A purple team is an internal security team that combines the skills of both red and blue teams to create comprehensive security solutions. Red teams are responsible for offensive actions, such as penetration testing and simulation of attacks, while blue teams are responsible for defensive actions such as system hardening and incident response.
Purple teams use a combination of both offensive and defensive techniques to increase their structured review of systems and networks. They use the same tools and techniques employed in the red and blue teams, but take extra time to analyze the results and suggest corrective measures to improve the security of the system or network.
Purple teams also focus on testing and validating an organization’s security processes, such as policy, patch management, backup and recovery. This ensures that operational and security processes are understood and correctly configured. Further, purple teams ensure that the organization conducts periodic testing and maintains up-to-date procedures and processes.
The goal of purple teams is to augment the capabilities of red and blue teams to explore the most important vulnerabilities and proactively ensure that the organization’s defenses remain secure. This typically includes the following steps:
Scanning and mapping the network infrastructure to identify any vulnerabilities and attack points
Exploiting any known vulnerabilities, such as weak passwords or incomplete patching
Exploiting or simulating new or emerging threats
Implementing recommended defensive measures from the blue team task
Creating reports that include recommendations for remediation or mitigation
Purple teams enable organizations to have a comprehensive view of their security posture. By combining the perspectives of red and blue teams, organizations can gain a more holistic view of the network and identify any weaknesses or threat vectors. Furthermore, purple teams can increase security levels and proactively safeguard the organization’s networks and infrastructure against external threats.
