Security Football

Feature

American Football (Offense vs. Defense)

Hacking / Cybersecurity (Red Team vs. Blue Team)

Primary Goal (Offense/Red Team)

Score points (Touchdowns, Field Goals) by advancing the ball.

Compromise systems, access data, or disrupt operations to test defenses.

"Scoring" / Success Metric (Offense/Red Team)

Touchdowns, field goals, first downs, long drives, winning the game.

Successful exploitation, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, achieving a defined objective (e.g., access to specific data), identifying blind spots.

Tactics (Offense/Red Team)

·       Running plays: Ground and pound, outside runs, draws.

·       Passing plays: Short passes, deep throws, screens, play-action. 

·       Misdirection: Fakes, reverses.

·       Blitz pickups: Protecting the QB.

·       Time management: Draining the clock.

·       Reconnaissance: OSINT, scanning.

·       Vulnerability Exploitation: Web app flaws, misconfigurations, zero-days. 

·       Social Engineering: Phishing, vishing, pretexting. 

·       Malware Deployment: Ransomware, Trojans, backdoors. 

·       Lateral Movement: Spreading within the network.

·       Persistence: Maintaining access. 

·       Evasion: Bypassing security controls.

Intelligence Gathering

·       Scouting: Analyzing opponent's game film, tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses.

·       Live Reads: QB reading defense, LB reading offense.

·       Threat Intelligence: OSINT, dark web monitoring, vulnerability feeds, exploit databases. 

·       Log Analysis: Reviewing system logs for anomalies. 

·       Traffic Analysis: Monitoring network traffic for suspicious patterns.

Team Structure

Highly specialized positions (QB, RB, WR, OL, DL, LB, DB, K, P, etc.) with specific play-by-play roles.

Highly specialized roles (Pentesters, Exploit Developers, Social Engineers, Forensics, Incident Responders, Threat Hunters, Security Architects, etc.)

Game Patterns

Continuous and stoppages, depends on the significant events that need to follow the rules.

Can be done in one big hit – one time. Continuous attack (e.g. DoS attack), or intermittent attack to establish strong attack or optimize a certain vulnerabilities / defensive mechanism.

Primary Goal (Defense/Blue Team)

Prevent opponent from scoring, regain possession (turnovers), maintain field position.

Detect, prevent, and respond to attacks, protect assets, maintain operations.

Tactics (Defense/Blue Team)

·       Blitzes: Rushing the QB. 

·       Zone coverage: Protecting areas. 

·       Man-to-man coverage: Covering specific receivers. 

·       Run stopping: Stuffing the run at the line. 

·       Turnover generation: Interceptions, fumbles. 

·       - Field position: Forcing punts, sacks.

·       Monitoring & Detection: SIEM, EDR, NDR, - Vulnerability Management: Patching, hardening, configuration. 

·       Incident Response: Containment, eradication, recovery. 

·       Threat Intelligence: Understanding adversary TTPs. 

·       Security Awareness Training: Educating users. 

·       Access Control: MFA, least privilege.

·       Network Segmentation: Limiting lateral movement. 

·       - Data Backup & Recovery: Ransomware resilience.

"Scoring" / Success Metric (Defense/Blue Team)

Preventing scores, turnovers, 3-and-outs, sacks, low opponent yardage, winning the game.

Early detection, quick containment, successful remediation, minimizing damage, preventing unauthorized access, building resilience, improving overall security posture.

"Playbook" / Strategy

Offensive and defensive playbooks with pre-designed plays, formations, and audibles based on opponent's tendencies.

Security policies, incident response plans, threat models, attack frameworks (e.g., MITRE ATTACK), defensive architectures.

Adaptation & Adjustment

·       Halftime adjustments: Coaches revise strategies. 

·       In-game audibles: Players change plays at the line of scrimmage.

·       Personnel changes: Swapping players for specific situations.

·       Real-time incident response: Adapting to an active attack. 

·       Patching critical vulnerabilities: Rapidly deploying fixes. 

·       Updating security controls: Tuning firewalls, IDS/IPS. 

·       Purple Teaming: Collaboration for continuous improvement.

Training & Drills

Practice, scrimmages, film study, strength & conditioning.

Red team exercises, blue team drills, incident response simulations, tabletop exercises, CTFs (Capture The Flag), continuous learning.

The "Game Clock"

Fixed game time (e.g., 60 minutes), play clock (25/40 seconds), timeouts.

Time To Detect (TTD), Time To Respond (TTR), Mean Time To Recover (MTTR). The attacker's dwell time within a system.

Home Field Advantage

Crowd noise, familiarity with stadium, weather conditions.

Robust security architecture, well-trained and experienced team, integrated security tools, strong organizational security culture.