How to prepare for a TLPT engagement

Get the baseline right first

TLPT is not the place to discover basic issues. Run your routine testing programme — vulnerability assessments and penetration tests — and remediate the known problems before staging a full red-team engagement.

Build a trusted White Team

A small, discreet control group (often called the White Team or Control Team) plans and oversees the engagement while keeping the defending blue team genuinely unaware. This secrecy is what makes the detection-and-response test realistic.

Choose qualified providers

• Verify that threat-intelligence and red-team providers meet the framework’s independence and competence criteria.
• Engage them early — good providers plan months ahead.
• Not every penetration-testing firm qualifies for TLPT specifically.

Agree the rules of engagement

• Define scope, targets and objectives with the authority where required.
• Set clear boundaries and safety mechanisms for testing live systems.
• Establish escalation and emergency-stop procedures.

After the engagement

1. Run the purple-team replay to compare attacker actions with defender visibility.
2. Agree and prioritise a remediation plan.
3. Where required, obtain the attestation confirming the test met the framework.
4. Feed lessons back into your defences and next testing cycle.