How do you create challenging incident response exercises?

Establish a designated team for safety beforehand. The factors that will enable you to choose the best members for your team are: Ability - Do they have a solid safety mindset and skillset, or are they at least teachable to obtain these. Availability - Do they have the time for this and are they willing to commit to the level necessary to successfully serve on this team. Allowed - Always ensure that background checks and interviews have been conduct with each member before allowing them on the team, to ensure it's possible to add them. Armed - If you are forming a physical security team, you need to ensure that all appropriate members are equipped and trained with all the tools they need: Self Defense, Medical Equipment, Hazard, etc.

Identify the specific skills, knowledge, or behaviors you want to assess or enhance, and pinpoint the gaps or weaknesses you aim to address. Establish concrete metrics or indicators to gauge success, such as response times, decision-making accuracy, or team coordination. By setting focused and measurable goals, you ensure that the exercise targets the most relevant aspects of incident response, ultimately leading to more impactful and actionable outcomes. This strategic approach enhances both the value of the exercise and its contribution to overall readiness.

Creating challenging incident response exercises involves simulating realistic scenarios, testing teams' abilities to detect, analyze, and mitigate incidents effectively. Start by defining clear objectives and desired outcomes. Develop scenarios based on likely threats, considering industry-specific risks. Create detailed playbooks with predefined roles and responsibilities for participants. Incorporate surprise elements to mimic real-world uncertainty. Use a variety of communication channels and inject false information to add complexity. Ensure debriefings to assess performance and identify areas for improvement. Continuously update and evolve exercises to adapt to changing threats.

For assessing technical skills and tools, opt for hands-on exercises with live or simulated environments. To evaluate communication and coordination, consider role-playing scenarios with diverse stakeholders and dynamic injects. Combining formats can provide a comprehensive assessment, addressing various facets of incident response. Tailoring exercises to specific goals ensures they are effective and relevant, enabling teams to develop both technical expertise and collaborative skills, and ultimately enhancing overall readiness.

If you're a leader of some sort in an organization, ask to be part of the escalation process during a scenario. That allows you to test for example how the team will respond when you acknowledge the escalation but then stop responding. Will they get stuck, will they wait too long, or do they know how to operate without you in the loop? It's really strong signal on the maturity of the organization you've created.

Some ways to ensure that a tabletop cyberattack scenario remains realistic is developing alternate storylines based on the choices made by the participants. It should make clear what the impact of the choices made is. Do they choose to hold off on containment? Additional lateral movement and additional servers pwned... Do they isolate an entire network segment without precautions? Business impact and additional load on the IT Helpdesk communicating with disgruntled employees... for example.

First and foremost do not use the word mandatory, that is your basic engagement killer. Second identify breaches in the news or common attack vectors and run through the steps. Even better if you can get your red team in on it and make it a fun purple team exercise. That way you can really test all areas of your incident response.

Incorporate threat actors’ motives, capabilities, and tactics, while considering the target’s vulnerabilities and dependencies. The scenario should reflect plausible impacts and comply with legal and ethical standards. Striking the right balance between complexity and the team's experience is crucial. A well-designed exercise tests limits without overwhelming, ensuring that the team remains engaged and motivated, ultimately improving their response capabilities and readiness for real-world threats.

Oof- big miss in this article to slide in the communication portion of the response into a single sentence. A solid technical response will make sure you have a network to run once the attack is remediated. A solid communication strategy will make sure you actually have a business to run once the dust settles. You can do absolutely everything right in your technical response but if you're not in lock step with highly trained IR communication professionals, no one will know--do NOT relegate comms to an afterthought. Key point: Don't just do a cut/paste media announcement--give your attendee a mock "hot seat" interview with a reporter. As a former journalist I've done this with my clients and it makes more powerful experience.

From an OT perspective, sharing the potential mitigated impact is often a motivational factor. Such as due to the teams strength, we prevented a potential disaster that could have happened in the real world. Knowing that what we do has meaning.

Creating challenging incident response exercises demands a multi-faceted approach. Begin by integrating advanced detection and response tooling capable of pinpointing silent failures and "needles in the haystack." Leveraging AI can facilitate dynamic rule modification, enhancing accuracy in threat detection. To further challenge your team, incorporate real-world scenarios into the exercises, encouraging the team to think like attackers. Constantly update these scenarios to include emerging threats, fostering adaptability and forward-thinking. Remember, the goal is not just to detect but to respond swiftly and intelligently, making the integration of AI an essential strategy in crafting truly challenging incident response exercises.