Test your response with Tabletop Exercises
Board-level cyber crisis simulations that rigorously test your incident response plans, executive decision-making, and cross-team coordination. Identify gaps, clarify roles, and strengthen readiness - before a real incident puts revenue, operations, and reputation at risk.
Why crisis drills are essential
A documented incident response plan does not guarantee an effective response. During a live cyber incident, delays in decision-making, unclear ownership, and misaligned teams drive downtime, financial loss, and reputational risk. Organizations that run crisis drills reduce uncertainty and recover with confidence.
Incident response readiness gaps
Having a documented incident response plan does not equal operational readiness. Most organizations uncover breakdowns in decision-making, escalation, and coordination only during live incidents - when downtime, financial impact, and regulatory exposure are at their peak.
Untested plans
Your IR playbooks were written but never exercised. Will they work when it matters?
Unclear roles
When crisis hits, who decides what? Confusion over authority wastes critical time.
Communication gaps
Internal escalation, external notification, media response: who says what to whom?
Slow decisions
Critical decisions require executive approval. But executives aren't trained for cyber crises.
Siloed response
IT, Legal, PR, HR, and business units don't know how to work together in crisis.
Regulatory gaps
NIS2, DORA, GDPR require notification within hours. Do you know the process?
Vendor coordination
Engaging IR retainers, legal counsel, and forensics is more time lost during crises.
Recovery readiness
Containment is just the start. How quickly can you actually restore operations?
Compliance requirements
DORA and NIS2 mandate crisis exercises. Are you meeting your obligations?
Benefits of tabletop exercises (TTX)
Exercises reveal gaps, build muscle memory, and prepare teams for the pressure of real incidents.
Identify gaps
Discover weaknesses in plans, processes, and coordination before real incidents expose them.
Find playbook gaps and missing procedures
Know your response readiness before incidents
Build muscle memory
Teams that have practiced respond faster and more effectively under pressure.
Faster triage and containment decisions
Confident decision-making during crises
Team coordination
Practice working across departments - IT, Legal, PR, HR, Business - as a unified response team.
Clear handoffs and escalation paths
Cross-functional alignment and clarity
Communication readiness
Test notification procedures, holding statements, and stakeholder communications.
Clear escalation and notification procedures
Prepared messaging for all audiences
Regulatory compliance
Meet NIS2, DORA, and sector-specific requirements for incident response testing.
Documented evidence for auditors
Demonstrate due diligence to regulators
Continuous improvement
Each exercise produces actionable recommendations to strengthen response capabilities.
Prioritized improvement roadmap
Measurable progress in readiness
Tabletop exercise programs
From discussion-based exercises for executives to technical live-fire drills for SOC teams, tailored to your audience and objectives.
Ransomware Attack
Work through a ransomware incident from detection to recovery, including payment decisions.
Data Breach
Handle a major customer data breach with regulatory notification and PR implications.
Insider Threat
Navigate a scenario involving malicious or negligent insider activity.
Supply Chain Compromise
Respond to a breach originating from a trusted vendor or software update.
All exercises are customized to your industry, threat landscape, and organizational context. Plan your exercise →
How a tabletop exercise unfolds
Our exercises follow NIST and industry best practices to deliver realistic, valuable training that improves actual response capabilities.
Planning & Scoping
Define objectives, participants, scenario type, and success criteria for your exercise.
Scenario development
Create realistic scenarios tailored to your industry, threat landscape, and organizational context.
Exercise execution
Facilitate the exercise with realistic scenario progression and dynamic injects.
Hot wash debrief
Immediate debrief to capture fresh observations and initial lessons learned.
After action report
Comprehensive analysis with prioritized recommendations for improvement.
Improvement tracking
Support implementation of recommendations and track improvement over time.
TTX deliverables
Comprehensive documentation and recommendations that drive continuous improvement in response capabilities.
After action report
Comprehensive analysis of exercise performance with prioritized findings.
- Executive summary
- Detailed observations
- Gap analysis
- Recommendations
Improvement roadmap
Prioritized action plan for addressing identified gaps and weaknesses.
- Quick wins
- Strategic improvements
- Timeline
- Responsibility matrix
Scenario package
Full scenario materials for internal use and future exercises.
- Master scenario
- Inject cards
- Timeline
- Facilitator guide
Exercise recording
Recording of key segments for training and review purposes.
- Decision points
- Discussion highlights
- Lessons learned
Participation certificates
Documentation of participation for compliance and training records.
- Individual certificates
- Attendance log
- Training credit
Updated playbooks
Recommendations for updating IR plans based on exercise findings.
- Gap analysis
- Specific updates
- Process improvements
- Role clarifications
Communication templates
Refined notification and communication templates tested in exercise.
- Holding statements
- Stakeholder updates
- Regulatory notifications
Metrics baseline
Baseline measurements for tracking improvement over time.
- Response times
- Decision quality
- Coordination scores
- Maturity level
Compliance evidence
Documentation for regulatory compliance and audit purposes.
- Exercise summary
- Participant list
- Findings addressed
- Improvement evidence
Decision log
Record of key decisions made during exercise for analysis and training.
- Decision timeline
- Rationale captured
- Alternatives considered
- Outcomes
Annual program
Recommended schedule for ongoing exercises to maintain readiness.
- Exercise calendar
- Scenario rotation
- Audience variation
- Maturity progression
Executive briefing
Summary presentation for leadership on findings and recommendations.
- Key findings
- Risk implications
- Investment needs
- Board summary
See the Platform in Action
For technical live-fire exercises, we provide a realistic simulation environment with actual attack artifacts for hands-on response training.
- Realistic cyber crisis scenarios based on real-world incidents like ransomware, breaches, and infrastructure disruptions
- Multi-role collaboration training for executives, SOC teams, IT, legal, and communications
- Guided decision workflows with scenario injects, response checkpoints, and structured playbooks
- Performance evaluation & readiness reporting to measure response effectiveness and identify gaps
- Customizable, compliance-aligned exercises tailored to industry risks and regulatory requirements
Frequently asked questions
Tabletop exercises are discussion-based: participants work through scenarios verbally, describing what they would do. Live-fire exercises involve actual technical response: real indicators, actual tools, hands-on investigation. Tabletops are ideal for testing processes and decisions; live-fire tests technical capabilities. Most organizations benefit from both.
It depends on objectives. Executive tabletops include C-suite and board members. Cross-functional exercises bring together IT, Security, Legal, PR, HR, and Business. Technical drills focus on SOC, IR, and IT teams. The best exercises include representatives from all groups who would be involved in a real incident.
Executive tabletops run 2-3 hours. Cross-functional exercises typically take half a day. Technical drills can run a full day or longer. Live-fire exercises may span multiple days. We tailor duration to your objectives and participant availability.
Very. We develop scenarios based on real incidents, current threat intelligence, and your specific threat landscape. Injects are timed realistically, include authentic details, and force the kinds of decisions you'd face in real incidents. Many participants report forgetting it's an exercise.
Absolutely. Every scenario is customized to your industry, regulatory environment, and organizational context. We research sector-specific threats, incorporate relevant compliance requirements, and use realistic details that resonate with participants. Generic scenarios don't deliver real learning.
Both regulations require organizations to test their incident response capabilities. Tabletop exercises provide documented evidence of testing, identify gaps before incidents occur, and ensure teams understand notification timelines and procedures. We specifically incorporate regulatory requirements into relevant scenarios.
That's exactly when exercises are most valuable. We can start with simpler scenarios that test basic procedures, then progress to more complex exercises as capabilities mature. Exercises often reveal that plans need updating, which is better to discover in a drill than during a real incident.
We recommend at least annually, with quarterly exercises for mature programs. Vary the scenarios and participant groups across exercises. After major organizational changes, new threat emergence, or significant plan updates, additional exercises validate the changes.
Yes, we regularly conduct virtual tabletop exercises using video conferencing. While in-person is ideal for maximum engagement, virtual exercises work well and accommodate distributed teams. Technical live-fire exercises can also be conducted remotely with proper infrastructure.
That's the point. Exercises are safe learning opportunities. Poor performance in a drill is infinitely better than poor performance in a real incident. We create psychologically safe environments where gaps can be identified without blame. The goal is improvement, not evaluation.
Experienced crisis facilitators
Our facilitators combine incident response experience with training expertise
Prove Incident Response readiness before a real incident.
The best time to discover gaps in your incident response is during a drill, not during a real attack. Practice makes prepared.