As you study cybersecurity and ethical hacking, you will undoubtedly see references to Red, Blue, and Purple teams. You may not know these teams are used in many situations, such as hackathons, cyber audits, and incident response simulations. Each team is essential in assessing an organization’s cybersecurity readiness and effectiveness.
This article will explain the red, blue, and purple teams, the skills required for each team, jobs or careers as an ethical hacker, and why they are used. Keep in mind that organizations may not use the terms “Red,” “Blue,” or “Purple” teams officially. If you’re trying to land a job doing offensive or defensive cybersecurity, it will almost certainly be titled something else. We’ll discuss this topic more below.
There is a lot to cover here, so we’ve provided a table of contents so you can skip ahead.
Table of Contents
- Red , Blue , and Purple Teams Explained
- Red Team Objectives, Tactics and Skills
- Blue Team Objectives, Tactics and Skills
- Purple Team Objectives, Tactics and Skills
- How a Red and Blue Team is different than white hat hacking
- How Red and Blue Teams are different from penetration tests
- How to get a job on a Red, Blue, or Purple Team
- Additional cybersecurity learning resources and career options
Red, Blue, and Purple Teams Explained
Before we dive deep into each team and their roles, let’s quickly explain each team and their role in cybersecurity:
A Red team is focused on offensive security, simulating cyberattacks that seek to exploit the target’s infrastructure.
A Blue team is focused on defensive security, seeking to defend, deter, and deny the red team from successfully penetrating and exploiting the network.
A Purple team is focused on collaboration and creating actionable data insights across the red and blue teams. Purple teams assist with data aggregation, vulnerability analysis, and providing recommendations to improve security operations across an organization.
Where Red Team vs. Blue Team originated from
Cybersecurity is not the first field to use terms such as “Red vs. Blue” or “Red Team vs. Blue Team.” In fact, the terms originate from military war doctrine and training exercises known as wargames to refer to opposing teams.
It’s also been used with the Halo video game series and inspired a web series, Red vs. Blue.
Red Team Objectives, Tactics and Skills
Red Team has one primary objective: detect a vulnerability and penetrate the target. To accomplish this, a Red Team member has the authority to leverage multiple techniques to successfully penetrate and exploit a target. However, this is almost exclusively within the guardrails of a simulated cyber incident, as the scope of the exercise is not equivalent to a penetration test (more on this nuance below).
Red Teams can use social engineering and penetration testing tools (Kali Linux is a staple, and CISA RedEye assists Red and Blue Teams with log analysis) to simulate vulnerability exploitation and penetration tactics.
- Offensive Security: Red teams simulate real-world cyberattacks, attempting to breach an organization’s security defenses.
- Vulnerability Discovery: They identify weaknesses in systems, networks, and applications.
- Threat Modeling: Red teams analyze potential threats and their potential impact.
- Ethical Hacking: They use ethical hacking techniques to expose vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.
Since a Red Team can be successful only after a few identified vulnerabilities or simulated cyberattacks against a target, it is usually much smaller than a Blue Team.
Blue Team Objectives, Tactics and Skills
Conversely, the Blue Team is primarily focused on defensive posture within the environment. Blue Teams utilize numerous tools and platforms to identify, contain, and remediate threats that a Red Team may leverage.
- Defensive Security: Blue teams protect an organization’s systems and data.
- Threat Detection: They monitor networks for signs of intrusion or malicious activity.
- Incident Response: They respond to security incidents, containing and mitigating the damage.
- Security Posture Management: Blue teams continuously assess and improve the organization’s security posture.
Essentially, Red Teams act as attackers, while Blue Teams act as defenders. By working together, these teams help organizations strengthen their security posture and improve their ability to respond to cyber threats.
Purple Team Objectives, Tactics and Skills
Purple Teams are the collaborative and consultative team amongst Red and Blue in any engagement. Effective Purple Team contributions will include serving as a bridge between the other teams, understanding each other’s offensive and defensive capabilities, and developing informed future guidance for a client or organization.
A Purple Team analyst aggregates data and results from the Red and Blue teams to help develop recommendations and implementable best practices. The data analyzed can include identified and exploited vulnerabilities and an extensive inventory of ports, protocols, software, and hardware that helped either team.
Promoting collaboration and communication amongst all teams as a Purple Team member is vital to ensure that the exercise isn’t conducted in vain. Ideally, data-driven outcomes and directives for future implementation are adopted by a client or organization to improve security posture.
How a Red and Blue Team is different than white hat hacking
A Red Team or Blue Team member differs from a white hat hacker or an ethical hacker (by strict definition). A white hat hacker is an ethical hacker who identifies vulnerabilities, while a Red Team simulates cyberattacks to test an organization’s cybersecurity defenses.
Red Team tactics will be more persistent and aggressive than white hat hackers, as white hat hackers typically identify and responsibly disclose vulnerabilities. Companies and organizations such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and even the Pentagon routinely pay white hat hackers bug bounties.
A Blue Team is not considered white hat hacking either, as Blue Team members perform defensive cybersecurity measures, monitoring and responding to cyber threats and cyberattack attempts from a Red Team.
How Red and Blue Teams are different from penetration tests
While there are some similarities, it’s important not to confuse a Red, Blue, and Purple team exercise with a penetration test. While a penetration test focuses on identifying vulnerabilities within a system, network, or IT infrastructure, a Red vs. Blue Team exercise goes further.
Red vs. Blue Team exercises simulate a realistic cyberattack or cyber threats to test cybersecurity defense in depth, assess overall security posture, and determine how robust an organization’s cybersecurity team monitors, detects, and responds to attacks.
Simply put, a penetration test is significantly more limited in scope and has different intended objectives.
However, it’s essential to understand that neither a Red vs. Blue Team exercise nor a penetration test will satisfy a network environment’s compliance requirement.
Cybersecurity compliance requirements are much more complex and vary based on the operating environment, such as on-premises, disconnected networks, or cloud-native.
For example, the United States Department of Defense uses a GovCloud with multiple DISA Impact Levels for cloud-hosted workloads that align with security and data policies.
How to get a job on a Red, Blue, or Purple Team
As stated above, if you are passionate about doing the work of a Red, Blue, or Purple team member, there are several important factors to consider.
First, it will almost certainly be under a different title in a job listing. Few job openings explicitly state “[Color] Team Operations” or some variant of this title. Most organizations won’t even use the terms “Red,” “Blue,” or “Purple,” even informally.
Second, you should also understand that unless you work with multiple clients as a cybersecurity consultant, you won’t perform these activities continuously, but likely once a year. Organizations rarely perform Red vs. Blue exercises more frequently.
According to a survey by Exabeam at Black Hat, 23% of respondents conduct exercises monthly, 17% quarterly, 17% annually, and 15% biannually.
Instead, you should be open to roles with significantly more responsibilities and impact versus a narrow-focused box of just “Red Team” or “Blue Team” members.
You want to be careful not to “box yourself” into a role that can be as limiting (e.g., “I just want to be a Red Team member”), as the cybersecurity field is complex and requires you to wear “many hats.”
Finally, there will likely be more opportunities to participate as a Blue or Purple team member than a Red team. Most of the engagement emphasizes evaluating an organization’s cybersecurity defenses through monitoring, detection, incident response, and risk management, which requires a more robust team than Red.
Example Cybersecurity jobs and titles you should search for
Your job search may come up short unless you consider different job titles and roles.
To find the best fit for a cybersecurity career with Red, Blue, or Purple team responsibilities, you’ll need to research companies you are considering applying to.
Many companies may have unique titles and naming conventions, so pay close attention to the required job listing skills. Broadly speaking, cybersecurity roles that may be a close match with similar responsibilities, requirements, or skills to search for include:
- Security/Cybersecurity Analyst
- Information Security Analyst
- Security Architect
- Security/Cybersecurity Engineer
- Penetration Tester
- Cyber Threat Intelligence
- Incident Response Analyst
- Security/Cybersecurity Consultant
- Security/Cybersecurity Specialist
- Security Operations Center Analyst/Engineer
- Digital Forensics Analyst/Engineer
- Security/Cybersecurity Compliance
Finally, be aware that opportunities will vary on other factors, such as geographic area, time of year, and experience requirements.
Additional cybersecurity learning resources and career options
Cybersecurity is a massive industry that is constantly evolving. While ethical hacking and penetration testing are usually what every person envisions cybersecurity to be, there are endless opportunities in the field.
For example, many other focus areas within cyber could appeal to you, such as audit and compliance, specializing in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). If you love working with people and building relationships, sales can be an exciting and lucrative option as a Pre-sales Cybersecurity Engineer.
