What is a Purple Team Assessment?

A purple team assessment is a combination of a red and blue team exercise. A red team exercise is essentially where a penetration tester attempts to circumvent security controls and identify security flaws with the objective of gaining unauthorized access to confidential/sensitive data or information systems within an organization. A blue team exercise is where the defensive security team at an organization attempts to detect and stop a malicious actor from gaining unauthorized access to confidential/sensitive data or information systems.

Combining both exercises, both teams work together in order to maximize the effectiveness of the organization’s defensive security controls and implementations. A purple team assessments help prepare an organization for malicious activities by increasing visibility, reducing detection & response rate, and even allowing for the organization’s security teams to execute and test their response procedures.