What is the CORIE Framework?
- Ahmed Khanji
- Updated: November 19, 2025
What is the CORIE Framework?
The Cyber Operational Resilience Intelligence-led Exercises (CORIE) framework is a cybersecurity testing approach designed to assess how well financial institutions can defend against real-world cyber threats. Developed by the Council of Financial Regulators (CFR), the coordinating body for Australia’s main financial regulatory agencies, CORIE simulates sophisticated attacks to identify security gaps, improve response strategies, and enhance overall resilience.
For companies under the financial services industry, CORIE provides a structured way to test security controls, incident response plans, and detection capabilities. It aligns with APRA’s CPS 234 requirements, ensuring financial organisations meet regulatory standards for cyber risk management. CORIE exercises typically include Red Team simulated attacks, to help organisations strengthen their defences before real attackers can exploit them.
How the CORIE Framework Works
As cyber attackers continue to target the financial services industry, the Council of Financial Regulators have standardised the approach needed for organisations to proactively protect their key assets from cyber attack. The CORIE Framework is the program that brings together these recommendations utilising a structure of real work intelligence, simulated attacks and structured response exercises to build resilience and strengthen defences.
The framework mandates that organisations conduct four key cybersecurity exercises:
- Red Team Attack Simulations
- Blue Team Response and Detection Evaluations
- Gold Team Crisis Management Assessments
- Post Exercise Review and reporting.
By following these four components of CORIE, financial institutions can identify weaknesses before attackers exploit them, strengthening their overall cyber resilience.
Types of Testing Under CORIE
By conducting these four CORIE exercises, financial institutions can proactively identify weaknesses, enhance incident response, and improve cybersecurity posture before a real attack occurs.
Red Teaming
Simulate real-world attacks to test and improve defenses.
Purple Teaming
Enhance existing detection and response capabilities.
Blue Teaming Response & Detection
How quickly can internal security tdetect, respond and contain attacks.
Gold Teaming Crisis Management
Table top crisis simulations.
Who are the best CORIE providers in Australia?
Gridware. Because this is where the best security professionals in Australia choose to work.
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Game-Changing
Key Benefits of CORIE
The CORIE framework helps financial institutions strengthen their cybersecurity posture by proactively testing their resilience against real-world threats. The key benefits are listed out below:
Strengthens Cyber Resilience
By replicating sophisticated cyber-attacks, CORIE allows organisations to identify vulnerabilities across systems and networks. This proactive approach ensures financial institutions can identify, protect, detect and response to threats effectively, reducing the risk of operational disruption.
Improves incident response readiness
CORIE exercises test both the technical security teams (Blue Team) and senior decision-makers (Gold Team) to assess their ability to respond swiftly and effectively to cyber incidents. These exercises give a real world experience to otherwise theoretical scenario’s to your internal teams, improving response plans, ensuring security teams can act decisively under pressure.
Aligns with APRA and Regulatory Requirements
With increasing regulatory scrutiny in Australia, financial institutions must demonstrate compliance with APRA CPS 234 and other cybersecurity regulations. CORIE provides structured testing that ensures organisations meet industry standards for cyber risk management, helping them avoid regulatory penalties and reputational damage.
Enhances Board and Executive Cyber Awareness
Gold Team crisis exercises engage your leadership in cybersecurity decision-making, helping executives understand the business impact of cyber threats. This helps your leadership team be well-prepared to make informed decisions during a cyber crisis and allocate resources effectively to strengthen security postures.
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The Five Steps for CORIE Framework Compliance
Risk Assessment
Before engaging in a CORIE exercise, organisations must assess their existing security posture. This involves doing a risk assessment to identify critical assets, evaluate current threats, and map potential vulnerabilities in networks, applications, and processes. Understanding risk exposure is key to designing an effective testing strategy.
Plan and Execute Testing
Organisations must conduct Red Team exercises that simulate real-world cyber threats. These exercises should be based on actual adversary tactics and focus on testing detection, response, and recovery capabilities. Red Team testing should align with industry-specific risks and regulatory requirements to ensure effectiveness.
Evaluate Response Detection
The internal security team (Blue Team) must be assessed on how well they detect, respond to, and contain cyber-attacks. This includes testing monitoring tools, incident response plans, and security operations centre effectiveness. Leadership teams (Gold Team) should also be tested through crisis management exercises to ensure strategic decision-making during an attack.
Implement Improvements
After the CORIE exercise, a detailed post-assessment report will outline strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in cybersecurity controls. Organisations must use these insights to prioritise remediation efforts, enhance security policies, and improve defensive measures to prevent future attacks.
Ongoing Compliance
CORIE compliance is not a one-time process. Financial institutions should integrate CORIE exercises into their long-term cybersecurity strategy, conducting periodic tests to adapt to evolving threats. Continuous improvements in detection, response, and crisis management will ensure ongoing compliance with regulatory standards such as APRA CPS 234.
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Behind the CORIE Assessments
A CORIE assessment isn’t just a box-ticking exercise, it’s a real-world stress test designed to push an organisation’s cyber resilience to its limits. It starts with intelligence gathering, where teams identify potential weak points, assess critical systems, and map out how an attacker might move through the network. Unlike traditional security reviews, this isn’t about theoretical risks. The assessment is built around real adversary simulation, forcing security teams and executives to respond as they would in an actual cyber incident.
From there, it’s about seeing how well defenses hold up. The Red Team attempts to breach security, the Blue Team scrambles to detect and stop the attack, and the Gold Team decide how to go about containment, communication, and recovery. Weaknesses are exposed, but that’s the point. Every gap that surfaces in a controlled exercise is one less weakness an actual attacker can exploit. At the end of the process, organisations walk away with a clear understanding of where they stand and a plan to strengthen their security before the next real-world threat comes knocking.
our clients
At Gridware, we work with a wide range of companies across Sydney, Melbourne, and beyond, delivering tailored adversary simulation services to meet their unique needs. From large enterprises safeguarding critical assets to government agencies navigating strict compliance requirements, our clients trust us to strengthen their cybersecurity posture.
No matter the industry, Gridware’s adversary simulation services empower organisations to build resilience, stay ahead of evolving cyber threats, and protect what matters most.
Conclusion
CORIE assessments are crucial for strengthening cyber resilience in financial institutions.
Gridware is a leading provider of CORIE assessment services, ensuring compliance with APRA CPS 234.
Our expert team conducts Red Team, Blue Team, and Gold Team exercises to test detection, response, and crisis management.
We simulate real-world threats to identify weaknesses and provide actionable security improvements.
Gridware operates in Sydney and Melbourne, supporting clients across Australia and internationally.
CORIE FAQs
What is the CORIE Framework?
The CORIE framework is a cybersecurity assessment program developed by the Council of Financial Regulators to test the cyber resilience of financial institutions. It simulates real-world cyber-attacks to evaluate how well an organisation can detect, respond to, and recover from threats. CORIE helps organisations improve security, meet regulatory expectations, and strengthen overall resilience.
Does the CORIE framework apply to my organisation?
CORIE is primarily designed for financial institutions, particularly those regulated by APRA and operating in banking, insurance, or superannuation. However, any organisation handling sensitive financial data or critical infrastructure can benefit from a CORIE-style assessment to improve cyber resilience.
Are there fines or penalties for not conducting a CORIE assessment?
There are no direct fines for not participating in CORIE assessments, but APRA-regulated entities must comply with CPS 234, which mandates robust cybersecurity controls. A failure to demonstrate resilience through proper testing could result in regulatory scrutiny, compliance risks, and reputational damage.
What does compliance with the CORIE framework look like?
Compliance with CORIE means undergoing intelligence-led cyber testing, including Red Team attack simulations, Blue Team detection exercises, and Gold Team crisis management assessments. After the assessment, organisations must address identified vulnerabilities and strengthen their security posture.
How long does a CORIE assessment take?
The timeline depends on the size and complexity of the organisation, but a full end-to-end CORIE assessment typically takes between 4 to 6 weeks. This includes planning, testing, reporting, and remediation recommendations.
How much does a CORIE assessment cost?
Costs vary depending on the scope, depth of testing, and the size of the organisation. A basic assessment may start from $10,000, while larger, more complex financial institutions requiring comprehensive Red Team exercises may see costs exceed $100,000. Pricing is influenced by factors such as attack complexity, regulatory requirements, and reporting depth.
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