Red Teaming & Purple Team Exercises

Find out whether your people, processes and security tools would spot and stop a determined attacker.

A penetration test tells you what is vulnerable. A red team exercise tells you what a real attacker could achieve, and whether your organisation would notice. Working towards objectives you agree with us, our team emulates a realistic adversary across your technology, people and premises, while your defenders work as they normally would.

A purple team exercise brings attackers and defenders into the same room. Our consultants run attack techniques step by step alongside your security team, so you can see what your monitoring detects, tune it on the spot and build lasting detection and response capability.

Discuss a Red Team Exercise

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What Is Red Teaming?

Red teaming is an objective-based, intelligence-led exercise that emulates the tactics, techniques and procedures of real threat actors. Instead of testing one system, the red team looks for any route to agreed objectives, such as reaching sensitive data or a critical system, combining technical attacks, social engineering and, where agreed, physical access.

Only a small group in your organisation, the control group, knows the exercise is happening. This lets you measure how your security operations, incident response and staff respond to a realistic attack, not one they were expecting.

Why Run a Red or Purple Team Exercise?

Organisations invest heavily in security tools and monitoring, but rarely get to see how they perform against a skilled, patient attacker. Red teaming answers the question boards and regulators increasingly ask: if we were targeted, how far would an attacker get, and how quickly would we know?

Purple teaming turns that question into improvement. By working through attacker techniques with your defenders, you close detection gaps, improve alerting and response playbooks, and make the most of the security tools you already pay for.

What We Offer

Full-scope red team exercises

Covert, objective-based exercises that combine threat intelligence, reconnaissance, initial access, lateral movement and progression towards agreed objectives, testing prevention, detection and response together.

Assumed breach scenarios

Starting from a foothold inside your network or a compromised user account, to focus time on what an attacker could do next and how quickly your team responds.

Social engineering and physical elements

Phishing, phone-based pretexting and physical intrusion attempts, included only where explicitly agreed in the rules of engagement.

Purple team exercises

Collaborative sessions in which we execute techniques mapped to MITRE ATT&CK while your security operations team watches, detects and responds, with detection gaps and tuning recorded as we go.

Detection and response review

An assessment of how well your SOC, SIEM, endpoint detection and incident response processes performed during the exercise, with practical recommendations.

Post-exercise workshop

A replay of the attack timeline with your team, matching our actions to what was and wasn't detected, so lessons are understood and acted on.

Our Approach

01

Objectives and rules of engagement

We agree objectives, scope, the control group, safety measures and the rules of engagement, including anything that is off-limits.

02

Threat intelligence and planning

We research your organisation's external footprint and relevant threat actors, and plan realistic attack scenarios mapped to MITRE ATT&CK.

03

Execution

Our team carries out the exercise within the agreed rules, keeping the control group informed and pausing immediately if anything risks disrupting live operations.

04

Report and debrief

You receive a report that tells the story of the attack, what worked, what was detected and what wasn't, with prioritised recommendations. We then talk your technical and leadership teams through it.

05

Purple team follow-up

Where useful, we replay key techniques with your defenders in a purple team session to confirm that improvements now detect and stop them.

Why Choose Samurai Security?

CREST-accredited offensive security

Our red and purple team work is delivered by the same CREST-accredited team that carries out our penetration testing.

01

Attackers' tactics, including AI

We replicate the tools and tactics modern attackers use, including AI-driven techniques, informed by our own research and Katana, our AI testing platform.

02

Offence and defence under one roof

We also run managed SOC, SIEM and incident response services, so our recommendations for detection and response are practical and grounded in day-to-day operations.

03

Safety first

Exercises run under clear rules of engagement with a control group, so realism never comes at the cost of disrupting your business.

04

Our Work

Aerial view of a residential housing estate

Strengthening Cybersecurity Resilience

“Samurai takes the time to understand our needs and helps us to be an enabler for Flagship Group’s mission. It’s always a pleasure to work with them and I’d recommend them to others.”

Enabling Remote Work for the NHS

“When I have a problem nobody else can solve, I call Samurai because I know that they’ll deliver what I need, every time, without fail.”

Incident Response Retainers To Enable Growth

“This partnership has allowed us to scale and grow with the confidence that we are protected from cyber threats around the clock.”

Client Testimonials

“Samurai takes the time to understand our needs and helps us to be an enabler for Flagship Group’s mission. It’s always a pleasure to work with them and I’d recommend them to others.”

“We were astonished by what Samurai’s Black Dragon assessment revealed, even though we thought we had everything covered. The findings spoke for themselves, and the team’s expertise and clarity were outstanding.”

"Samurai’s Black Dragon: Attack Surface Risk Assessment was exactly what we needed and something we’ve never seen done before. They turned it around quickly, highlighted risks that could have easily been overlooked, and gave us a clear roadmap for improvement."

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between red teaming and penetration testing?

A penetration test aims to find as many vulnerabilities as possible in a defined scope. A red team exercise is objective-based: it looks for any realistic route to an agreed goal and tests whether your organisation detects and responds to it.

What is the difference between a red team and a purple team exercise?

In a red team exercise your defenders are not told what is happening, so you measure a realistic response. In a purple team exercise our attackers and your defenders work together openly, to improve detection and response technique by technique.

How is red teaming different from your Attack Simulation (GTA) service?

Our Global Threat Assessment focuses on external attack paths and establishing an initial foothold. A red team exercise can extend beyond that to lateral movement, covert techniques and progress towards objectives inside your organisation, with wider testing of your defensive response.

Will a red team exercise disrupt our business?

Exercises are planned to avoid disruption. Rules of engagement, a control group and the ability to pause at any point keep activity safe and controlled.

Is your red teaming a CBEST or TIBER exercise?

No. Our exercises can draw on elements of intelligence-led frameworks such as CBEST and TIBER-EU, but they are not formally recognised CBEST or TIBER assessments.