A purple team exercise brings the offensive (red) and defensive (blue) teams together to improve detection collaboratively, rather than testing it covertly. Our testers execute specific attacker techniques — structured around the MITRE ATT&CK framework — while your defenders watch, and together we measure whether each was detected, tune the detections that missed, and re-test. The output is not a pass/fail verdict but a measurable improvement in detection and response coverage, technique by technique, plus a roadmap of the detections to build. It is ideal for organisations with a SOC or MDR capability, and especially valuable for GCC financial institutions preparing for regimes like the SAMA FEER framework and the Kuwait CORF red-teaming requirement.
// 01 What is a purple team exercise?
A purple team exercise is a collaborative security engagement in which the attackers and defenders work as one team toward a shared goal: better detection. The name comes from combining red (offensive) and blue (defensive). Instead of the red team trying to slip past the blue team unnoticed, the two sides sit together: the offensive testers execute a specific technique, the defenders observe their tools and telemetry to see whether it was caught, and where it was not, they build or tune a detection on the spot and the technique is run again to confirm the fix. It is security improvement as a live, iterative loop rather than a report delivered weeks later.
// 02 Purple team vs red team
The two are complementary, and the difference is about goal and transparency.
| Aspect | Red team | Purple team |
|---|---|---|
| Style | Covert, adversarial | Transparent, collaborative |
| Blue team knows? | No | Yes — they participate |
| Answers | Can we be caught? | Let's make sure we can |
| Output | Proof of detection gaps | Improved detections, built and verified |
| Best for | Testing overall readiness | Systematically raising coverage |
Many organisations use both: a red team to test overall readiness honestly, and purple teaming to methodically close the gaps it reveals.
// 03 Structured around MITRE ATT&CK
We run purple team exercises against the MITRE ATT&CK framework — the industry-standard catalogue of the tactics and techniques real adversaries use. Working through the ATT&CK techniques relevant to your threat model gives the exercise something a freeform test lacks: a systematic, measurable structure. For each technique, we can answer concretely — was it detected, did it alert, was it responded to, and if not, what detection needs building. The result is a coverage map against a recognised standard, which is far more useful to a security team than a narrative of one attack path.
// 04 How the exercise runs
Plan & select techniques
Agree objectives and choose the MITRE ATT&CK techniques most relevant to your threat model and environment.
Execute & observe
Testers run each technique while your defenders watch their tools and telemetry in real time.
Measure
For each technique, record whether it was detected, alerted and responded to — building a coverage map.
Tune
Where detection missed, work with the team to build or refine the detection there and then.
Re-test & roadmap
Re-run to confirm the new detection works, and deliver a roadmap of remaining improvements.
// 05 Who it's for
Purple teaming suits organisations that already have a detection-and-response capability — an internal SOC or a managed detection and response provider — and want to know, and improve, how well it actually works. It is a maturity accelerator: rather than discovering blind spots during a real incident, you find and close them collaboratively. For GCC financial institutions in particular, it is directly relevant to the detection-and-response expectations of the SAMA FEER framework and the new Kuwait CORF red-teaming requirement, where the ability to detect and respond to a sophisticated attacker is exactly what is being assessed.
// 06 Frequently asked questions
What is a purple team exercise?
A collaborative engagement where red and blue work together — testers run techniques, defenders measure detection, and detections are tuned and re-tested in real time.
How is it different from a red team?
Red is covert and adversarial ("can we be caught?"); purple is transparent and collaborative ("let's make sure we can"), improving detection technique by technique.
What framework do you use?
MITRE ATT&CK — giving a systematic, measurable coverage map of detection against real adversary techniques.
Who is it for?
Organisations with a SOC or MDR wanting to measure and improve detection — especially GCC banks preparing for SAMA FEER and Kuwait CORF.