Cyber Breach: What if your defenses fail? Designing an exercise to map a ready strategy

Businesses and organizations of all stripes defend against unending attempts to steal their computer data or damage their systems. They pour billions of dollars into those digital defenses. Few, however, have serious plans for how they will respond to the impact of an actual breach. And few stress-test those plans. Such “exercises” force real-time decision-making and actions the same way a fire drill in a large complex might not go well the first time. The problem is that cyber incidents are infinitely more complicated. This book shows Business Continuity Planners, Crisis Managers and their IT counterparts how to stage a cyber incident exercise that will test preparedness, surface unconsidered circumstances, and sharpen the responsiveness of everyone from top executives to line technologists. It focuses on Advanced Tabletop, Functional, and Full-scale exercises. And it covers everything from broad strategies to minute-to-minute decision-making in a “safe” process that brings experience and insight to everyone. It provides very specific step-by-step instructions – starting from the earliest planning to after-action reports. Such “exercises” force real-time decision-making and actions the same way a fire drill in a large complex might not go well the first time. The problem is that cyber incidents are infinitely more complicated. This book shows Business Continuity Planners, Crisis Managers and their IT counterparts how to stage a cyber incident exercise that will test preparedness, surface unconsidered circumstances, and sharpen the responsiveness of everyone from top executives to line technologists. It focuses on Advanced Tabletop, Functional, and Full-scale exercises. And it covers everything from broad strategies to minute-to-minute decision-making in a “safe” process that brings experience and insight to everyone. It provides very specific step-by-step instructions – starting from the earliest planning to after-action reports.

Regina Phelps is an internationally-known crisis management and continuity planning expert. She is the founder of Emergency Management & Safety Solutions. For more than 30 years, on four continents, she has advised large corporations, government entities, and other organizations on how to prepare for circumstances that put their enterprises at risk. She designs and conducts more than 100 exercises a year. In 1991, she was elected the first female president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. She previously wrote Emergency Management Exercises - From Response to Recovery (also available on Amazon).