Cyber resilience is no longer optional; it’s a strategic imperative for every organization. True resilience goes beyond simply deploying tools; it requires a proactive commitment to safeguarding your mission through continuous improvement, rigorous governance, and a culture that prioritizes security at every level.
In 2024, 95% of data breaches were attributed to one primary cause: human error or human action. Most of these breaches were caused by genuine mistakes, such as leaving laptops logged in at a hotel lobby, clicking on links in phishing emails, or falling victim to social engineering. A small fraction was the result of deliberate actions by compromised or disgruntled employees.
The human factor is, of course, much more complex to “fix” than an out-of-date operating system. One solution is tabletop exercises, training simulations designed to help your employees and leaders learn how to better prevent and deal with breaches. These simulations go beyond policies, which are theoretical and often one-size-fits-all, to create systems that really work for your company.
What Are Tabletop Exercises (TTXs)?
Tabletop exercises are discussion-based simulations. This differs from cybersecurity drills, where an actual attack is faked, with or without warning. Instead, relevant stakeholders will sit around a table and walk through a hypothetical scenario. Typically, these exercises involve IT, security, compliance, and legal teams as well as leadership. You may also bring in specific employees who are vulnerable. For example, outside sales may communicate heavily through social media messaging and thus be more vulnerable to a breach that starts with a compromised account.
The goal of these exercises is to identify gaps and test decision-making. They can also help clarify roles in a crisis, making responses faster and more effective.
How Tabletop Exercises Work
Most tabletop exercises take a half day and have several phases:
Preparation Phase
This phase starts with choosing a scenario. Specific scenarios may include ransomware, an insider threat, or a business email compromise that results in financial loss, among others. You should choose a scenario that is high risk. For example, almost anyone is vulnerable to ransomware. Still, restaurants, with their complex supply chains, may be more susceptible to supply chain attacks or attempts to steal customer data, including credit card information.
Define your goals in terms of response time, communication, workflow, legal exposure, and other relevant factors. Then work out who needs to be part of the team.
Execution Phase
Go through the scenario step by step and continue to ask ‘what if’ questions at each stage. Discussions should be candid and may have role-playing elements. For some scenarios, you may want to have someone from IT play the “bad guy” and respond to your actions with what a real hacker would most likely do.
Take copious notes and/or record the meeting so you can review it accurately afterwards.
Debrief and Analysis
Afterwards, analyze what worked and what didn’t work. You should also look for gaps in cybersecurity controls, as well as actionable insights and next steps. Pay particular attention to any situation in which somebody reacted with uncertainty. A key element of this is ensuring that everyone knows what to do, ideally so well that they don’t have to think about it in an emergency.
Why Tabletop Exercises Are Vital for Cyber Resilience
So, why are these exercises so valuable? How do they work better than static policies and drills? Here are some of the benefits:
- Reveal real-world weaknesses. Do your people know what to do in a crisis? How do they react if the policies aren’t helpful, perhaps due to a new zero hour threat or trend?
- Build muscle memory. Like drills, these exercises allow people to practice their responses, making them less likely to panic, more confident, and able to act from a trained reflex.
- Improve communication. Not only do these exercises highlight communication issues, but they also help people learn each other’s communication styles and the best way to coordinate in an emergency.
- Tailored response planning. Properly designed scenarios highlight real issues specific to your industry and company. Every business has unique risks, and custom scenarios are the best way to highlight those risks. You might even uncover a risk you had not thought of.
- Boost business continuity. All businesses should have a continuity and recovery plan. Scenarios help you design these plans and find gaps in them.
Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them
Like everything else in business, you need to do these exercises right. Here are some of the most common pitfalls:
- Checking boxes. The exercise should involve open discussion and role-playing, rather than multiple-choice responses.
- Using generic scenarios. All scenarios should be designed for your business. Example scenarios should serve as a starting point only.
- Lack of executive involvement. Leaders should actively participate in these scenarios and be careful not to overwhelm them.
- Failure to follow up. This often relates to a failure to document the exercise correctly. Recording them is usually the best solution.
- Not involving third-party stakeholders. For example, if you are running supply chain attack scenarios, you should include representatives of your vendors.
The biggest pitfall, though, is to treat the exercise as something you do pro forma, because somebody said you should.
How Yobihouse Helps Organizations Run Effective Tabletop Exercises
If you’re looking at all of this and not sure where to start, don’t worry! Yobihouse can help. We work with our clients on practical tabletop exercises by providing:
- Custom scenario design. We will assess your business operations and threat landscape and create scenarios that your business is likely to face.
- Expert facilitation. Our facilitators have real-world cybersecurity and risk management experience and can help guide discussions in the right direction, keeping them open and candid.
- Action-oriented outcomes. We provide deliverables that include revised playbooks, gap assessments, and, above all, follow-up plans to ensure that you get the most out of the exercise.
- Integration with broader cyber resilience strategy. We help you integrate your exercises with your overall risk management, business continuity, and compliance frameworks.
Getting Started: Tips for Your First (or Next) Tabletop Exercise
Start by identifying your worst case. What is the most damaging scenario your business could experience? Is it a customer data breach? A phishing expedition that results in significant financial losses? Ransomware shutting down your servers?
Engage leadership in this exercise, ensuring that it is not left solely to IT. Involve key vendors, regulators, or your insurance company when relevant. Vendors are often willing to work with you, as some scenarios can cause them real harm.
Finally, make these exercises routine. You should perform at least one or two exercises annually to stay current and track new threat actor trends.
Cyber resilience is not technology-first. It is people first. Trained people and good plans build resilience and readiness, and tabletop exercises are one of the most effective tools to achieve this. If you want to refine your process or are entirely new to this and need help getting started, contact Yobihouse. Let us help turn your plans into actions and policies to protect your business, employees, and customers.
