Cyber Security Training Drill

It's crucial that executive and management professionals throughout the organisation understand the scope of the cyber threats they face and possess the necessary knowledge to respond quickly and effectively. In the event of a cyber attack, it's crucial that senior management respond quickly and confidently.

This is only possible if you have an organised Incident Response Plan in place and everybody knows what they're supposed to do next to mitigate the impact of the attack.  

Cyber training exercise drills can help keep your company’s IT and security staff in shape. Cyber exercises can improve cyber fitness, reduce stress due to uncertainty, and build your cyber muscle memory. This is how you can truly benefit from cyber exercises both at work and at home.

Keeping information secure is a difficult task, even if you have bountiful resources. With numerous large organisations suffering high-profile data breaches it's clear that no one is safe from cyber criminals. While most organisations understand the need to build defenses and develop policies to reduce the risk and potential impact of a successful cyber-attack, many fail to rigorously test those defenses.

Cyber security exercises are useful simulations of specific cyber attack scenarios that enable organisations to gain valuable insights into their real-world response. There should be a focus on uncovering weaknesses and problems during cyber security exercises and there is also a major benefit in identifying what's working well for your organisation. 

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of running a cyber security exercise, is that it gives you an opportunity to improve your response to future attacks. Cyber security exercises can deliver some truly compelling benefits:  

Training: There's no substitute for hands-on experience. Cyber security exercises provide employees with practical experience of dealing with an attack, they boost awareness of the possibilities, and they can teach people all about the right way to respond. Learning is always more effective with a practical component. Cyber security exercises paint a clearer picture of the costs and timescales involved, giving you hard data to help you build greater resilience, or use for any financial justification that might be required.

Whether there are technical vulnerabilities lurking on your network or weaknesses in security controls, cyber security exercises can expose them. They may also reveal the need for better training or new talent. Identifying specific weaknesses enables you to craft remediation plans and act immediately to improve.

Improve Cyber Security Awareness: From entry-level employees to the board of directors, lack of awareness about the nature of cyber-attacks and the scale of the threats they pose can be catastrophic. Failure to recognise the risk and react accordingly always exacerbates the problem, making a bad situation much worse.

Practice makes perfect:  It's common sense to accept that rehearsals serve an important function in readying people for the actual event. Cyber-attacks are inevitable, but it's how you respond that will dictate the impact on your business. Not only do cyber security exercises help to build awareness and understanding across your organisation, they test your defenses, identify strengths to build on and weaknesses to mitigate, and offer invaluable practical experience. 

You should certainly  consider training  employees from all levels and specialisations across the company. In addition to required security and IT staff, be sure to include marketing, legal, human resources and customer service. 

Dark Reading:       DeltaRisk:        Security Boulevard:        Cyber Management Alliance:    GoCyber:

Learn more about cyber exercises and training by contacting Cyber Security Intelligence for a cybersecurity assessment and advice on training.

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