Purple Teaming Explained
Purple Teaming: Red Team and Blue Team in Action
Purple teaming is the structured collaboration between offensive (red team) and defensive (blue team) security professionals. This integrated approach focuses on improving an organization’s ability to detect, respond to, and contain real-world attacks. While red teaming simulates adversary behavior and blue teaming monitors and reacts to threats, purple teaming combines both to accelerate security maturity.
How 'Small' Security Errors Lead to a Security BreachWhat Is Purple Teaming?
Purple teaming is not a standalone engagement or a new team—it is a collaborative methodology where red and blue teams work side-by-side to:
- Share tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs)
- Test detection logic in real time
- Walk through attack chains from initial access to objective completion
- Tune playbooks based on observed gaps
Unlike traditional red team engagements where the blue team may be unaware of testing until after the fact, purple teaming is cooperative. It emphasizes knowledge transfer and process refinement through continuous feedback.
Red Team + Blue Team = Purple Team Outcomes
| Role | Function | Contribution to Purple Teaming |
|---|---|---|
| Red Team | Emulate adversary behavior across kill chain | Provide real attack sequences for detection testing |
| Blue Team | Monitor and respond to threats | Share gaps in visibility and support with response |
| Purple Teaming | Coordinate offense and defense in real time | Close detection gaps and improve incident workflows |
Purple teaming improves not just technology performance, but also communication and coordination between teams.
Key Benefits of Purple Teaming
- Accelerated Detection Engineering
Purple teaming helps teams validate and tune detection rules immediately. As red team operators execute specific techniques, blue team defenders adjust log sources, correlation logic, and alert thresholds to ensure high-fidelity detection. - Immediate Feedback Loops
Each stage of the attack chain is discussed in detail in real time. This immediate feedback helps defenders understand how attacks appear in telemetry, while giving red teams insight into how their methods are being observed and countered. - Threat-Informed Defense
Purple teaming aligns detection and response improvements to known threat actor behaviors. Engagements can emulate any number of relevant threat actors, from ransomware groups to state-sponsored espionage actors, allowing defenders to sharpen capabilities against their most likely adversaries. - Improved SOC Confidence and Capability
SOC analysts learn from direct exposure to adversary TTPs. Instead of hypothetical training scenarios, they experience the signals that real-world attacks generate. This builds operational confidence while also improving triage workflows and alert handling. - Measurement and Benchmarking
Purple team exercises provide a way to benchmark progress. By tracking key metrics, like the number of detection gaps that have been closed and faster response times, organizations can benchmark their improvements from one engagement to the next.
When to Use Purple Teaming
Organizations benefit from purple teaming when:
- The detection program is in place but needs tuning
- Red team exercises consistently bypass detection
- New tools or log sources are being deployed (e.g., EDR, SIEM, XDR)
- Threat actor emulation is prioritized for high-risk scenarios
- The SOC requires hands-on exposure to real attack sequences
Purple teaming is particularly effective after a red team engagement to operationalize findings and strengthen defenses quickly.
Purple Teaming in Practice
A typical purple team engagement follows this structure:
-
Planning and Threat Mapping
Define attacker objectives, techniques, and phases aligned to the MITRE ATT&CK framework. -
Live Execution
Red team performs one or more techniques while blue team monitors and responds. Results are recorded in real time. -
Tuning and Improvement
Detection logic, log sources, alert thresholds, and visibility gaps are addressed immediately with blue team input. -
Documentation and Debrief
Final reports include metrics for improvement and recommendations for future exercises. -
Repeat
Techniques are retested to confirm effectiveness and ensure readiness across new environments or scenarios.
Strategic Value of Purple Teaming
Purple teaming helps organizations:
- Build bridges between security engineering, operations, and incident response
- Maximize ROI on red team engagements by translating findings into defense improvements
- Develop sustainable and repeatable, threat-informed detection practices
- Foster a collaborative security culture that evolves with the threat landscape
Conclusion
Purple teaming turns adversary simulation into operational advancement. It enables security teams to adapt and improve together, thusreducing detection gaps and enhancing response capability with every iteration.
By combining the offense of the red team with the defense of the blue team, purple teaming creates a powerful, continuous improvement cycle. For organizations focused on measurable resilience, this integrated approach is essential.
To learn more about red teaming and purple teaming at Bishop Fox, check out these resources:
- Virtual Sessions:
