Case Studies
We have in the past and now again continue to work with a variety of clients and partners - MSSPs, financial services organisations, digital identity providers, crypto protocols & platforms, digital asset custody providers, and many more.
The following case studies reflect real engagements delivered by Atlan Digital Limited across financial markets, cloud platforms, and critical infrastructure.
Testimonials relate to work delivered by the founder and contractor team under a prior trading entity. The current consultancy is a new legal entity, with no continuity of clients or contracts and no assumption of liabilities, after a two-year gap.
CASE STUDY - LAYER-1 DEFI PLATFORM
The client is the core developer of a decentralized finance protocol and a full-stack, layer-1 smart contract platform focused on improving the user and developer experience in Web3 and DeFi.
Ahead of a major mainnet upgrade, the client engaged Atlan to undertake a thorough security assessment. The upgrade introduced a full-stack developer experience aimed at enabling teams to build and launch secure decentralized applications.
The assessment covered the client’s cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes cluster security, iOS and Android applications, and web applications with integrations into multiple blockchains and the client’s distributed ledger. The objective was to identify vulnerabilities and collaborate quickly on remediation.
Global Financial Services Platform
Offensive Security Assessment for a Global Financial Services Platform
Background
The client operates a suite of internally critical applications supporting financial operations across multiple business units. Due to regulatory expectations and internal risk management requirements, the organisation required independent assurance over the security of several business-critical platforms.
The engagement followed a formalised testing programme with strict reporting, change control, and delivery requirements.
Objectives
- Assess the security posture of business-critical applications
- Identify exploitable vulnerabilities in authenticated and unauthenticated contexts
- Validate remediation progress across multiple testing stages
- Provide high-confidence technical evidence to internal risk and audit teams
Atlan Digital Approach
Atlan Digital conducted a structured penetration testing engagement across multiple phases:
- Application-level testing against authenticated user roles
- Business logic and access control validation
- Configuration and security control assessment
- Extended testing phases introduced via formal change requests where required
Testing was coordinated closely with internal engineering and security teams, ensuring minimal operational disruption while maintaining technical depth.
CASE STUDY - RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE PLATFORM
The client is a Europe-based, technology-led residential real estate platform.
The client required independent security assurance of key technology components following changes made to the environment since a previous penetration test. Assets in scope included cloud-hosted infrastructure and a client-facing API, with results required on tight timelines.
Atlan worked with the client’s technical team to create a custom Python client to facilitate rapid testing. A high-velocity reporting process ensured the most important security information was communicated quickly. Atlan completed comprehensive testing on the target scope and provided clear, actionable remediation guidance, including contextual risk to support prioritisation.
Tier-1 Financial Market Infrastructure Provider
Adversary Simulation for a Tier-1 Financial Market Infrastructure Provider
Background
The client operates critical financial market infrastructure supporting institutional participants across multiple jurisdictions. As a high-value target for sophisticated threat actors, the organisation required assurance that its security controls could withstand realistic, human-operated attacks rather than isolated vulnerability testing.
While the client maintained a mature security programme and had undergone previous assessments, leadership identified a gap in understanding how real attackers could chain weaknesses across people, process, and technology layers.
Objectives
- Simulate realistic threat actor behaviour against live corporate systems
- Test the effectiveness of detection and response capabilities end-to-end
- Identify attack paths spanning external perimeter, identity, cloud, and internal networks
- Provide regulator-defensible evidence of adversary preparedness
Atlan Digital Approach
Atlan Digital conducted a multi-scenario adversary simulation designed to mirror real-world attacker tradecraft:
Scenario 1 – External Frontal Assault
- Internet-facing asset enumeration and reconnaissance
- Credential access attempts against exposed authentication surfaces
- Exploitation of externally reachable vulnerabilities
- Assessment of detection and response during initial compromise attempts
Scenario 2 – Human-Operated Attack Simulation
- Credential harvesting and phishing-based access techniques
- Post-compromise persistence and lateral movement
- Identity abuse and privilege escalation
- Simulated data exfiltration and ransomware impact (non-destructive)
Throughout the engagement, Atlan consultants adapted attack paths dynamically based on environmental conditions, replicating how a real threat actor would operate rather than following a static test plan.
Industrial Technology Platform
Backend, Cloud, and Kubernetes Security Review for an Industrial Technology Platform
Background
The client had recently modernised its backend infrastructure, adopting cloud-native services, containerisation, and managed platforms to support a globally distributed product ecosystem.
Given the criticality of the platform and the lack of prior comprehensive testing, the organisation sought an in-depth assessment of its backend security posture.
Objectives
- Identify security weaknesses across cloud, container, and API layers
- Assess real-world exploitability of configuration issues
- Validate the security of newly deployed infrastructure
- Provide actionable recommendations without disrupting production systems
Atlan Digital Approach
The engagement was delivered across several coordinated phases:
- Cloud configuration review of the hosting environment and managed services
- Kubernetes security assessment, including cluster configuration, RBAC, and ingress exposure
- API penetration testing, focusing on authentication, session handling, and input validation
- Database configuration review from an authenticated perspective
Static analysis and threat modelling techniques were combined with active testing to identify realistic attack paths.
ENQUIRIES
Whether you represent a corporate, a consultancy, a government or an MSSP, we’d love to hear from you. To discover just how our offensive security contractors could help, get in touch.
General Enquiries
+44 (0)208 102 0765
enquiries@atlan.digital
86-90 Paul StreetLondon
EC2A 4NE
New Business
Tom Kallo
+44 (0)208 102 0765
tom@atlan.digital