While academic papers provide theoretical foundations and preprint servers offer a glimpse into the future, industry reports and white papers ground your red teaming efforts in the present. These documents translate raw threat data and research findings into actionable intelligence, often framed within a business or operational context. They are the bridge between the lab and the live environment, detailing the “what” and “how” of attacks happening in the wild.
For an AI red teamer, these resources are invaluable for understanding current adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) as they apply to AI systems. They often aggregate data from thousands of real-world incidents, providing a perspective that is difficult to replicate through purely academic research.
The Flow from Incident to Intelligence
Understanding how these reports are created helps you appreciate their value. They typically represent the final stage of a threat intelligence lifecycle, transforming real-world security events into structured knowledge that can inform your own operational planning.
Sources and Their Specialties
Different types of organizations produce reports with distinct focuses. Knowing where to look for specific kinds of information can save you significant time and effort. The following table categorizes common sources of industry intelligence.
| Source Type | Typical Focus | Value for Red Teamers |
|---|---|---|
| Cybersecurity Vendors (e.g., Mandiant, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks) |
Emerging attack vectors, threat actor TTPs, malware analysis, annual threat landscape summaries. | Provides concrete examples of adversary behavior to emulate and intelligence on new vulnerabilities in the AI/ML pipeline. |
| Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure) |
Platform-specific threats, secure configuration best practices, abuse of cloud AI services, infrastructure vulnerabilities. | Essential for designing realistic test cases against systems deployed on major cloud platforms. Highlights common misconfigurations. |
| AI Safety & Standards Bodies (e.g., MITRE, NIST, ENISA) |
Risk frameworks (like MITRE ATLAS), threat taxonomies, adversarial ML testing methodologies, policy recommendations. | Offers structured approaches for planning engagements, classifying findings, and communicating risks to stakeholders. |
| Management & Tech Consulting (e.g., PwC, Deloitte, Accenture) |
Business impact of AI risks, governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) frameworks, sector-specific threat analyses. | Helps align your technical findings with business objectives and communicate the strategic importance of AI security to leadership. |
A Guide to Critical Reading
Not all reports are created equal. Many are designed as marketing tools to generate leads. To extract maximum value, you must read them with a critical eye. Keep the following points in mind as you review these materials:
- Identify the Bias: Understand the author’s motivation. Is a vendor highlighting a problem that their product conveniently solves? Read past the marketing language to find the core technical insights. The data is often valuable even if the conclusion is self-serving.
- Scrutinize the Methodology: How was the data collected? Is it based on telemetry from millions of endpoints, a handful of incident response engagements, or honeypot data? The source and scale of the data determine the generalizability of the findings. Look for a “Methodology” section.
- Check the Publication Date: The AI threat landscape evolves at an astonishing pace. A report from two years ago might describe TTPs that are now obsolete or easily defended against. Prioritize the most recent publications, but don’t discard older ones, as they can reveal trends over time.
- Distill Actionable Intelligence: The ultimate goal is to find information you can use. Don’t just read for awareness. Actively look for new attack ideas, tools, or defensive weaknesses you can incorporate into your next red team engagement. Can you replicate the attack described? Does it apply to your target systems?
By regularly consuming and critically analyzing industry reports, you ensure your red team’s toolkit and methodologies remain aligned with the real-world threats that organizations face. This practice transforms your team from one that simply tests for known vulnerabilities to one that simulates the behavior of contemporary, sophisticated adversaries.