting scope, methodology, planned activities, schedule, the resources performing the test, and your authorizations, plus a Red Team Test Report summarizing results, alongside the penetration test report. We package them for your 3PAO to validate and attest, and we take reviewer questions directly.
The exercise may be performed by the 3PAO, a separate third party, or internally, but the 3PAO must validate and attest to the plan and report either way. Keeping execution and attestation in separate hands is a stronger evidence posture and avoids asking one firm to review its own offensive work.
Our RTTP and RTTR are structured against what the guidance actually asks for, so your 3PAO is validating a document that already contains the required elements. We write for someone reading cold with authority to send it back, because that is who reads it.
We run FedRAMP advisory, SOC 2, and ISO programs alongside offensive security, so findings arrive already mapped to the controls they affect and the POA&M entries they create. Your assessor conversation and your remediation plan come from the same team.
Great consulting firms for scaling security, compliance, and appsec.
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Outstanding partner in Technical and Cyber Due Diligence
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BD Emerson helped us simplfiy our compliance management.
BD Emerson did such a phenomenal job. What started as privacy support quickly became a full partnership across compliance, engineering, and even business operations. They’re embedded with our team. They understand our product. They move fast. They’re simply invaluable.
Great consulting firms for scaling security, compliance, and appsec.
Outstanding partner in Technical and Cyber Due Diligence
Appsec maturity and application hardening.
BD Emerson helped us simplfiy our compliance management.
BD Emerson did such a phenomenal job. What started as privacy support quickly became a full partnership across compliance, engineering, and even business operations. They’re embedded with our team. They understand our product. They move fast. They’re simply invaluable.
We had a hard time finding the right company to partner with in support of our compliance journey. Some vendors sell the idea that they do the work, but then you end up doing everything. The ambiguity is what killed our last project. BD Emerson’s team has such great technical knowledge and understands the standard so well that they made us comfortable with moving fast. This has led to us closing major enterprise customers that were previously out of reach because of security and compliance.
Lead an enterprise initiative to overhaul the organization's technology stack from ecommerce, corporate tech, and corporate security.
Supported ISO 42001 exercise and served as internal auditor.
Rubrik's privacy and compliance team began with the backbone of BD Emerson. BD Emerson supported building out the privacy program, GRC (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC, FedRAMP), and the appsec function.
We needed a partner who could move quickly, without sacrificing precision. BD Emerson brought the expertise, structure, and speed we were looking for. Their team became an extension of ours, embedding themselves across the organization, guiding us step by step, and giving us confidence in areas we hadn’t tackled before. The internal audit they conducted was so detailed that even the external auditors called it out. Achieving ISO 27001 with zero nonconformities says everything you need to know about the quality of the partnership.
We had a hard time finding the right company to partner with in support of our compliance journey. Some vendors sell the idea that they do the work, but then you end up doing everything. The ambiguity is what killed our last project. BD Emerson’s team has such great technical knowledge and understands the standard so well that they made us comfortable with moving fast. This has led to us closing major enterprise customers that were previously out of reach because of security and compliance.
Lead an enterprise initiative to overhaul the organization's technology stack from ecommerce, corporate tech, and corporate security.
Supported ISO 42001 exercise and served as internal auditor.
Rubrik's privacy and compliance team began with the backbone of BD Emerson. BD Emerson supported building out the privacy program, GRC (ISO 27001, SOC 2, CMMC, FedRAMP), and the appsec function.
We needed a partner who could move quickly, without sacrificing precision. BD Emerson brought the expertise, structure, and speed we were looking for. Their team became an extension of ours, embedding themselves across the organization, guiding us step by step, and giving us confidence in areas we hadn’t tackled before. The internal audit they conducted was so detailed that even the external auditors called it out. Achieving ISO 27001 with zero nonconformities says everything you need to know about the quality of the partnership.
BD Emerson didn’t just help us meet our compliance goals; they integrated security and privacy into the core of our operations. I highly recommend BD Emerson to anyone seeking SOC 2 or GDPR compliance, or simply looking to enhance their security team and boost customer trust in their product and services. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable to our success.
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BD Emerson understood our business requirements and worked side-by-side with us. The policies and controls we developed together not only meet compliance standards but improve how we operate day to day.
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From day one, BD Emerson brought urgency, clarity, and a sharp understanding of what truly matters to our business — earning and keeping customer trust. They went beyond helping us meet compliance requirements; they helped build a foundation for secure, scalable growth. That kind of partnership is rare.
BD Emerson didn’t just help us pass an audit—they helped us build a sustainable culture of security.
BD Emerson was essential in helping our company navigate the daunting process of leveling up our security infrastructure. BD Emerson’s impressive expertise and confidence throughout the process helped our team exceed HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 1 standards quickly, distilling what can be an overwhelming process into a streamlined, organized effort. From day one they began adding value and getting us on course. With their help we delivered on a massive security overhaul with both extreme efficiency and thorough attention to details. Because of BD Emerson’s support, we’ve increased our clients’ trust in Titan Intake and the life-changing work it accomplishes for those seeking specialist referrals.
BD Emerson didn’t just help us meet our compliance goals; they integrated security and privacy into the core of our operations. I highly recommend BD Emerson to anyone seeking SOC 2 or GDPR compliance, or simply looking to enhance their security team and boost customer trust in their product and services. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable to our success.
BD Emerson understood our business requirements and worked side-by-side with us. The policies and controls we developed together not only meet compliance standards but improve how we operate day to day.
From day one, BD Emerson brought urgency, clarity, and a sharp understanding of what truly matters to our business — earning and keeping customer trust. They went beyond helping us meet compliance requirements; they helped build a foundation for secure, scalable growth. That kind of partnership is rare.
BD Emerson didn’t just help us pass an audit—they helped us build a sustainable culture of security.
BD Emerson was essential in helping our company navigate the daunting process of leveling up our security infrastructure. BD Emerson’s impressive expertise and confidence throughout the process helped our team exceed HIPAA and SOC 2 Type 1 standards quickly, distilling what can be an overwhelming process into a streamlined, organized effort. From day one they began adding value and getting us on course. With their help we delivered on a massive security overhaul with both extreme efficiency and thorough attention to details. Because of BD Emerson’s support, we’ve increased our clients’ trust in Titan Intake and the life-changing work it accomplishes for those seeking specialist referrals.
