Running a Purple Team Exercise

A purple team exercise is a structured process, not an ad-hoc hacking session. It follows a repeatable lifecycle:

• Plan — pick objectives, scope, and techniques
• Prepare — confirm telemetry, tooling, and authorization
• Execute — run techniques and observe live
• Analyze — classify outcomes and log gaps
• Improve — tune detections and re-test
• Report — capture metrics and actions

Treating it as a lifecycle is what makes results comparable over time.

Start with a clear, threat-informed objective. Vague goals ('test our security') produce vague results.

Good objectives are specific and measurable:

• Validate detection of credential access techniques used by ransomware affiliates
• Confirm visibility across the lateral movement tactic
• Measure mean time to detect for a known intrusion chain

Anchor the objective to a real threat actor or scenario relevant to your organization so the techniques you test are the ones you are likely to face.