Ransomware Tabletop Exercises
Structured cyber drills to test how prepared you are for a ransomware attack
Ransomware is the Top Cyber Threat Impacting Organisations
How Bad is the Scourge of Ransomware Attacks?
15 Seconds Frequency
Every 15 Seconds someone is impacted by ransomware
4000 Daily Attacks
Since 2016, over 4000 daily ransomware attacks in USA alone!
75 Million Payout
The largest ever ransomware payout was made in 2024 by a Fortune 500 CEO
600 % Increased Payouts
600% increase in emails containing ransomware and other malicous files
What is a Ransomware Tabletop Exercise?
A Ransomware Tabletop Exercise is a cybersecurity drill based on a simulated ransomware attack scenario. It is designed to test if your organisation is ready to defend against a ransomware attack. Participants walk through a simulated ransomware incident, assess response capabilities, and identify gaps in preparedness.
A Ransomware Drill helps your team proactively prepare for, practice, and refine their incident response strategy in a controlled, risk-free environment. Ultimately it seeks to answer only one question - Are you prepared to handle and bounce back from a ransomware attack?
Our expertly crafted ransomware tabletop exercises focus on:
- Testing ransomware detection & response workflows.
- Refining decision-making on ransom payments & business continuity.
- Strengthening coordination between IT, security, and leadership.
- Evaluating existing security controls & playbooks.
Amar Singh, CEO - Cyber Management Alliance Ltd
“Documents that have never been read, procedures that have never been practiced, checklists that have never been verified are as useful and functional as having a brand-new mobile phone with no charging cable or power adaptor.”
RESPONDING TO RANSOMWARE ATTACKS
Top Challenges in Ransomware Response
Ransomware Response comes with a myriad of complex decisions and compliance-related obligations. Under preparation is simply not a choice when your data has been encrypted or you've been locked out of your systems and someone is holding your business to ransom, quite literally! But effective response to ransomware attacks isn't easy. Ransomware Tabletop Exercises show you the gaps in your response strategy and clarify the areas where you need to improve immediately for stronger defences against malicious threat actors.
Unclear Roles & Responsibilities
When you've been attacked, lack of clarity can spell chaos. You should have rehearsed responses ready for questions like - who takes a call on ransom payment, who will communicate with law enforcement and who will lead the recovery efforts.
Lack of Effective Response Plans
In the absence of tested Incident Response plans, your team may not have clear directions on how to isolate infected systems quickly or which backup recovery strategy to adopt. Another common challenge is containment, eradication, and recovery workflows that aren't clearly defined.
Inadequate Decision-Making Practice
In the heat of a ransomware attack, even very senior professionals can panic, delay crucial actions or make the wrong decisions. Without practice in a safe environment, mistakes in real-world scenarios can be costly.
Over-Reliance on Technical Tools
Businesses often believe that endpoint protection, firewalls, or SIEM tools can stop ransomware attacks. But completely preventing ransomware is impossible. Cyber Drills are essential for developing the ability to react quickly and effectively under pressure.
Communication & Coordination Gaps
Security, IT, legal, and executive teams often struggle to collaborate effectively during an active ransomware incident. Ransomware Tabletop Exercises reveal and help fix these coordination challenges before a crisis strikes.
Compliance & Regulatory Requirements
Cybersecurity regulations like NIS2, GDPR, NYDFS, and PCI DSS require organisations to have tested incident response plans. A ransomware tabletop exercise demonstrates due diligence and improves compliance posture.
We've delivered over 400 successful cyber drills in the last 10 years.
Benefits of Ransomware Tabletop Exercises
Enhanced Preparedness
Ransomware Drills familiarise executives, leadership, and response teams with ransomware scenarios. This highlights operational, financial, and reputational risks of ransomware attacks, encouraging them to better understand their roles and responsibilities. It also helps the leadership in aligning cybersecurity investments with critical needs.
Incident Response Plan Validation
Ransomware Tabletop Exercises test the effectiveness of existing protocols and cybersecurity controls. They reveal weaknesses (e.g., outdated contacts, unclear procedures) before an actual incident. Teams and leaders feel empowered through rehearsal of the IR Plan, fostering confidence in their ability to manage an attack effectively.
Improved Collaboration
Ransomware Tabletop Drills bridge the gap between technical and non-technical teams and the leadership. They clarify responsibilities across teams. This minimises confusion over decision-making and reduces panic. Coordination during a real attack and alignment on priorities becomes streamlined.
Enhanced Cybersecurity Leadership
The simulated high-stakes scenarios in tabletop exercises help business executives practise rapid decision-making (e.g., ransom payment, system shutdowns). Board level ransomware tabletop exercises promote organisation-wide vigilance, signaling that cyber resilience is a strategic priority.
Compliance and Regulatory Readiness
Ransomware Resilience Exercises have become an important element in achieving regulatory compliance in many countries. These drills demonstrate due diligence to auditors, regulators and external stakeholders. They also help identify gaps in meeting breach notification or data protection requirements.
Third-Party Coordination
Ransomware Scenario Tabletops help organisations build stronger coordination with external partners, such as cloud service providers, cyber insurers, and incident response firms. By aligning roles, expectations, and response workflows in advance, these exercises ensure seamless communication and faster recovery support during a real ransomware attack.
Key Focus Areas of our Ransomware Tabletop Exercises
Incident Detection & Containment
Evaluating how quickly ransomware is identified and isolated.
Decision-Making Under Pressure
Clarifying roles and responsibilities during a crisis.
Ransom Payment Considerations
Discussing legal, ethical, and financial implications of negotiation with ransomware attackers.
Regulatory & Compliance Response
Ensuring adherence to GDPR, NIS2, PCI DSS, and other mandates.
Communication & Crisis Management
Managing internal and external communication strategies to mitigate liability, customer distrust, or media fallout.
Business Continuity & Recovery Readiness
Testing backup strategies and disaster recovery plans.
Our Approach to Ransomware Tabletop Exercise Scenarios
The Ransomware Tabletop Exercise Template designed and run by us is a unique blend of verbal and visual simulations organised as a combination of ransomware scenario walkthroughs and engaging and practical exercises.
- Fact Finding: We start with gathering as much information about your business, its stakeholders and its critical assets as possible.
- Scenario Planning: After assessing the inputs we move on to planning and outlining the scenario and follow that up with a dry-run with you.
- Ransomware Tabletop Exercise Template: During the tabletop exercise, we facilitate the workshop and monitor the pace and substance of the discussions.
- Engaging & Interactive: Conducted in a highly engaging and interactive format, our Ransomware Tabletop Exercises ensure maximum participation and highly relevant output and constructive discussions.
- Management Report: After the exercise, we produce an objective analysis of the exercise and provide a formal maturity score of your ransomware preparedness. (Maturity score is optional)
The image on the right describes, step-by-step, how we approach our ransomware tabletop workshops.
We are a UK Government Crown Commercial Service Supplier (G-Cloud 12) and the Cyber Crisis Tabletop exercise is listed on Gov.uk Digital Marketplace.
Organisations Trust Our Ransomware Tabletop Exercise Templates
Benefits of Running a Ransomware Tabletop Exercise with Cyber Management Alliance
Professionally Conducted to Produce Results
Our detailed planning and professional approach produces the desired results - that of ensuring the business is prepared to deal with ransomware attacks.
Be Compliant with Regulations on Tabletop Exercises
Clients can opt to receive a formal scoring for the ranswomare tabletop exercise and demonstrate compliance to regulations and auditors.
Validate and Improve your Ransomware Response Plans
Our attention to detail and comprehensive preparation will help you validate and improve your ransomware response plans and ensure they are effective and fit-for-purpose.
Non-Disruptive & Zero-Risk Way to Gauge the Impact of your Decisions
Safely evaluate your ransomware plans, review your critical decisions and gauge the impact on your critical systems and clients.
Enhanced Awareness of Ransomware Response Plans
Our aim is to produce realistic and relevant ransomware scenarios, engage the stakeholders, improve their learning, thus increasing retention of key response actions and stakeholder responsibility.
Formal Report with Tangible Recommendations
After the tabletop exercise, you receive a formal executive summary and report that contains a high level analysis of existing processes, procedures and their effectiveness.
We've conducted ransomware tabletop exercises for businesses in sectors including Finance, Health, Pharma, Banking, Government, Nuclear, Local Councils, Insurance, Manufacturing, and Charities.
We offer both management-focused and technical ransomware tabletop exercises and recommend the following participants for both audiences:
- Staff responsible for making critical decisions.
- Staff who are either heads of their function and or fully understand how the department operates.
- For management exercises, there must be representation from all functions like PR, communications, legal, HR, sales, and marketing, to name a few.
- Technical staff who know the systems and processes.
- If relevant, representatives from key service providers
Why Cyber Management Alliance ?
We are one of the world’s leading independent cyber incident & crisis management authorities offering advisory services, executive training, and bespoke workshops in all aspects of cyber crisis management, incident planning, incident-response testing and tabletop exercises.
We are the creators of the internationally acclaimed UK-Government’s NCSC Assured, Cyber Incident Planning and Response (CIPR) course and have trained attendees from organisations including the United Nations, UK Ministry of Defence, several UK Police Forces, NHS Trusts, European Central Bank, Swiss National Bank, Microsoft, Ernst and Young and many others.
All trademarks, service marks, trade names, product names, service names and logos appearing on the site, or on printed or digital material are the property of their respective owners, including in Cyber Management Alliance Ltd. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.
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“We selected Cyber Management Alliance to conduct a non-technical, scenario-based, cyberattack tabletop exercise for members of our senior management. The session and scenarios were relevant to our business and the ransomware tabletop exercise was conducted in a deeply engaging and conducive manner and the session met our objectives.”
"The sessions and scenarios were relevant to our business and the tabletop ransomware exercises were conducted in a deeply engaging manner. The ransomware communication response templates were comprehensive and completely relevant to our business context and the accompanying communication plan was fit-for-purpose."
Ransomware and Executive Bespoke Scenario Tabletop Pricing
Ransomware Tabletop Exercise
£1,995
CLIENT-SPECIFIC
INCLUDES
For both Executives and Senior Leadership teams
A focus on your business relevant challenges
Verbal simulation of a Ransomware cyber attack
Focus on the real threats of a Ransomware attack on your organisation
Estimated duration 60 - 120 mins
Executive Tabletop Exercise
£4395
SCENARIO-BASED
INCLUDES
Detailed planning for a bespoke cyber attack
Management discussion & review of their actions & decisions
Realistic business-impacting scenario
Verbal simulation of the cyber-crisis scenario
Estimated duration 60 - 120 mins
Frequently Asked Questions about our Ransomware Tabletop Exercises Template
What is the right audience for a Ransomware Tabletop Exercise?
We conduct Ransomware Tabletop sessions for three different types of audiences. Technical teams, management and senior executives. We also conduct these sessions for board members.
What is the duration of a Ransomware Tabletop exercise?
Depends on the audience and number of participants. Technical tabletop sessions can last up to three hours. For senior executives and management a Ransomware Tabletop exercise can last between 45 - 90 minutes.
Do you conduct physical & virtual tabletop sessions?
We conduct both physical and virtual ransomware tabletop sessions. Professionally, we recommend that tabletop sessions are held virtually or remotely as a remote session best imitates reality. Most incidents strike when staff are not necessarily in one location.
Ransomware and regular tabletop exercise. What's the difference?
In a regular Cyber Crisis Tabletop Exercise (CCTE), we explore all cyber threats that can impact your organisation. In a Ransomware Tabletop Exercise, we lay exclusive focus on the ransomware threat and the impact it can have on your organisation.
Ransomware Tabletop Exercises from as little as £995 or $1195
Ransomware Tabletop Exercises and Ransomware Assessments
Why not find out more about our Ransomware Tabletop Exercises and Ransomware Assessments? Book a no-obligation discovery call with one of our consultants.
Let us show you why our clients trust us and love working with us.
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