Cyber attacks are on the rise. Hence, collaborative security testing is now crucial for organizations to improve their security measures. Purple teaming is one of the best ways to do it, as it integrates the offensive elements of red teams with the defensive elements of blue teams. However, many companies still fail to get meaningful results due to mistakes in purple teaming.
Security testing is a time and money-consuming process, and many organisations spend time and/or resources but then do not improve their detection and response. As a result, there are the same vulnerabilities that are continually emerging. This is because the same errors are being committed in purple teaming exercises, with no attention paid to understanding the underlying causes of the errors.
Lack of Clear Objectives Creates Confusion, Mistakes in Purple Teaming
Having clear goals is one of the biggest mistakes in purple teaming that can be made. There are lots of teams that start testing right away since they need results quickly. But, without clear objectives, confusion will reign for everybody involved.
Some organisations just say to the teams, for instance, “test security defenses.” Unfortunately, that’s too general an instruction. This means that the exercise is unfocused and, instead of actionable insights, random findings are produced.
To prevent this issue, measurable goals should be set ahead of time before the engagement.
There are a few items that you should set up:
- Specific attack scenarios
- Detection goals
- Response expectations
- All the critical systems are to be tested.
- Success metrics
In addition, it is important that all stakeholders have an understanding of the extent of the exercise. Clearly defined goals enable the team to work together more effectively and prevent time from being wasted.
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Poor Communication Between Teams
Communication problems can ruin the worst security exercises. Unfortunately, a lack of collaboration is one of the most frequent mistakes in purple teaming these days.
Red teams have detailed objectives of how to attack, and blue teams have detailed objectives of how to detect and contain. It is not an exercise, however, if both parties don’t provide each other with information on a regular basis.
For instance:
- The red team doesn’t permit the presentation of good explanations of attack techniques.
- Blue teams can ignore the feedback from the attackers.
- Analysts can make mistakes in the detection alert.
- Sometimes managers may not get accurate report updates.
As a readdress thisissing out on strengthening the security of their systems. We can do this by establishing communication channels in advance of the test. Make regular meetings, establish the reporting format, and open discussions throughout the engagement.
Real Life Example
Microsoft reported a phishing campaign that targeted over 35,000 users across 13,000 organizations, proving that poor communication and weak detection strategies can allow attackers to bypass security controls successfully.
Treating Purple Teaming Like a Competition
The other serious problem is the team mentality. Some organizations make mistakes in purple teaming and make it a game of hackers versus defenders. Unfortunately, this attitude is not conducive to collaboration but to tension.
It’s one of the worst things you can do when purple teaming, as it takes your focus off improving security.
- Purple teaming should NOT turn into:
- A blame game
- A performance contest
- A personal rivalry
- A means to offend and humiliate analysts.
Rather, both parties need to collaborate for a common objective – better security for the organization. Without competition, teams have more of a chance to be open about their shortcomings. Consequently, they are able to detect security vulnerabilities more quickly and remedy them more effectively.
Ignoring Proper Planning and Preparation
There are many companies that rush into doing exercises without preparing their teams accordingly. As a result, they suffer from delays, confusion, and test partially only. In purple teaming, one of the most preventable pitfalls is having poor preparation, and they can correct this one before the start of the exercise.
- Preparation should include:
- Asset identification
- Threat intelligence review
- Tool validation
- Team coordination
- Testing schedules
- Backup procedures
Focusing Only on Tools Instead of Skills
Security systems are vital, but they’re not the only thing that will work. Unfortunately, many companies rely too heavily on automation and neglect the expertise of humans. This dependency causes huge errors when it comes to purple teaming; at the end of the day, investigations are still handled by a skilled analyst.
Examples of automated tools could include:
- Catch unusual movements of the opponent. Notice unusual attacking movements.
- Generate false positives
- Ignore context-based threats
- Be unable to make accurate links between events
Thus, it is essential that organisations continually train both red and blue teams. Workshops, simulations,s and skill development sessions are held regularly, which further enhance the performance.
CrowdStrike’s 2023 Threat Hunting Report found that 62% of interactive cyber intrusions involved compromised identities, highlighting why organizations must strengthen detection and response during purple team engagements.
Using Unrealistic Attack Scenarios
There are some entities that create “cool” attack scenarios that don’t accurately represent the actual attacks. This causes defenders to take time to prepare for situations they won’t encounter rather than for situations that they will. This issue leads to poor testing, and it’s causing the same issues that are happening all across many industries as part of purple teaming.
For instance, organizations may only be concerned with more sophisticated nation-state attacks and neglect more typical threats, such as:
- Phishing
- Credential theft
- Misconfigured systems
- Insider threats
- Ransomware activity
Rather, the industry, infrastructural, and threat intelligence should guide the realistic attack paths that should be prioritized. In addition, security leaders should check out some of the recent cyber attacks on companies similar to their own. This enables the teams to train against realistic challenges, not just hypothetical ones.
Real Life Example
In 2023, attackers exploited a compromised desktop application to steal data and commit malicious activity in a 3CX supply chain attack, which highlights the need for purple teams to test realistic attacks and better collaboration between detection and response teams.
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Why Avoiding These Mistakes Matters
Well-designed purple teaming can provide a lot of value to organizations. But it can cause it to lose its effectiveness and to lose time in security spending.
To steer clear of these common issues, your business can:
- Improve threat detection
- Strengthen incident response
- Enhance team collaboration
- Reduce attack exposure
Improve cyber resilience. Develop increased cyber resilience. The most important thing to remember is that successful purple teaming fosters a culture of learning. The more time that goes by, the more confident teams are, the more effective the communication, and the more mature the level of security.
Conclusion
Purple teaming has the potential to significantly enhance an organization’s cybersecurity stance if conducted properly. Many organizations still make the same mistakes in purple teaming, such as not articulating clear objectives, not having a robust plan, or not having good communication between the teams. Consequently, the organizations are not able to get the best value from security testing.
When teams and planning are coordinated and the attack scenarios are realistic, the teams can prevent all major pitfalls in purple teaming more effectively. Besides, ongoing improvement enables organizations to enhance detection and response capabilities over time.
Hackers are going to make the same mistakes in purple teaming over and over, and as security teams discover what each one is, the moment becomes a learning opportunity to boost cybersecurity resilience.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the most common mistakes in purple teaming?
The most common problems are that the goals are not clear, communication is inadequate, planning is inadequate, unrealistic attack scenarios are used and improvements are not made following the exercise.
2. Why is communication important in purple team engagements?
Communication enables red and blue teams to exchange knowledge and insights, enhance detection capabilities, and better manage threats efficiently. Teams tend to miss out on valuable learning opportunities when they don’t work together.
3. How often should organizations conduct purple team exercises?
Organizations need to conduct purple team engagements on a regular basis, particularly following a significant change to the infrastructure, security incident, or finding of new threat intelligence.
