Imagine this: It’s a normal Monday morning. Your inbox is full, coffee in hand. Then the alert hits, “Critical files encrypted. Ransom note detected.”
Who do you call first? IT? Legal? The CEO? Do you shut systems down or wait? Do you notify customers right away or risk reputational damage if you don’t?
These are the exact high-pressure questions a cybersecurity tabletop exercise prepares your team to answer. Think of it as a fire drill for your digital world: no alarms blaring, but everyone walks through what to do when things go sideways.
Done right, a tabletop exercise can transform confusion into confidence. Here’s how to plan and run one that people actually learn from (and maybe even enjoy).
Step 1: Decide What You’re Really Testing
Are you trying to:
- See if your incident response plan works in practice?
- Check whether leadership knows their role in a breach?
- Stress-test your communication flow when regulators, customers, and the media are all watching?
Pick 2–3 goals max. Clarity beats chaos.
Step 2: Pick a Scenario That Feels Real
Your scenario should make people sit up. A few classics:
- Ransomware locks down your file server.
- An attacker hijacks an executive’s email to commit wire fraud.
- Sensitive customer data is posted online.
- A cloud outage knocks out your e-commerce site on Black Friday.
- Keep it close to home. The more relatable it feels, the more your team will engage.
Step 3: Get the Right People in the Room
Cyber incidents aren’t just IT’s problem. You’ll want:
- Tech & Security – to detect, contain, remediate.
- Execs – to approve tough calls.
- Legal/Compliance – to navigate notification rules.
- PR/Comms – to manage messaging before Twitter does.
- HR & Customer Teams – because incidents hit people, too.
- Cross-functional = real-world.
Step 4: Script the Story
You don’t need Hollywood special effects—but you do need a script.
- Map out a timeline (“Monday: ransomware note found. Tuesday: backups fail. Wednesday: attackers leak data”).
- Add a few plot twists (aka “injects”): maybe the CFO gets a phishing email, or the press calls for comment.
- Have someone function as facilitator to keep things moving, and a scribe to capture key learnings.
Step 5: Run It Like a Conversation
Think less “simulation lab,” more “guided discussion.”
- Kick-off: remind everyone this is a safe space—no blame, just learning.
- Walk through the scenario: let teams talk through decisions.
- Drop in injects: keep people on their toes.
- Debrief: what worked? where did we stumble? what needs fixing?
Aim for 60–90 minutes. Long enough for insights, short enough to keep energy high.
Step 6: Turn Insights into Action
A tabletop is useless if it ends with “great session, thanks everyone.”
Capture and assign:
- Strengths to keep.
- Gaps to fix (missing tools, unclear roles, weak comms).
- Owners + deadlines.
Update your incident response plan so the next exercise (or real event) is smoother.
Pro Tips for Maximum Impact
- Run at least once a year: quarterly if high-risk.
- Rotate scenarios: Ransomware one quarter, insider threat the next.
- Invite execs early: their buy-in makes funding fixes easier.
- Keep it fun: Some teams even name their exercises (“Operation Blackout”).
Final Word
Tabletop exercises are like dress rehearsals: nobody claps at the end, but when opening night comes, you’ll be glad you practiced.
The question isn’t “Will we have a cyber incident?”
It’s “When it happens, will we already know what to do?”
We, at Dual Layer cybersecurity services, help organizations design, facilitate, and document cybersecurity tabletop exercises that align with frameworks like NIST CSF and ISO 27001-2022.