Organizations frequently conduct cybersecurity exercises to both assess the effectiveness of their security controls and boost the preparedness of their cybersecurity teams. These exercises traditionally pit an internal blue team of defenders against an adversarial red team consisting of other internal team members or an external consultant. While these tests provide organizations with tremendous value, cybersecurity teams can gain even stronger benefits by engaging in a new approach known as purple teaming.

My work takes me around the country and provides me with the opportunity to visit a wide variety of CDW customers across industries. As I’ve traveled over the past year, IT and cybersecurity leaders throughout the US sometimes tell me, “We’ve already handled the cybersecurity basics and conduct regular vulnerability scans and penetration tests. How…