Programming
Teams in cybersecurity: red, blue or purple?
Oct 27, 2025
3-4 min Reading time
Cybersecurity approaches require not only protection, but also proactive detection of vulnerabilities. In this regard, the concepts of Red, Blue and Purple Teams are on the agenda in the field of cybersecurity. Although we hear their names a lot, there is often confusion about what these teams do.
Differences between Red Team and Blue Team in Cybersecurity
The Red Team is made up of cybersecurity professionals. They conduct attacks like real hackers to test a company's IT systems and thus uncover system vulnerabilities. The main goal of the Red Team is to identify weaknesses, gaps, and potential entry points in an organization's IT systems and provide guidance on how to address them.
The main tasks of the Red Team are:
Offensive Security
Ethical Hacking
Identification of vulnerabilities
Penetration Testing
Vulnerability Assessment
“Black, white and gray box” tests
Social engineering
Vulnerability testing of network, system, web and mobile applications
Red Team Skills
The following are the important skills that Red Team members should know in the field of cybersecurity :
Offensive Security Techniques: Red Team employees must be familiar with and able to apply the details of the stages of the Cyber Kill Chain, the tactics and techniques of the MITRE ATT&CK Framework.
Ethical Hacking: Ethical hacking is not just about finding vulnerabilities. It should also conduct the entire process in accordance with permissions. Finally, it should document the results in detail.
Infrastructure basics: The attacker must have a good understanding of how the network and system infrastructure of the target they are attacking works and must formulate attack scenarios accordingly.
Secure Coding: In cybersecurity, Red Team specialists must be able to work with code like programming experts, and help fix dangerous parts of the code through automated and manual interventions.
The Blue Team are defensive-oriented guards in the field of Cybersecurity.
On the other hand, they are responsible for protecting the organization's IT infrastructure from cyber threats. They act as a "defender" team, detecting, preventing, and mitigating threats. Blue Teams continuously monitor the organization's networks, systems, and applications and respond to any security incidents.
Blue Team's Main Duties:
Defensive Security
Infrastructure protection
Damage control
Incident Response (IR)
Operational safety
Threat Hunting
Digital Forensics
The following are important skills that Blue Team members should know in the field of cybersecurity :
Security Monitoring and Incident Response: Blue Team members are responsible for monitoring and detecting security incidents in real time. This role requires the ability to use security monitoring tools and analyze log data. Within the company, these processes are primarily handled by SOC (Security Operations Center) specialists.
Network and System Administration: They should also have strong knowledge in network and system administration, because, like attackers, defenders must be familiar with the systems they are protecting.
Monitoring and Detection Systems: As a Blue Team specialist, you must be able to work with packet sniffers, security and information event management (SIEM) programs, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and prevention systems (IPS).
Threat Intelligence Analysis: Blue Team members must stay informed about the latest threats and trends in cybersecurity. This includes analyzing threat intelligence resources, monitoring dark web forums, and learning about new attack techniques.
Security Analytics and Forensics: They should also have security analytics and digital forensics skills. This skill allows them to investigate security incidents, analyze attacks, and gather evidence for further investigation.
Security Automation: Blue Team employees also implement the principles of automated incident response, including approaches such as "scripting", "automated active response", and SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) .
Key differences between Red Team and Blue Team:
The Red Team's goal is to find security vulnerabilities through simulated attacks. The Blue Team's goal is to protect the organization's IT infrastructure, detect threats, and prevent them.
The Red Team uses tools and techniques such as penetration testing, social engineering, and vulnerability assessment to exploit vulnerabilities. The Blue Team uses security tools such as Firewall, IDS/IPS, WAF, SIEM, EDR/XDR to protect the organization's assets.
The Red Team is responsible for detecting and reporting security vulnerabilities, while the Blue Team is responsible for implementing security measures, monitoring threats, and responding to incidents.
The main goal of the Purple Team is to ensure that the Red and Blue teams work together, benefiting from each other's experiences and strategies, and thereby making the organization's cyber defenses extremely strong. That is, the Purple Team helps organizations continuously identify and resolve security vulnerabilities, creating a more robust and effective defense against real-world cyber threats.
The main goal of the purple team in cybersecurity is:
Improving detection and response skills
Security controls assessment
Identifying and prioritizing vulnerabilities
Strengthening communication and cooperation
Continuous improvement
Success in cybersecurity comes from the combined efforts of these three teams. Thanks to their strong strategy, organizations are better protected against real threats.
