Lares Consulting

Lares Consulting is a Denver, Colorado-headquartered offensive security boutique founded in 2008 by Chris Nickerson and Eric Smith, two well-known figures in the red team community. The firm has built its reputation on adversary simulation and long-duration red team engagements that treat pen testing as a research discipline rather than a checklist exercise. Lares staff have authored industry-standard frameworks including the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) and have served on the boards of DEF CON's Social Engineering Village and other community institutions.

Lares delivers network, application, cloud, and wireless penetration testing, purple teaming, social engineering, physical intrusion, insider-threat simulation, and the firm's signature Continuous Red Team (CRT) retainer, a year-long engagement in which Lares operators continuously attack client infrastructure and rotate findings through purple team debriefs. The team is particularly strong in Active Directory exploitation, cloud lateral movement, and high-stakes social engineering scenarios.

Lares is best suited to mature security organisations, typically Fortune 1000 and well-funded technology companies, whose internal red teams want a sparring partner rather than a compliance vendor. Not typically a fit for SMBs or buyers whose primary driver is a regulator checkbox.