PlexTrac ConceptsRed Teaming

Red teaming is a process of simulating attacks on a system or organization with an organized team of security experts, ethical hackers, or pentesters. The objective of red teaming is to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities and provide a comprehensive assessment with recommendations for improvement.

Red teaming is considered a more advanced methodology than pentesting as it goes beyond vulnerability identification and focuses on emulating sophisticated attacks, testing security controls, and comprehensively evaluating an organization’s security posture.

Red teaming is important because it enhances an organization’s security posture by simulating real-world attacks to uncover vulnerabilities. By identifying weaknesses in defenses, red teams help organizations refine security controls, policies, and response strategies—ultimately improving risk management and resource allocation. These realistic attack simulations not only ensure compliance with regulatory security testing requirements but also strengthen incident response capabilities and improve overall security posture.

Beyond technical improvements, red teaming boosts employee awareness by exposing staff to potential security threats and training them to respond effectively. Through continuous assessments and feedback, red teams support ongoing security improvements to avoid costly consequences of data breaches, regulatory fines, and reputational damage.

Some core functions of red teaming include:

• Penetration testing: Attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in a system
• Social engineering: Testing an organization’s ability to detect and prevent attacks
• Physical security testing: Assessing an organization’s physical security controls
• Red team exercises: Conducting simulated attacks to test its incident response
• Threat intelligence: Leveraging information on emerging threats or vulnerabilities
• Vulnerability management: Helping prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities
• Security training: Providing education to employees on security best practices
• Compliance testing: Ensuring regulatory or compliance requirements are met

Red teaming focuses on offensive tactics such as pentesting and adversary emulation to simulate real-world attacks—exploiting vulnerabilities and pinpointing security weaknesses before real adversaries can do so.

In contrast, Blue teaming focuses on defensive tactics such as threat hunting and incident response. Blue teamers protect the organization through proactive and preventive measures. They defend against real or simulated exploitation by identifying anomalies that could indicate nefarious activity and remediating them to prevent or mitigate the damage of cyber attacks.

Purple teaming is a collaboration between red teaming and blue teaming activities, often in real-time, to strengthen the attack surface. Just like color mixing, it combines defensive and offensive strategies to detect, respond to, and stop cyber threats.

Watch this video to learn more about red, blue, and purple team collaboration.

As a red teamer, whether you’re using the platform for tabletop exercises, pentesting, proactive security assessments, adversary emulation, or for another use case altogether, PlexTrac has features that will help you work more effectively and report more efficiently.

In addition to a slew of red and blue functionality, the platform also looks to unify security teams of all makeups, emphasizing the need for purple teaming collaboration. No more siloed teams or adversarial relationships.

Manage the full security lifecycle and watch your security posture strengthen with PlexTrac. Learn how PlexTrac can boost your security team’s efficiency today by booking a demo.

What Is Red Teaming? 

PlexTrac for Red Teamers

The Offensive Security Maturity Model: Get Ahead of Threats

Collaboration in Cybersecurity

Three Solutions to Common Red Teaming Problems

Measuring Your Offensive Security Maturity

The Cybersecurity Status Quo: Red vs. Blue Teams

Red Team Data Aggregation

Hack to the Future

The Gold Standard of Continuous Pentesting

Video: Red and Blue, Together Forever: Committing to Purple Team Collaboration