Purple Team Exercises
Real-time collaboration between red and blue teams to rapidly improve detection capabilities. Test real attack techniques with immediate feedback and detection rule creation.
The Power of Collaboration
Purple Team = Best of Red + Blue with Real-Time Collaboration
- Execute real attack techniques
- Test security controls
- Identify weaknesses
- Adversary simulation
- Real-time collaboration
- Immediate knowledge transfer
- Iterative improvement
- TTP sharing
- Monitor and detect attacks
- Incident response
- Improve controls
- SIEM/EDR tuning
What's Included
Red team executes techniques while blue team monitors, detects, and responds—with immediate feedback loop
Systematic coverage of tactics and techniques with measurable detection rates per technique
Comprehensive mapping of what was detected vs. missed with specific improvement recommendations
Blue team learns attacker TTPs firsthand, improving their hunting and detection capabilities
Create and tune SIEM rules, EDR policies, and detection logic based on real attack execution
Continuous cycle of attack → detect → improve → retest until detection coverage is achieved
Exercise Types
From simple exercises to advanced threat emulation
Discussion-based walkthroughs of attack scenarios without actual execution
Execute specific techniques to validate and tune detection rules
Execute individual ATT&CK techniques with Atomic Red Team tests
Multi-stage attack simulations testing end-to-end detection capabilities
Emulate specific APT groups based on threat intelligence with purple team approach
Ongoing program with regular exercises throughout the year
Technique Categories Tested
Sample of MITRE ATT&CK techniques we cover in exercises
Exercise Process
- Identify target tactics and techniques
- Review current detection capabilities
- Define success metrics
- Create exercise schedule
- Set up monitoring tools
- Access to SIEM/EDR dashboards
- Prepare attack tools
- Establish communication channels
- Red team executes technique
- Blue team monitors in real-time
- Document detection results
- Immediate discussion of findings
- Analyze why detected or missed
- Create/tune detection rules
- Improve logging coverage
- Update runbooks
- Re-execute missed techniques
- Validate new rules work
- Confirm no false positives
- Document progress
- Detection coverage report
- Improvement roadmap
- Tool recommendations
- Future exercise plan
Deliverables
ATT&CK-mapped view of detection capabilities: detected, partially detected, missed
Sigma, YARA, and SIEM-specific rules created/tuned during exercises
Detailed analysis of each technique tested with detection status and recommendations
Prioritized action items to improve detection coverage with estimated effort
Enhanced incident response procedures based on exercise learnings
High-level overview of detection maturity and improvement trajectory
Benefits of Purple Team
Immediate feedback accelerates learning vs. waiting for final red team report
Blue team learns attacker mindset and techniques directly from red team
Track detection coverage improvement over time with ATT&CK metrics
Know your detections actually work against real attack techniques
Break down silos between offensive and defensive security teams
Build defenses against known TTPs before real adversaries attack
Frequently Asked Questions
Red team operates covertly without blue team knowledge, simulating real adversaries to test if attacks would be detected. Purple team is collaborative—red team and blue team work together with red team explaining techniques while blue team attempts to detect them in real-time. Red team validates "can we detect attacks", purple team focuses on "how can we improve detection".
Purple team can benefit organizations at various maturity levels. For less mature organizations, we focus on foundational techniques and basic detection capabilities. For mature organizations, we test advanced techniques and sophisticated evasion. The key requirement is having some detection capability (SIEM, EDR) and dedicated blue team members to participate.
We use ATT&CK as the common language and testing framework. We systematically work through relevant tactics and techniques, executing them while testing detection. Results are mapped to ATT&CK to show coverage: which techniques are detected, partially detected, or missed. This creates a measurable baseline and improvement tracking over time.
A focused purple team workshop covering 10-20 techniques typically takes 2-5 days. Comprehensive exercises covering a full tactic or multiple tactics can take 1-2 weeks. Many organizations opt for continuous purple team programs with recurring sessions throughout the year to systematically improve detection coverage.
We use a combination of: Atomic Red Team for standardized technique execution, Caldera for automated adversary emulation, commercial C2 frameworks (Cobalt Strike, etc.) for advanced techniques, your existing SIEM/EDR for detection, and Sigma for creating portable detection rules. We also use custom tools as needed for specific scenarios.
We create rules in multiple formats: Sigma rules (vendor-agnostic, portable), native SIEM rules for your platform (Splunk SPL, Elastic KQL, Microsoft KQL), EDR custom detections, and YARA rules for file/memory scanning. All rules are tested during the exercise to validate they work without excessive false positives.
No prior purple team experience is required. Part of our value is training your team through the exercise. We explain techniques, demonstrate attacks, guide detection analysis, and teach detection engineering. Your team will gain significant hands-on experience through participation.
Yes, purple team exercises can be conducted remotely with screen sharing for real-time collaboration. However, in-person sessions often provide better learning experience and faster iteration. We offer both options and can do hybrid approaches with key sessions in-person.
We prioritize based on: threat intelligence relevant to your industry (which APTs target you, their common TTPs), your current detection gaps (if known), techniques required for kill chains in your environment, and regulatory/compliance requirements. We work with you to create a testing plan that addresses your specific risk profile.
Purple team provides measurable ROI through: reduced mean-time-to-detect (MTTD) for attacks, validated security tool investments (proving your SIEM/EDR actually works), reduced breach impact through faster detection, compliance evidence of security testing, and trained blue team with improved skills. Organizations typically see 30-50% improvement in detection coverage after comprehensive purple team programs.
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