Red and Blue Teams in Network Security - Assignment Example

The Red Team attacks a designated enemy's information security systems to test its capability of carrying out an attack and also to test the ability of the Blue Team to defend against such an attack (Mejia, 2008, para. 2). While merely simulating, there is great value in an exercise like this because it allows both teams and the top management people to think of entire network security and see it in a wholistic manner rather than be bogged down in parochial interests. The Red Team thinks like an outsider and looks for any vulnerabilities they can exploit in the existing information security system infrastructure of their designated target. The Blue Team defending also benefits because it learns of security holes in the system and becomes alert. In a larger sense, the Red Team is more valuable because it can give top management people warning to not be complacent or take things for granted and so any flaws discovered in this exercise must be fixed immediately. This is similar to the white hat versus black hat exercises in which black hats are the hackers and white hats are the defenders (Bokotey et al., 2003, p. 432).