NetSec Academy

Purple Team Collaboration

Purple teaming is a continuous feedback loop between offensive simulation and defensive improvement. It shortens the path from “attack executed” to “detect reliably”.

Purpose

Rather than a separate permanent team, purple teaming is often an operational practice bringing together red and blue functions in structured exercises. The goal: translate adversary techniques into actionable, tested detections and response playbooks.

Collaborative Exercise Flow

Plan

Select tactics/techniques (ATT&CK), define success criteria & data sources.

Execute

Red simulates technique transparently; blue observes raw telemetry.

Baseline

Capture logs; confirm visibility & differentiate noise.

Engineer Detection

Draft logic using fields (e.g., process, parent, cmdline, auth events).

Validate

Re-run technique until alert triggers with minimal false positives.

Document

Detection logic, enrichment steps, response actions, KPIs.

Retrospective

Lessons learned; prioritize next techniques by risk & coverage gaps.

Coverage Matrix Example

T1059 Command Execution EDR, Sysmon, Bash history Alert in staging Yes
T1078 Valid Accounts Auth logs, CloudTrail In progress No
T1046 Network Service Scanning Flow logs, IDS Alert tuned Yes
T1566 Phishing Email gateway, proxy logs Partial (needs URL det.) Yes

KPIs & Outcomes

Detection Lag

Time from execution to alert creation & successful test.

Technique Coverage %

Portion of selected techniques with validated detection + playbook.

False Positive Ratio

Volume of benign events matched by new logic during tuning window.

Success Characteristics

  • Transparent collaboration (no adversarial secrecy).
  • Shared language: MITRE tactic/technique IDs.
  • Documented log field catalog.
  • Dedicated iteration cycles & retrospectives.

References

  • MITRE ATT&CK – Technique catalog (attack.mitre.org)
  • Unified Kill Chain – Collaboration perspective
  • Cyentia Research reports (trends & metrics)