Eight Red Team Attack Scenarios Security Teams Must Prepare for During Major Events

A technical guide published on DEV Community outlines eight major red team attack categories that pose heightened threats during high-profile events such as political summits, national holidays, and large sporting events. The scenarios covered include network boundary breaches, social engineering phishing, supply chain poisoning, zero-day and N-day exploitation, lateral movement within internal networks, data theft, DDoS attacks, and strikes on critical infrastructure. During such periods, state-level hacker groups and professional attack teams intensify efforts against key targets with the aim of stealing sensitive data or disrupting critical operations. Each attack scenario is broken down by tactical intent, attack chain, and corresponding blue team countermeasures. The guide is intended to help security operations personnel adopt an attacker-perspective defence mindset and strengthen preparedness ahead of major events.