What is white team and its role in cybersecurity strategy

What is a white team in red teaming?

White team is a term related to red teaming – an exercise simulating a real-life cyberattack in order to assess the company’s infrastructure and information security team’s readiness to respond to cyber incidents. The white team acts as a coordinator of red teaming and provides a neutral perspective on the red team’s findings and recommendations.

Also, the role of a white team in red teaming implies reviewing and analyzing the data collected during the exercise, evaluating the red team’s strategies, and providing an independent assessment of cybersecurity risks or vulnerabilities. Additionally, a white team may offer suggestions for improvement or alternative solutions.

White, red, and blue teams in red teaming

As a full-fledged cyber attack simulation, red teaming requires the involvement of several parties. The main red teaming participants are the red and blue teams. The red team attempts to breach the organization’s security systems, while the blue team defends them. Typically, the blue team does not know that they are participating in red teaming and perceives the actions of the opposing team as a real attack.

To bridge the gap between these two teams, the white team is gathered from information security professionals working in the organization that undergoes red teaming. A white team may also be responsible for choosing the red teaming provider.

What is the difference between a white team and a purple team?

In the red teaming exercise, a white team’s role boils down to supervising and orchestrating the work of blue and red teams to help them achieve the exercise goals independently. This team consists of members who are not involved in other teams.

Meanwhile, the purple team implies the collaborative work of the blue and red team members. Such an approach empowers more significant improvements in attackers’ and defenders’ skills, allows better reporting and analysis of both teams’ actions, and facilitates improvements in an organization’s cybersecurity posture.

White team responsibilities

The scope of responsibilities for a white team during red teaming typically includes five main vectors.

Choosing the red teaming provider

Red teaming opens up access to the company’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities. If the information obtained during the exercise leaks, this can lead to serious negative consequences. Therefore, choosing the right red teaming provider is a crucial responsibility of a white team. Read about how to select a red-timing service provider in a separate article.

Orchestrating the preparation for the red teaming exercise

Before the red teaming starts, all participants carry out preparatory work. It may include holding kick-off meetings to determine the terms of cooperation, the goals of the exercise, attack scenarios, team interaction during the exercise, etc. The coordination of such meetings falls on the white team.

Controlling the execution of the red teaming exercise

Since a red team operates discreetly from a blue team, the response to a fake attack may deviate from the planned red teaming scenario. In this case, the white team’s task is to decide how exactly the exercise will continue. For example, the white team may ask the defenders to allow the attackers to complete their course of action in order to conduct an in-depth assessment of infrastructure readiness.

Communicating with blue and red teams

As a blue team is often unaware of participating in a red teaming, they can’t communicate with the attacking team. If an interaction between defenders and attackers is required, the white team’s task is to facilitate this interaction.

Preparing the final red teaming report and the remediation plan

The result of red teaming is always a series of reports from different parties. The red team shares information about the attack actions taken and remediation recommendations. The blue team reports on response actions. The white team analyzes the data provided by both other teams and prepares a final report for top management or regulators. Such a report describes the goals and conditions of the red teaming, its actual scenario, the actions taken by both teams and their results, as well as the remediation plan.