Every organization should have a cybersecurity department that ensures that the assets of the business are safe from attacks and data breaches. This security department is mostly made up of two teams: the red team and the blue team.

These teams are equally important and work hand-in-hand to ensure the security of the company. So, what do the red team and blue team do? And how are they different from each other?

Cybersecurity Is a Very Broad Field

Cybersecurity is a set of techniques used to protect people, data, and their assets from attack, breaches, and unauthorized access on the internet. It is a very wide concept and is divided into many fields. Some cybersecurity fields or domains include:

• Risk Assessment: Penetration testing, Social engineering, Vulnerability scanning.
• Governance: Audits, KPIs, Laws and regulations.
• Threat Intelligence.
• Security Architecture: Cryptography, Security Engineering, Network Design.
• Framework Structure: NIST, ISO, SANS.
• Security Operation: Vulnerability Management, SOC Analysis, SIEM, Incident Response.
• Physical Security.
• User Education and Career Development.

Most of these fields exist in an organization's security department and work hand-in-hand to ensure that the business is secure and safe from threats.

They are usually grouped into the red team and the blue team. Just like in the army, the red team is the offensive team while the blue team is defensive.

What Is a Red Team in Cybersecurity?

A red team is a group of cybersecurity professionals that carries out offensive security exercises on the company to test its security. This means that they simulate cyberattacks on organizations in order to detect and prevent vulnerabilities and unforeseen attacks.

What Does a Red Team Do?

The red team in an organization acts as a real-world attacker. They use rigorous real-world attack techniques to breach the security defenses of the organization and try to identify weaknesses in the system.

Just like actual malicious attackers, the red team begins an adversarial exercise or simulated attack by gathering information and performing reconnaissance on the organization. They might carry out social engineering attacks like spear-phishing to get sensitive credentials of personnel.

They would also perform scans on the organization and use tools like protocol analyzers and packet sniffers to gain information on the organization, the operating systems in use, physical controls, open ports, and the networking equipment.

Once they are done gathering information, they would be able to identify the weaknesses available in the system and tailor the exploits and attack paths to be used to breach the organization's defense. They perform penetration testing, social engineering attacks, reverse engineering, and active directory exploits, among other methods, to compromise the security of the company.

A typical red team is made up of penetration testers and ethical hackers, networking professionals, and offensive security engineers.

What Is a Blue Team in Cybersecurity?

A blue team in cybersecurity is a group of experts who defend and protect a business's security from cyberattacks. They constantly analyze an organization's security standing and implement measures to improve its defenses.

They perform threat intelligence, incident management, and security automation tasks to ensure that there are no risks or vulnerabilities.

What Does a Blue Team Do?

The blue team protects and defends an organization by identifying weaknesses using the information they already possess. They do this by carrying out vulnerability scans and risk assessments on the company and its assets. They perform system and DNS audits and monitor the organization's system access. The retrieved data is then logged and analyzed for unusual activities.

The blue team also implements security policies and educates the staff on how to keep themselves and the wider organization secure. They guide the business on security measures to invest in and implement controls and procedures to protect them from attack.

They also defend and restore the security of the business when it is suffering from a cyberattack or breach. The blue team perform Security Operations Center (SOC) functions, incidence tracking, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), threat intelligence, security automation, packet capture and analysis, and more.

The report from the simulated attack carried out by the red team is used to improve the organization's security posture.

A blue team generally includes SOC analysts, threat intelligence analysts, incident responders, and system auditors.

What Are the Differences Between a Red and a Blue Team?

The red team is the offensive team in the security department, while the blue team plays defensive. A red team behaves like an attacker to break in, while the blue team is tasked with defending the organization from those attacks, including real-world attacks, and ensuring that every staff member is trained to be security-conscious and that they adhere to cybersecurity regulations.

One of the goals of a red team is to find and identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the organization. This is why they run simulated attacks and offensive exercises. The blue team, on the other hand, ensures that there are little to no vulnerabilities or weaknesses in the organization's security. And in the event that the red team finds a vulnerability, the blue team's job is to fix or patch that exploit.

Another key difference between a blue team and a red team is that when an organization is facing a cyber threat or attack, the blue team is in charge of responding to it and eliminating or patching the breach.

Red Team vs. Blue Team: Which Is More Important?

The red team and the blue team are equally important in every organization. They work together to secure a company and protect it from threats and attacks.

A business with its red team and blue team working in sync will notice that its overall security posture is improved and strengthened. You cannot favor one team over the other, as a security department is most effective when these two teams collaborate.