The Four Main Factors That Determine a Blue Team Success

In the world of red vs. blue cyber defense, the defenders are almost always at a disadvantage. The attackers have the element of surprise, can choose when and where to strike, and have only one objective – getting in and wreaking havoc. With that said, some blue teams consistently come out on top again and again. What are they doing differently? Read on to discover four main factors that will help you prep your blue team for success in your organization.

Teamwork is key

When building a blue team, team chemistry is key. You want your team to not only be competent in their areas of expertise but also to be able to work together as one unit. Communication is key here, so make sure that you have the right tools in place to facilitate easy and effective communication between team members. Tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or GoToMeeting can help facilitate communication between team members regardless of their location. It is also important to create an environment where team members can feel comfortable speaking up and asking questions. In such an environment, you can facilitate more open communication, which will help improve your team’s effectiveness.

Secure your most important assets first

As with many things in life, you get out what you put in. Before you can begin to take on an attacker, you have to make sure your most important assets are secure. What are your most important assets? Make a list, then secure them first before taking on the attacker. Remember that the attacker’s objective is to get in and cause as much damage as possible. Before they can do that, they have to find and exploit a vulnerability. The more you can secure, the better your chances are of staying one step ahead of the attackers. If you make it more difficult for them to find and exploit vulnerabilities in your network, they will eventually give up and move on to an easier target.

Don’t rely on automated tools alone

Automated tools can be extremely useful in the process of securing your systems, but they aren’t a silver bullet. A good example of this is antivirus software. Many organizations invest heavily in antivirus solutions. However, antivirus software is only capable of identifying known threats. This means that, even with the best antivirus protection in place, if the blue team doesn’t know about a particular threat, the antivirus software can’t prevent it from entering the network. For this reason, you will also want to invest in blue team tools such as IDS/IPS, SIEM, and log analysis tools that can provide additional security measures to help protect your systems. Automated tools can be great for monitoring your network and for identifying low-level network issues, but they are not as effective for identifying and preventing targeted attacks.

Be constantly learning and improving

Blue teams are always on the defensive, which means that you need to be constantly learning and improving. There is a lot that can be done to improve your blue team’s effectiveness, but it all starts with you. One way to do this is by observing and documenting the types of attacks that are happening within your network. This will allow you to see what types of attacks your blue team is up against, as well as the weaknesses that are being exploited. You can also conduct training exercises, such as tabletop exercises so that your team can practice responding to different types of attacks. These types of exercises can be particularly helpful if you have a large team, as they allow you to break the team into smaller groups, which can make the experience more manageable.

Conclusion

The blue team always has the disadvantage, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be successful. Success for a blue team comes down to collaboration, securing your most important assets, and being aware of the limitations of automated tools. If you can incorporate these four factors into your blue team preparation, you should be well on your way to success. Still, it’s important to remember that no blue team is ever completely secure. Risk will always be involved in the cyber defense process, and blue teams will fail from time to time. The key is to learn from these failures and to ensure that the majority of attacks are repelled by your blue team.