Purple Team
A purple team is a collaborative cybersecurity approach where red team (offensive) and blue team (defensive) professionals work together in real time to improve an organization's security posture.
Purple teaming is a collaborative security methodology that brings together the offensive capabilities of a red team with the defensive expertise of a blue team. Rather than operating in isolation, both teams share knowledge, techniques, and findings in real time to maximize the value of security testing and improve the organization's overall security posture more efficiently.
In a traditional red team engagement, the blue team may not know an exercise is underway, simulating a realistic attack scenario. While valuable, this approach can limit learning opportunities because the blue team may not understand exactly what the red team did or why certain controls failed. Purple teaming addresses this by creating a feedback loop where the red team demonstrates specific attack techniques and the blue team immediately tests whether they can detect and respond to them.
A typical purple team exercise involves the red team executing specific attack scenarios mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework while the blue team monitors their tools and processes in real time. When a detection gap is identified, both teams collaborate to develop or tune detection rules, improve logging, and strengthen controls. This iterative approach can achieve in days what might take weeks through separate red and blue team engagements.
Purple teaming is particularly effective for organizations looking to rapidly improve their detection and response capabilities. It helps bridge the gap between offensive and defensive teams, fosters mutual understanding, and ensures that security investments translate into measurable improvements in threat detection and incident response.