Inside the Cyber Battlefield - Red, Blue, and Purple Teams Explained

Are you building a fortress while hackers are finding the back door?

In the latest episode of the Inspiring Tech Leaders podcast, I take a closer look at Red Teams, Blue Teams, and the increasingly vital Purple Teams that are reshaping cybersecurity strategy for forward-thinking organisations.

As a CIO or CISO, you are not just protecting assets, you are safeguarding your company's future.  But here is the question that keeps many of us up at night - Are we testing our defences the way real attackers would?

Red Teams think like hackers, probing your networks and exploiting vulnerabilities before the real attackers do.  Blue Teams build the walls, monitor the gates, and respond when threats emerge.  But the real value is created when these teams collaborate as Purple Teams and create a continuous feedback loop that transforms your security posture.

It's not just about technology, it's about people, processes, and breaking down silos within your security organisation.

Your Red Team tests your weaknesses. Your Blue Team defends your strengths. Your Purple Team makes both sides smarter!

Curious about implementing this approach in your organisation?  Listen to the full episode where I explore practical strategies for tech leaders navigating today's cyber battlefield.

Listen Again - End User Computing (EUC) and the strategies for managing it effectively.  Discover why there is more to EUC than meets the eye, and learn how organisations can tame its complexities to unlock significant savings and enhance security.  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1702192/episodes/14935280

Transcript

Welcome to the Inspiring Tech Leaders podcast, with me Dave Roberts.  Today we are exploring the cyber battlefield with a focus on Red Teams, Blue Teams, and the increasingly popular Purple Teams.  The podcast will explore why every tech leader needs to understand the importance of them and how they operate.

Whether you are overseeing security in a Fortune 500, managing infrastructure in the public sector, or leading an ambitious startup, understanding these teams is crucial to building resilience in an era of constant cyber threats.

So, what exactly are these teams?  How do they differ?  What are the benefits?  And how can combining them improve your security posture?

The terms Red Team and Blue Team actually come from military simulations.  One team would play the role of the attacker, which is the Red Team, while the other defends, and that is the Blue Team.  This approach was adapted for cybersecurity as organisations realised that they needed to test their systems under real-world conditions.

In the cyber world, Red Teams simulate real attacks.  They think like hackers, probing networks, exploiting vulnerabilities, and using the same tools adversaries use.  The goal?  To identify weaknesses before the real attackers do.

On the other side, Blue Teams are defenders.  They monitor networks, detect threats, and respond to incidents in real-time.  They build firewalls, configure SIEM solutions, hunt threats, and perform forensics after an attack.

It is a classic battle of offense versus defence, but with one important twist.  These teams are on the same side!

Understanding the dynamics between Red and Blue Teams helps set the foundation for building an adaptive, resilient cybersecurity posture.

Red Teams are made up of ethical hackers, who are penetration testers who mimic real-world attackers.  They use advanced tools and techniques, like phishing campaigns, exploit frameworks, and social engineering, to try and breach a system.

But Red Teaming is not just about finding vulnerabilities. It is about emulating threats.  Red Teams often operate under the radar for weeks, even months, to see how long it takes before the defenders, the Blue Team, notice.

They test not just the tech, but the people and processes behind your security.

Well Fargo, one of the largest financial institutions in the United States, has an Offensive Security Research team that functions as their Red Team.  The Wells Fargo team does not wait for vulnerabilities to be discovered, as you would expect from a Red Team, they proactively simulate sophisticated threats to test the bank’s cybersecurity measures.  This approach allows them to identify and patch security flaws before malicious actors can exploit them.  

The benefits of having a Red Team are that it will help to reveal unknown vulnerabilities and test the response and detection capabilities of the Blue Team.  The Red Teams are designed to mimic sophisticated threat actors and provide a real-world stress test of an organisation’s defence mechanisms. 

Red Teams push organisations beyond compliance checkboxes, as they challenge assumptions and expose weaknesses.

Now let’s flip the perspective and talk about Blue Teams. If Red Teams break in, Blue Teams keep them out or kick them out.

The Blue Teams monitor networks, look for anomalies, triage alerts, and respond to incidents. They are deeply familiar with SIEM tools like Splunk or Sentinel, endpoint detection platforms, and vulnerability scanners.

But their job is not just reactive.  A mature Blue Team is proactive, threat hunting, refining detection rules, and running tabletop exercises to stay sharp.

Microsoft maintains one of the most sophisticated Blue Teams in the technology industry.  Their Defender Research Team continuously monitors global threat intelligence and develops defensive measures for their products and services.  This team analyses billions of security signals daily across Microsoft’s global network to identify emerging threats and develop countermeasures.

Microsoft’s Blue Team not only protects their own infrastructure but also provides threat intelligence and security updates to their customers worldwide.  Their defensive capabilities are enhanced by machine learning algorithms that can detect anomalous patterns indicative of novel attack methods, allowing them to stay ahead of evolving threats.

The Blue Team aims to prevent data breaches and downtime to the organisation, while improving incident response times.  They help to fortify infrastructure and build a sustainable security culture.

But here is where things get interesting.  Despite their strengths, Red and Blue Teams often operate in silos.  The Red Team uncovers vulnerabilities but does not always share remediation guidance.  The Blue Team defends, but without insights into the latest tactics, techniques, and procedures used by the Red Team, they may fall behind.

This disconnect can slow progress.  In some cases, it even creates friction.  And that is where Purple Teams come in.

Purple Teams were born from the need for collaboration.  Instead of Red and Blue Temas operating independently, Purple Teams blend the two disciplines into a shared, continuous feedback loop.

Now, this does not necessarily mean a new department.  A Purple Team can be a function, an initiative, or a role that facilitates information sharing between Red and Blue Teams.  In some organisations, Red and Blue Teams merge temporarily for exercises and simulations.

The benefits of the Purple Team are that it aligns attack and defence efforts, while accelerating learning and adaptation.  This ultimately helps to build institutional knowledge and reduces the overall response time.

Companies such as Claranet Cyber Security, CyberCX, and CyberArk offers purple team services that bring together offensive and defensive security experts to test and improve organisational security defences against real-world attack scenarios.

Purple Teams focus less on winning and more on learning.  They are about coaching, not competition.  The result is that Purple Teams are helping to address training gaps and reducing the time taken to detection an intrusion.  Purple Teams are therefore really helping to drive detection and response transformation in the cyber security space.

There is a growing ecosystem of tools that support Red, Blue, and Purple collaboration with frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK, which is knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques sourced from real-world observations.  There is also Atomic Red Team, which is an open-source library of tests designed to check your organisation’s security controls.

Blue Teams will often use tools like Splunk, Sentinel or LogRhythm to help with detection and logging, while Purple Teams are using tools like AttackIQ, PurpleOps and SafeBreach for continuous validation.

So how do you implement a Purple Team strategy?  The first thing is to break the silos and encourage cross-team collaboration with your security groups.  Align the understanding of the team using a common and shared framework, such as MITRE ATT&CK.  Run joint exercises that include both Red and Blue Teams in the planning stages and ensure the lessons learned are documented, discussed and addressed.

There are benefits to upskill both Red and Blue Teams to help them understand each other, which makes this not just a technical challenge, but also a cultural one.

So, if you are a tech leader listening today, here are the key takeaways.  Your Red Team test your weaknesses, your Blue Team defend your strengths, and the Purple Team help to improve the overall cyber security posture making each side smarter.

Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue.  It is a business continuity issue.  A reputational issue.  A leadership issue.  And in that context, Red, Blue, and Purple Teams are your allies on the frontline.

Your job is to ensure they are empowered, aligned, and constantly learning from one another.

That’s how you build resilience.

Well, that’s all for today.  If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your network.  You can find more insights, show notes, and resources at www.inspiringtechleaders.com

Thanks again for listening, and until next time, stay curious, stay connected, and keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in tech.