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Purple Team Exercises — turn offensive findings into repeatable detection and response.

Not a demo. Not a test. A collaborative campaign where red and blue work together to close gaps, tune detection, and harden response. Senior red-teamers + SOC engineers, MITRE-mapped scenarios, measurable detection uplift.

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Why pentests fail if you stop at findings

Penetration tests expose how to get in. But if your SOC can't detect, alert, and act on that activity, nothing changed. Classic reports collect dust; alerts remain noisy; playbooks are missing or untested. The gap between offensive proof and defensive coverage is where breaches expand into incidents.

What is a Purple Team Exercise?

A time-boxed, collaborative engagement combining:

  • Threat-informed attack simulation (red) mapped to MITRE ATT&CK and your PIRs.

  • Real-time detection engineering (blue) — SIEM tuning, analytics, rules, playbooks.

  • Iterative verification — immediate tuning, replay, and measurable coverage improvements.
    Outcomes are practical: signatures, Sigma/KQL, detection logic, escalation SOPs, and reduced Mean Time To Detect (MTTD).

Who should run Purple Teams?

Ideal for organisations that want measurable SOC improvement:

  • Financial institutions & Payments (CISO / SOC Lead / Head Ops) — reduce fraud escape windows; prove regulator evidence (DORA).

  • Critical Infrastructure (Energy, Water, Transport) — validate OT/IT detection and incident playbooks.

  • Enterprise SaaS / Product & Cloud Ops (CTO / Product Owner) — ensure production incidents are detected and contained.

  • Security & Managed Service Providers (SOC Managers) — improve service deliverables and reduce false positives.

We speak your language — audits, regulators, boards.

Methodology — practical, measurable, repeatable

  1. PIR workshop & threat selection: align executives' questions to adversary goals.

  2. Adversary profile & PTTPs: choose actor(s) and priority TTPs; map to MITRE ATT&CK.

  3. Attack plan (red): short, realistic campaign executed with senior operators (hybrid AI + manual as required).

  4. Live blue response: SOC engineers working the telemetry, alerts and playbooks in real time.

  5. Iterate & tune: immediate rule creation (Sigma/KQL), suppression of false positives, enrichment and SOAR playbooks.

  6. Measure: pre/post detection coverage, MTTD delta, false positive delta, goal prevention rate.

  7. Retest & certify: validate fixes and deliver a closure certificate.

Pricing & engagement models (high level)

  • Sprint Purple (short) — 3–5 day live exercise + immediate tuning, suitable for hot fixes pre-release.

  • Quarterly Purple Retainer — 4 exercises/year, continuous detection test suite, annual audit pack.

  • Continuous PTaaS — monthly micro-exercises, automated detection regression, SOC training days.

Deliverables

  • Executive summary (one-page board brief).
  • MITRE ATT&CK heatmap with detection coverage and gaps.
  • Detection artifacts: Sigma rules, KQL, saved searches, parsing improvements.
  • SOC Playbooks & Runbooks (inc. workflow for triage, escalation & containment).
  • Detection Test Suite for continuous validation.
  • Retest certificate & roadmap with owners and SLAs.

Why Exploit Labs

  • Senior-only teams: red + blue SMEs with real SOC & red-team operator experience.

  • Goal-based: exercises aligned to business-critical PIRs and regulator expectations (CRA/DORA/NIS).

  • Action-first: we hand over working detection artifacts — not just recommendations.

  • Global delivery: Frankfurt & Dubai — EU & GCC operational and compliance experience.

  • AI-enhanced ops: faster telemetry analysis, candidate rule generation, and attack surface modelling.

Beyond the exercise

We integrate results into your IT-GRC: auto-create Jira issues, feed evidence into ServiceNow, schedule retests, and maintain a detection roadmap so coverage improves, not regresses.

FAQs

  • What’s the difference between a purple team exercise and a red team?
    A red team simulates attacker behavior and reports findings. A purple team is collaborative: red executes while blue actively detects and tunes in real time. Purple teams produce detection artifacts and reduce MTTD immediately.

  • Will this disrupt our operations or generate false alarms?
    Exercises are scoped with ROE and scheduled to minimise business impact. We run in coordinated mode where SOC is aware, or blind mode to measure real detection maturity. False positives are actively tuned during the exercise.

  • How do you measure success?
    KPIs include detection coverage (ATT&CK techniques detected), MTTD reduction, goal prevention rate, and false positive delta. We provide pre/post metrics and an executive RAG dashboard.

  • Which tools and outputs do we get?
    Sigma/KQL rules, SIEM saved searches, parsing improvements, SOAR playbooks, ATT&CK heatmap, detection test suite, and a prioritized remediation plan.

  • How long does a typical exercise take?
    Short sprints: 3–5 days. Full programs with retests and roadmaps: quarterly cycles or continuous PTaaS monthly micro-exercises.