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The term 'red team' specifically refers to a group that simulates attacks on an organization's security systems to evaluate and test the effectiveness of those defenses. This approach is a critical aspect of offensive security, where the red team acts as the adversary to identify vulnerabilities in a proactive manner. By conducting simulated attacks, the red team can help organizations understand their weaknesses, assess their incident response capabilities, and enhance their overall security posture.

This method allows security teams to experience real-world attack scenarios, providing insights into how an attacker might exploit vulnerabilities. The objective is to show security gaps that could be exploited by malicious actors and to improve the existing security measures before an actual attack occurs.

This role is distinct from other groups, such as those focusing solely on maintaining systems, training personnel, or managing an incident response, which do not engage directly in simulating adversarial tactics to test security defenses.