Red Team, Blue Team & Purple Team. Action, Defense, and Assessment

The cybersecurity sector is constantly evolving, and it is necessary to be prepared for every possible situation that may arise. That is why there are different cybersecurity teams: the Blue Team, the Red Team, and the Purple Team. Each has a different role and is used to assess and analyze potential system vulnerabilities.The terms Red Team and Blue Team are commonly used to describe teams that use their skills to assess a company’s cybersecurity defenses. Either mimicking the attack techniques that “enemies” might use (red team), or teams that use their skills to defend (Blue team). In fact, these teams play an important role in defending against advanced cyberattacks that threaten business communications, confidential customer data, or trade secrets.When it comes to cybersecurity and data protection, these two teams are essential. This is because they work together to detect vulnerabilities, prevent cyberattacks, and simulate threat scenarios.

To understand in detail how each team works and what its functions are, we will describe each one:

Red Team

The Red Team is what we call offensive security and is made up of security professionals who act as adversaries to bypass cybersecurity controls. It is responsible for testing the Blue Team by searching for vulnerabilities.The Red Team launches a radical attack on the system to test the effectiveness of the security program. This attack is unannounced so that the defense can be as objective as possible and simulate a real-world attack. The attacks may originate from within the company itself or from an external firm. The teams are typically made up of ethical hackers who assess security objectively.It is often confused with the role of a pentester, as there is some overlap between their functions and skills, but they are not the same. Penetration testers carry out an intrusion process using pivoting techniques, social engineering, and other hacking tests, culminating in a report that identifies vulnerabilities. By simulating various attacks, it is possible to identify potential security breaches and observe the behaviors and potential techniques of future attackers. The effectiveness of the Red Team lies in constantly verifying the possibility that someone outside the company could gain access to the systems and modify them.

How Does a Red Team Work?

Red Teams, although it may not seem like it, spend more time planning an attack than carrying out attacks. In fact, the Red Team is responsible for implementing a series of methods to gain access to a network. Red Teams are hired to test the effectiveness of the Blue Team by emulating the behavior of a real Black Team (cyber attackers) to make the attack as realistic and chaotic as possible.They use a wide variety of methods and tools to exploit and break down a network’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Among these, we might find phishing, vulnerability identification, firewall intrusion, etc. It is important to note that these teams will use all necessary means, according to the terms of the engagement, to gain access to a system. Depending on the vulnerability, they may deploy malware to infect a host or even bypass physical security controls by cloning access cards.

Red Team Roles

• • Red Teams emulate attackers, using the same or similar tools. Through these attacks, they aim to exploit security vulnerabilities in the organization’s systems and/or applications (exploits), use pivoting techniques (moving from one machine to another), and target the organization’s systems and/or applications.

• • They carry out a process of emulating threat scenarios that an organization faces. They do this by analyzing security from the attackers’ perspective, to give the security team (Blue Team) the opportunity to defend against attacks in a controlled and constructive manner.

• • Therefore, the Red Team serves as a test for the Blue Team, where the organization’s actual ability to protect its critical assets and its detection and response capabilities are evaluated, taking into account technological, process, and human factors.

Blue Team

The Blue Team is what we call defensive security and is made up of security professionals responsible for protecting the organization’s critical assets against any threat. It is responsible for proactively defending against real and simulated attacks by the Red Team. Although conventional cybersecurity teams have similarareas of responsibility, they differ from the Blue Team. The Blue Team is designed to constantly collect monitoring data for ongoing assessment, whereas conventional cybersecurity teams only act when they receive an attack alert. The Blue Team is usually made up of the organization’s internal cybersecurity staff.The Blue Team aims to analyze patterns and behaviors that deviate from the norm. It is also responsible for conducting assessments of various threats that could affect the organization, monitoring, and recommending action plans to mitigate potential risks. To prevent attacks, they create a database with a range of possible use cases. In the event of an attack, the Blue Team springs into action and carries out response tasks, including forensic analysis of the affected machines, tracing attack vectors, proposing solutions, and implementing detection measures. Although the Blue Team is typically used to defend against large-scale attacks, it evaluates and analyzes any security breach that occurs in the system, no matter how minor.

How Does a Blue Team Work?

The Blue Team begins with an initial data collection, documents exactly what needs to be protected, and conducts a risk assessment. They then harden system access in a variety of ways. They also handle staff training on security policies such as stricter passwords and ensure that employees understand and follow security procedures.Monitoring tools are typically implemented to allow information about system access to be logged and verified to detect unusual activity. Blue Teamsperform periodic checks on the system, such as DNS audits, vulnerability scans of internal or third-party networks and capturing sample network traffic for analysis.

Blue Team Roles

• • They conduct constant monitoring, analyzing patterns and behaviors that deviate from the norm at the system, application, and human levels, as they relate to information security.

• • They work on continuously improving security, tracking cybersecurity incidents, analyzing systems and applications to identify flaws and/or vulnerabilities, and verifying the effectiveness of the organization’s security measures.

How do the red and blue teams work together?

Communication between the two teams is the most important factor for conducting successful exercises and for the constant improvement of the system.The Blue Team must stay up to date on new technologies to improve security and must share all information with the Red Team in order to conduct test attacks. Likewise, the Red Team must always be aware of new threats and penetration techniques used by hackers and advise the Blue Team on prevention techniques.Depending on the objective of the test, the Red Team may or may not inform the Blue Team of a planned test. For example, if the goal of the attack is to simulate a real-world response scenario, the Blue Team will not be notified of the test. Only someone in management should be informed about the test for later analysis; this is usually a Blue Team leader.When the test is complete, both teams gather information and report on their results. The Red Team notifies the Blue Team if they manage to penetrate the defenses and provides advice on how to block similar attempts in a real-world scenario. Similarly, the Blue Team informs the Red Team whether or not their monitoring procedures detected an attempted attack.

Finally, both teams must work together to plan, develop, and implement stricter security controls as needed.

Purple Team

The Purple Team exists to analyze and maximize the effectiveness of the Red and Blue Teams.

This team is responsible for pitting the Blue Team’s defense techniques against the Red Team’s attack techniques. This confrontation helps identify potential failure scenarios or attacks and determines whether the system is functioning properly and is adequately prepared. If the defense holds up during the confrontation, the new standards or relevant updates are implemented.The purpose of the Purple Team is to coordinate and ensure that the two aforementioned teams share information about system vulnerabilities. With the goal of achieving continuous improvement, the Purple Team is more of a coordinator for the Blue and Red Teams than a team in its own right.

The Purple Team coordinates the Red and Blue Teams to ensure their proper functioning and development

Functions of the Purple Team

The main objective of the Purple Team isto manage the organization’s security. They do this byconductingtests to verify the effectiveness of security mechanisms and procedures and to define/develop additional security controls to reduce the organization’s risk.For both companies and institutions, it is essential to implement security controls to minimize the risks of a cyberattack and protect the data they handle.

What are the benefits of having this equipment?

• • Strengthen your entire system. With Blue Team security testing and development, your system will become stronger and new, more effective security measures will be created.

• • Creating an action plan. Using the Purple Team’s actions, you can create various action plans. You will be able to anticipate potential attacks or other IT issues identified by the Red Team’s attacks.

• • Peace of mind. With the Blue and Red Team attacks and defenses, while there is always room for improvement, you’ll know your system is protected.

Although the various cybersecurity teams help create a strong defense against potential attacks, we must not forget that cyber attackers are constantly training and evolving to find even the smallest breach to gain access. That is why it is vital to continuously analyze all security systems. And even more so today, when cyberattacks on companies are constantly on the rise.

“Cyberattacks in Spain have increased by 125% over the past year, reaching 40,000 per day”Source: CyberSecurity News – 2021

This increase in cyberattacks is caused by the rapid shift to the digital world by many companies that have been forced to make the change due to the pandemic. It has also been caused by the adoption of remote work, as many companies were not prepared for this change. That is why the implementation of cybersecurity is so important and vital for companies.

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