Red Team vs Blue Team Simulation
Experience realistic attack–defense simulations where red teamers try to break in, blue teamers defend, and everyone learns how real incidents actually feel.
Overview
In a red vs blue simulation, security teams don’t just “learn tools” — they fight it out. The red team plays the attacker, using realistic techniques to breach and move inside a simulated environment. The blue team runs detection, monitoring and response, trying to stop the attack in real time.
This SmartFind program is designed as a **guided cyber range** style experience. Participants see both sides of the incident: how attackers think and how defenders can respond more effectively, with structured debriefs and lessons after each round.
Who this is for
- SOC & blue team members who want attacker perspective.
- Red teamers / pentesters who want to see how defenders react.
- Security engineers & architects validating their controls.
- Cybersecurity students who want “real war room” experience.
What you’ll experience
- End-to-end attack chains from initial access to objectives.
- Realistic SIEM / EDR / log analysis during live attacks.
- Decision-making under pressure for containment & comms.
- Post-incident reviews with concrete improvement actions.
Not a lecture — a simulation
Instead of slides about “cyber kill chains”, you’ll see them happen live: phishing, credential theft, lateral movement, privilege escalation and data access, with defenders racing to detect, respond and contain in real time.
Curriculum
The curriculum is structured in waves: we start by aligning on fundamentals, then run small simulations, and finally move into full end-to-end attack scenarios with red/blue collaboration and debriefs.
Module 1
Red vs Blue Fundamentals
Roles and objectives of red teams, blue teams and purple teams. Rules of engagement, scope, success metrics, and how simulations differ from traditional pentests or theoretical training.
Module 2
Threat Modeling & Scenario Design
Choosing realistic attack paths based on your environment: phishing, exposed services, web application flaws, misconfigurations and credential attacks. Mapping scenarios to MITRE ATT&CK and business impact.
Module 3
Red Team Tactics: Initial Access & Foothold
Simulated phishing, exploiting weak services, credential stuffing and basic web exploitation. Establishing foothold with C2, avoiding obvious detection and staying under typical monitoring thresholds.
Module 4
Blue Team Tactics: Detection & Triage
Working with SIEM/EDR/logs to detect anomalies. Alert triage, noise reduction, quick scoping and prioritization: “Is this bad? How bad? What do we do first?” All with live attacker activity in the background.
Module 5
Lateral Movement & Privilege Escalation
Red team: moving from one host to another, abusing credentials, misconfigurations and trust relationships. Blue team: catching lateral movement with logs, network data and behavioral clues.
Module 6
Containment, Eradication & Communication
Blue team focuses on containment strategies (account lockdown, host isolation, firewall blocks) and communication with stakeholders. Red team observes what worked, what didn’t, and how defenders can improve.
Module 7
Data Access, Exfiltration & Impact
Simulated attacker objectives: accessing sensitive data, domain control, critical application access. Blue team focuses on detecting exfiltration patterns and limiting impact.
Module 8
Debrief, Timelines & Improvement Plan
Joint red–blue review: what worked, what failed, and why. Building incident timelines, mapping to ATT&CK and creating prioritized improvement actions across people, process and technology.
Module 9
Purple Teaming Mindset & Long-term Program
Moving from one-off exercises to a continuous improvement model. Designing recurring simulations, building detection-as-code, and using red vs blue outcomes to drive SIEM/EDR tuning and security roadmap decisions.
Labs & Simulations
Labs are structured as **round-based simulations**: each round has a scenario, a time-box, and a debrief. Depending on your batch, you may rotate roles between red, blue and observer.
Scenario 1: Phishing to Foothold
Red team sends a simulated phishing campaign and tries to establish a foothold. Blue team monitors email, endpoints and logs for early signs and attempts to stop the attack before lateral movement.
Scenario 2: Lateral Movement & PrivEsc
Red team pivots between hosts, escalating privileges and exploring the environment. Blue team uses SIEM, EDR and network signals to detect, investigate and isolate compromised assets.
Scenario 3: Data Access & Exfiltration
Red team targets specific “crown jewels” and simulates data exfiltration. Blue team focuses on anomaly detection, blocking egress paths and understanding potential business impact.
Prerequisites
Recommended background
- Basic understanding of networking and operating systems.
- Exposure to at least one of: SOC, pentesting, sysadmin or DevOps.
- Comfort reading logs and working with security tools is a plus.
Tools & environment
- Laptop/PC capable of using VPN or remote lab access.
- Any necessary simulation/lab access will be provided by SmartFind.
- Stable internet connection for real-time simulations.
For private team engagements, SmartFind can adapt simulations to your existing SOC stack and security tools.
Outcomes
After this program, “attack paths” and “defensive gaps” will not be abstract ideas. You’ll have lived through real simulations and know exactly where to improve.
Shared attacker–defender understanding
Red and blue teams speak a more common language, reducing friction and improving collaboration in real incidents.
Concrete detection & response improvements
You’ll walk away with specific ideas for tuning SIEM/EDR, improving runbooks, tightening controls and fixing process gaps.
Stronger security culture
Teams experience incident pressure in a safe environment, so they’re less likely to panic and more likely to follow a calm, structured response in real-world attacks.
Schedule & Delivery
Red vs blue simulations can be delivered as a compact workshop or a multi-week program with repeated scenarios. Schedule depends on whether it’s an open batch or a private team engagement.
| Mode | Duration | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Intensive workshop | 1–3 days | Compact program with a few high-impact scenarios, ideal for teams wanting a fast, deep experience. |
| Multi-week program | 3–5 weeks | Weekly simulations with time to implement improvements between sessions, then re-test them. |
| Custom / onsite / hybrid | Flexible | Tailored for your organization’s tech stack, policies and shift patterns. |
Pricing / Engagement Options
Pricing depends on number of participants, duration, whether we use SmartFind’s lab environment or your own, and how customized the scenarios are.
Open cohort (individual seats)
Join scheduled red vs blue batches with participants from multiple organizations. Great to experience different environments and ideas.
Ask for upcoming batches →Private team simulation
Fully dedicated to your team, tuned to your environment and maturity level. Ideal for SOCs, IR teams and security engineering groups.
Get team pricing →Executive & leadership version
High-level simulations focused on decision-making, communication and business impact, with technical details abstracted where needed.
Talk to us →FAQs
Do participants need strong red-team skills to join?
Not necessarily. We balance scenarios based on the group. Some batches have experienced red teamers; others are more blue-team heavy. Our focus is learning, not “winning”.
Can we use our own tools and environment?
For private team simulations, yes — we can design around your SOC stack and staged lab versions of your architecture. For open cohorts, we usually use SmartFind’s lab stack.
Is this suitable for beginners in cybersecurity?
It’s best if participants have at least a basic understanding of security concepts. However, motivated juniors can join as observers/assistants and still learn a lot from the debriefs.
Will we get reports or summaries after the simulation?
Yes. For team engagements, we provide summary findings, observed strengths, key gaps and prioritized improvement suggestions.
Want to run a serious red vs blue simulation with SmartFind?
Connect with us to discuss your team size, current maturity, and what kind of scenarios will give you the maximum learning and impact.
Talk to us