Understanding purple team exercises

Security functions can be broadly organized into two categories: the blue team, which focuses on defending an organization against cyber security threats, and the red team, which has the goal of emulating real-world adversaries. When the red and blue teams work together, collaboratively, to emulate an adversary, execute tactical defensive activity (where relevant), observe the performance of security controls, and execute responses in real time, this is referred to as a purple team exercise. While developed detections do get tested during a purple team exercise, the central focus of the exercise is not just the detection environment but rather the interactions between the red and blue teams. The exercises aim to help the blue team develop and improve response techniques while simultaneously helping the red team develop adversarial techniques.

Both teams work together to plan a simulated cyber-attack, comprising several tactics, within a predefined...