The colorful world of Cybersecurity

Red, Blue, Purple, Yellow, Green, Orange… and White? Who would’ve thought the world of cybersecurity is as colorful as a rainbow – a Cyberbow, if you will. Here at Retest Security, we’re diving into the vibrant hues of this world, which is quite the adventure, especially if you’re just starting to explore where your passion lies in cybersecurity. But why all these colors, and what do they really mean?

It all began with two teams: Red team and Blue team. The terms originate from military exercises and war games, where they were used to simulate hypothetical scenarios and test a nation’s defense against real military threats. In our digital battlefield, these colors still hold their ground. As cybersecurity grew, so did our color palette.

In April 2017 C. Wright created the “Cybersecurity Color Wheel”, a document where she shed light on the different fields within Cybersecurity, described with colors.

The Red Team is the offensive team

The red team is the offensive team: The team that initiates a simulated cyberattack. This group of cybersecurity professionals have only one mission: Break into a system or network to discover potential vulnerabilities and risks. They act like malicious hackers, carrying out simulated attacks with the goal of finding and reporting any vulnerabilities within an organization before real malicious hackers can find and exploit them. They do not fix any of these vulnerabilities – they simply find them and report them to the Blue Team (defense team) to fix these vulnerabilities. A Red Team includes ethical hackers, penetration testers, threat intelligence analysts, vulnerability researchers and other offensive security professionals. But if you think they are sitting in a dark room wearing a black hoodie, only illuminated by a computer screen, then think again.

The Blue Team is the defensive team

They’re the digital guardians, fortifying defenses, configuring networks, sifting through logs, and managing incidents to keep the digital fort safe and the business running. When the Red Team identifies vulnerabilities, the Blue Team jumps into action, developing and implementing strategies to patch these weaknesses. During a live cyberattack, they’re the ones who respond to and mitigate the threats, continuously updating their strategies to stay ahead of the ever-evolving risks. Within the Blue Team you will find Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts, incident responders, risk assessment analysts, infrastructure architects, system administrators and other titles.

Mix Red & Blue – what do you get? Purple Team

That’s right, Purple. Ideally there shouldn’t be a need for a separate “purple team” – as Red & Blue teams, when working together as one unit, it automatically becomes a “Purple Team”. Purple Teaming is when the Red Team and Blue Team are working side by side, so that when the Red Team is making an attack, the Blue Team should be able to see their movements. If that is not the case, they can then use the attack to optimize what logs they are collecting, to be able to have a better detection capability in the future.

Yellow Team is all about building

The Yellow Team is a relatively new term in the cybersecurity arena. It is all about the creators and builders. The yellow team primarily comprises of programmers, developers, software engineers, and software architects – the masterminds who construct the digital landscapes that the Red and Blue Teams play on. This team is dedicated to building systems and applications with robust defenses from the start, and the ones responsible for developing patches. In the Yellow Team, you’ll also find security researchers with a focus on code & applications. These security researchers focus on finding and revealing previously unknown vulnerabilities in applications, for the primary yellow team members to fix, after a security researcher makes a responsible disclosure to the yellow team. This is typically what happens before a new CVE is published.

The Green Team consists of DevSecOps Engineers

The Green Team operates at the intersection of creation and defense, bridging the gap between the Yellow Team’s builders and the Blue Team’s protectors. Think of them as DevSecOps Engineers, the guardians of the application deployment process. Their primary mission? To ensure that every application is not only deployed securely but also that its entire development life cycle is fortified against threats. They focus on building strong defense mechanisms into both the code and design of applications, making sure that the virtual fortresses they help build are as secure as possible from the get-go.

The Orange Team is translating the Red Team’s offensive insights

The Orange Team plays a vital role as the bridge between offense and defense in the cybersecurity world. They’re the communicators and educators, tasked with translating the Red Team’s offensive insights into defensive strategies for the Yellow Team in their development process. Their primary responsibility is to keep the Yellow Team – the builders and developers – informed about vulnerabilities and risks identified during penetration tests. But their role doesn’t stop there. The Orange Team also serves as the cybersecurity educators of the organization. They’re responsible for creating awareness and train all members in best security practices, empowering everyone with the knowledge to protect themselves from cyberattacks. Think of them as the teachers in the digital school.

On the White Team you find the strategists and policymakers

This group stands apart, neutral and not aligned with any side. Here, you’ll find the strategists and policymakers, the ones who deal with law, management, and compliance often by utilizing frameworks such as CIS18, ISO27XXX and NIST. They’re the ones managing security departments, keeping an eye on progress and metrics, and ensuring that teams are well-organized. Then, they report these crucial results to the organization’s board. Made up of security managers, GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) analysts, and more, the White Team is like the overseers in the cybersecurity realm, ensuring that everything runs smoothly and according to plan. They are also the bridge between the Red Team and the Blue Team, when Red Team is conducting Red Team testing. They have the role of advising the Red Team on the risk(s) associated with an attack on the infrastructure, furthermore they are also in close dialog with the Blue Team to decide whether an attack should be escalated, or if it’s a part of a test that Blue Team is unaware of. They’re the unsung heroes who make sure that all the colorful efforts of the other teams align with the company’s broader goals and legal requirements.

With Black Team it becomes physical

People working in the Black Team doesn’t only use a PC to break into a network or system at an organization. They also use social engineering and disguises – going out physically to organizations to test the real-world cyber-security of an organization, using people skills and persuasion – sometimes going under-cover in true James Bond style – to gain access to vulnerable internal systems of the of the organization. They often work closely together with red team members, physically planting devices intended to function as backdoors for the red team members to remotely connect to.

In our journey through the colorful world of cybersecurity, we’ve met the Red, Blue, Black, Purple, Yellow, Green, Orange, and White Teams, each playing a unique and important role in protecting the digital realm.

From the Red Team’s offensive strategies to the Blue Team’s defensive maneuvers, from the Yellow Team’s foundational building to the Green Team’s integrative approach, and from the Orange Team’s educational role to the White Team’s overarching governance and compliance, each team brings its own color to the cybersecurity spectrum.

Going through all these colors reminds us that safeguarding digital assets is not the task of a lone ranger but a symphony of coordinated efforts, each team playing its part in harmony.

Cybersecurity is not a static field, confined to dark rooms, hoodies, and lines of code. It’s a vibrant, dynamic, and ever-changing world, where collaboration, creativity, and continuous adaptation is required.

So, whether you find your passion in attacking, defending, building, educating, managing, or overseeing, there’s a place for you in this multicolored digital universe.