Red Spectrum

Hello, Red Spectrum

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is the first post on the Red Spectrum blog. Until now most of my long-form writing has lived on LinkedIn — those pieces are still linked from the articles section — but a few topics need more room than a LinkedIn post comfortably allows.

What you can expect here:

Tradecraft notes from red team engagements, written generically enough to share publicly
Active Directory — attack paths, ACL chains, identity-fabric exposure, and the detection gaps that come with them
TSCM field notes — what RF spectrum sweeps actually find in 2026, and where physical-layer threats are heading
Tooling write-ups for projects released under github.com/0x48756773

Posts will be infrequent and technical. If that’s your wavelength, the RSS feed is the easiest way to follow along.

Don't Let Dropshippers Play the Patriotism Card

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lately I’ve been seeing more and more ads from so-called “small businesses” claiming they’re shutting down due to tariffs, trade wars, or pandemic-related struggles. They tug at your heartstrings, hoping your patriotism — and your wallet — will kick in.

But here’s the truth: many of these ads are from overseas dropshipping operations disguised as local mom-and-pop shops.

Take “Marlene’s Pet Shop” as an example. Their ad claims they’re a small business based in Montreal, closing down due to rising costs.

When Curiosity Unveils an Oversight: My Experience with a Canadian Radio Contest

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Just wanted to share a really interesting disclosure I made to a media organization in Canada a few weeks ago.

This media organization was running a radio contest where they would announce keywords over the radio at set times. Every few hours, you could visit a number of websites across Canada to submit your name along with the keyword, in an effort to win a prize of $1,000 weekly, with an overall grand prize of $100,000. With the upcoming release of the Nvidia RTX 5080, I needed all the money I could get — so I figured I would enter.

The Weakest Link is Always the One Behind the Keyboard

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Note: this story does not represent my role in my current company, but a gaming community that I run in my spare time.

Let me tell you the story about a server. I, like many of you, host servers for various activities, on various hosts. Each of these servers are secured to a standard that I would like to say is high, at least by comparison to other servers on the web.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johnathan Drozdowski is a Senior Red Team Specialist with 12+ years of experience operating across government, defence, and enterprise environments — from Canadian Armed Forces networks and classified military infrastructure to large-scale financial sector AD estates.

Red Spectrum exists because most security assessments answer the wrong question. A list of findings tells you where you’re vulnerable. A well-executed red team engagement tells you whether your people, processes, and controls would actually stop a determined attacker — and what they’d miss if they didn’t.

Contact

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

For pentest, red team, purple team, and TSCM inquiries, use the form below. Briefly describe what you’re trying to accomplish (e.g. “validate our detection coverage”, “pre-acquisition assessment”, “executive office sweep”) and Red Spectrum will follow up within one business day.

For sensitive disclosures, encrypted email is available — request a PGP key in your initial message and we’ll move the conversation off this channel.

Services

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Red Spectrum engagements are scoped around a single question: what would a capable adversary actually do to your organization, and would you catch them? Everything below is offered as a standalone engagement or as part of a longer-running program.

Red Team Operations

Multi-stage adversary emulation against your production environment. Engagements are mapped to MITRE ATT&CK and tuned to specific threat actors relevant to your sector.

Custom command-and-control infrastructure
Initial access through phishing, exposed services, or assumed-breach scenarios
Active Directory traversal, privilege escalation, and lateral movement
Data identification and controlled exfiltration
Detection-capability assessment alongside your SOC

Best for: mature security programs that have already passed traditional pentests and need to validate whether their detection and response actually works against a determined operator.