Purple Team Strategy
Modern security programs tend to talk about three colors. Each plays a distinct role, and together they form a practical loop for continuous improvement.
The three teams, in plain terms
- Red Team: ethical attackers who emulate real adversaries to expose how an organization can be compromised.
- Blue Team: defenders who monitor, detect, and respond to threats while hardening systems and processes.
- Purple Team: a collaborative practice where Red and Blue plan, execute, and learn together so every exercise measurably improves defenses.
Why Purple beats Red-or-Blue alone
Running a red team test without closing the loop can leave lessons unrealized. A purple team approach makes findings actionable by co-designing test plans, instrumenting detections, and validating fixes in the same cycle. The result is faster improvements, clearer accountability, and a stronger security posture with less rework.
Independent testing and compliance expectations
Common frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, and NIST families emphasize independence and effectiveness of testing. In practice, that means offensive testing should be performed by an independent third party to avoid conflicts of interest and to strengthen assurance. That is the role I provide as an external red team partner.
Red team penetration tests do not need to run continuously. Most organizations schedule them at least annually, with additional focused exercises when major changes occur or when risk appetite, threats, or architecture shift.
How this works in your program
- Annual independent red team engagement to validate real-world exposure.
- Purple team working sessions to translate findings into detections, playbooks, and controls.
- Blue team follow-through: implement changes, verify outcomes, and track metrics over time.