You've probably heard the terms "red team" and "blue team" thrown around in cybersecurity circles. Maybe you've even heard of "purple team." But what do these actually mean for your organization — and more importantly, how do they work together to keep you protected year-round?
Let's break it down in plain terms.
Red Team: The Attackers
A red team engagement simulates real-world attackers targeting your organization. The goal isn't just to find vulnerabilities — it's to prove whether those vulnerabilities can actually be exploited and how far an attacker could get.
Red team operations focus on stealth. We're not trying to set off every alarm in your network. We're testing whether your defenses would catch a determined, patient adversary.
The result? You learn exactly where your security gaps are and what an actual breach could look like.
Blue Team: The Defenders
Blue team assessments take the opposite approach. We work from inside your network, analyzing your systems, reviewing your configurations, and validating whether your security controls actually do what they're supposed to do.
Think of it as a thorough inspection of your defensive walls — not just checking that they exist, but confirming they'll hold when tested.
So What's Purple Team?
Traditionally, purple team exercises combine red and blue — attackers and defenders working together, sharing information in real-time to accelerate learning and improvement.
But here's a practical reality: most organizations can't afford dedicated red and blue teams on staff year-round. Annual assessments are valuable, but what happens during the other 364 days?
Your IT Staff as the Purple Team
This is where the concept gets practical.
After a red team engagement reveals your weaknesses and a blue team assessment validates your defenses, your organization has a clear security roadmap. The question becomes: who maintains that posture between assessments?
The answer is your existing IT staff — equipped with the right tools.
The key insight: With managed endpoint detection and response, continuous security scanning, and real-time monitoring, your IT team gains visibility into threats as they emerge. They're not waiting for next year's assessment to discover a problem. They're catching it now.
Your IT staff becomes the ongoing purple team: informed by professional assessments, empowered by managed security tools, and positioned to respond before issues become incidents.
The Year-Round Security Cycle
Here's how the pieces fit together:
Annual Assessment Phase: Red team tests your defenses. Blue team validates your security posture. You receive detailed findings and recommendations.
Continuous Monitoring Phase: Your IT staff uses managed services and ongoing scanning to monitor for new vulnerabilities, detect threats, and maintain the security baseline established during assessments.
Repeat: Next year's assessment measures improvement and identifies new challenges as your network evolves.
The Bottom Line
You don't need to hire a full security operations center. By combining periodic professional assessments with managed security tools, your existing IT staff becomes your continuous security force — bridging the gap between annual evaluations and keeping your organization protected every day.