Purple teaming is a collaborative exercise where the offensive red team and defensive blue team work together openly to improve detection and response. Instead of attackers staying hidden and defenders being tested blind, the two sides share information in real time: red runs realistic techniques, blue watches whether monitoring detects them, and together they find gaps and immediately tune detections, then re-test. The name blends red + blue. vs red teaming: red teaming is adversarial and often covert (does the org notice a realistic attack?); purple is openly cooperative (fix detection gaps during the exercise). vs a pentest: a pentest finds exploitable weaknesses; purple improves the detection capability. A purple exercise works through known techniques - often structured around a recognised framework of adversary tactics and techniques - executing each, checking detection, and adjusting logic/logging where it's missed. Best when you already have monitoring and a detection/response team to measure and improve. Related: red teaming, red team vs pentest.
// 01 What purple teaming is
Purple teaming is a collaborative security exercise in which the offensive side (the red team) and the defensive side (the blue team) work together openly to improve an organisation's ability to detect and respond to attacks. Instead of the attackers trying to stay hidden and the defenders being tested without warning, the two sides share information in real time: the red team runs realistic attack techniques while the blue team watches to see whether their monitoring detects them, and together they identify gaps and immediately tune detections and responses. The name reflects the blending of red and blue. The goal is not to score a win for either side but to raise the organisation's overall detection and response capability as efficiently as possible through direct cooperation - which is why it's often the highest-value next step after a covert red team.
// 02 How it differs from red teaming (and a pentest)
The main difference is collaboration and objective. A red team engagement is adversarial and often covert: the red team tries to achieve objectives while remaining undetected, and one of the things being tested is whether the defenders notice - so information is deliberately not shared during the exercise. Purple teaming is openly cooperative: red and blue work side by side, sharing what's being done as it happens, so detection gaps can be found and fixed immediately rather than only written up afterwards. Put simply: red teaming answers whether the organisation would detect and withstand a realistic covert attack; purple teaming focuses on rapidly improving the detection and response capability itself. And versus a penetration test - which finds and proves exploitable weaknesses - purple teaming is about the defenders' ability to see the attack. Many organisations use all three: pentest to find weaknesses, red team to assess, purple team to improve. We cover the red/pentest boundary in red team vs pentest.
// 03 What a purple team exercise involves
A purple team exercise typically works through a series of known attacker techniques, often structured around a recognised framework of adversary tactics and techniques so coverage is systematic rather than ad-hoc. For each technique:
Execute
The red team runs the technique in the environment.
Observe
The blue team watches their monitoring and detection tools - is the activity detected, is an alert raised?
Tune
Where a technique goes unnoticed, the teams investigate why and adjust the detection logic or logging.
Re-test
The technique is run again to confirm the improvement now detects it.
This produces a clear, measurable picture of which attacker behaviours the organisation can and cannot currently detect, and steadily closes those gaps. The emphasis is on iterative improvement and knowledge transfer between the offensive and defensive sides - the blue team learns to think like attackers, the exercise leaves the detections permanently better.
// 04 When to do purple teaming
Purple teaming delivers the most value once an organisation has a functioning defensive capability - security monitoring and a team responsible for detection and response - that it wants to measure and improve. It's particularly useful for validating and tuning detection tools, improving the defensive team's skills through direct collaboration with attackers, and systematically closing detection gaps against realistic techniques. Organisations still establishing basic security generally benefit more first from foundational testing - vulnerability assessment and penetration testing - to fix exploitable weaknesses. A common progression: use penetration testing and red teaming to understand exposure and test defences, and purple teaming to rapidly raise the detection and response capability where gaps are found. It's the natural maturity step beyond the red team, and follows our methodology.
// 05 Frequently asked questions
What is purple teaming?
A collaborative security exercise where the offensive side (red team) and defensive side (blue team) work together openly to improve an organisation's ability to detect and respond to attacks. Instead of attackers staying hidden and defenders being tested without warning, the two sides share information in real time: the red team runs realistic techniques while the blue team watches whether their monitoring detects them, and together they identify gaps and immediately tune detections and responses. The name blends red and blue. The goal isn't to score a win but to raise detection and response capability as efficiently as possible.
How is purple teaming different from red teaming?
Collaboration and objective. A red team engagement is adversarial and often covert: the red team tries to achieve objectives while staying undetected, and whether defenders notice is part of the test, so information isn't shared during the exercise. Purple teaming is openly cooperative: red and blue work side by side, sharing what's being done as it happens, so detection gaps are found and fixed immediately rather than only written up afterwards. Red teaming answers whether the organisation would detect and withstand a realistic covert attack; purple teaming focuses on rapidly improving the detection and response capability itself.
What does a purple team exercise involve?
It works through a series of known attacker techniques, often structured around a recognised framework of adversary tactics and techniques for systematic coverage. For each, the red team executes it while the blue team observes their monitoring and detection tools to see whether it's detected and an alert raised. Where a technique goes unnoticed, the teams investigate why, adjust the detection logic or logging, and re-test to confirm the improvement. This produces a clear, measurable picture of which attacker behaviours the organisation can and cannot detect, and steadily closes those gaps - emphasising iterative improvement and knowledge transfer.
When should an organisation do purple teaming?
It delivers the most value once an organisation has a functioning defensive capability - security monitoring and a detection/response team - that it wants to measure and improve. It's particularly useful for validating and tuning detection tools, improving the defensive team's skills through direct collaboration with attackers, and systematically closing detection gaps against realistic techniques. Organisations still establishing basic security benefit more first from foundational vulnerability assessment and penetration testing to fix exploitable weaknesses. A common progression: pentest and red team to understand exposure, purple team to raise detection and response.
// 06 Related reading
- What is red teaming? and red team vs pentest.
- Penetration testing vs vulnerability assessment — the foundational tests.
- Red teaming service — where a purple engagement often grows from.