What Happened at The Biggest Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercise in London?

Cyber Management Alliance recently hosted what we believe was the largest in-person Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercise in London. The exercise was part of our flagship Wisdom of Crowds event that seeks to bring together thought leaders and InfoSec specialists for unmatched knowledge sharing and collaboration. 

Held at Sofitel Hotel, St. James's, London the event saw outstanding participation from the top InfoSec executives in London and the UK. The brightest minds in the business came together to make this ethnic-minority led event a huge success.

We also produced some interesting collateral through the course of the day in the group activities - leading to tonnes of interesting material and food for thought for everyone who attended. The attendees worked in groups to create unique scenarios and discussed challenges, solutions and better ways forward. The energy and the enthusiasm of the passionate community of InfoSec professionals was palpable, yet inexplicable.  

The Wisdom of Crowds event was hosted and facilitated by Amar Singh CEO - Cyber Management Alliance & Course Creator and UK Government Certified Trainer in Cyber Incident Response. 

The event began in the morning and was opened with an introduction by Amar in which he shared the importance of Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercises. When hit by a major cyber attack you are either prepared to respond and recover with minimal to little business disruption or you are unprepared and at the mercy of fate, human errors and the media. The Cyber Crisis Tabletop Exercise helps you stay prepared by continually rehearsing your Incident Response Plans and making it a part of your muscle memory.  

Soon after a quick opening session, the attendees were split into groups to work on “Creating a Scenario for the Tabletop Exercise.” In the tradition of Wisdom of Crowds, the attendees brainstormed together, discussed, disagreed and challenged each other  to create detailed scenarios for the session. 

The day was one of the most stimulating and interactive that we’ve ever seen at a Wisdom of Crowds event and not just because of the group activities. We also had several interesting, educational keynote addresses throughout the event. 

David Hitchins of Semperis spoke of one of the most critical steps in Incident Response and Recovery - How to recover the Active Directory after a Cyber Incident. Markus Strauss of Runecast Solutions, then turned the spotlight back to the basics by highlighting the importance of vulnerability management in the fight against Ransomware. Asif Yaqub of Dope Security gave a live demo of The Fly-Direct Secure Web Gateway (SWG) at the Wisdom of Crowds event. 

From L to R: Markus Strauss, Runecast Solutions. David Hitchins, Semperis. Asif Yaqub, Dope Security.

The final session was the actual Tabletop Exercise. Participants worked with their groups to discuss the scenario and what they’d do in the actual event scenario. The room was bustling with energy and excitement at this point. Within each group, the attendees were challenging each other, discussing the right way to respond to the attack scenario, supporting different viewpoints and pushing each other to their intellectual limits. It was truly a scene to behold. 

Amar Singh, CEO of Cyber Management Alliance said, “This was definitely one of our most successful Wisdom of Crowds events till date. We took feedback from our regulars at these events and we listened to all the recommendations to come up with this idea of the biggest in-person, physical Cyber Tabletop Exercise. We were so thrilled to see a room full of InfoSec executives. Together we created, we shared, we interacted, engaged and above all, we had a ball throughout the whole time. It was an exciting and informative coming together of some of the finest minds in the IT & Security space from the UK and London.” 

Here’s some of the feedback from the session: 

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