How to Plan and Conduct a Cyber Tabletop Exercise
Cyber Tabletop Exercise Masterclass
We have trained over 750 organisations including:
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Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercise Masterclass - How to Conduct a Tabletop Exercise
But it's not always easy to plan and conduct a cyber tabletop exercise internally. You might either find yourself at a loss during the planning stage or you may struggle with achieving meaningful outcomes. This is why we have created this 7-hour Cyber Crisis Tabletop Masterclass, designed and delivered by the world's #1 cyber security drill facilitator.
In this Tabletop Masterclass, not only will you learn the theory of how to conduct a tabletop exercise, you'll also gain essential skills and learn how to apply the knowledge to plan, produce, and facilitate effective and highly engaging tabletop exercises. We show you how to conduct a tabletop exercise, from defining objectives and building realistic scenarios through to facilitation, evaluation and post-exercise improvement activities.
Who is this Tabletop Masterclass for?
The target audience for this Masterclass is for anyone who wants to improve their organisation's crisis preparedness and cyber resilience. Some job roles that will benefit from this special training include:
- Business Continuity Manager
- Cyber Risk Manager
- Emergency Planner/Manager
- Project Manager/IT Project Manager
- CISO/Head of Information Security
- IT Security/Cybersecurity Manager
- Head of Security Operations
How does this Cyber Tabletop Masterclass Benefit you?
Get access to all the expert insights and nuanced guidance you need to plan and facilitate an engaging & meaningful cyber simulation drill for your team.
Learn from a highly-experienced cybersecurity practitioner who has planned, produced & conducted hundreds of tabletop exercises for organisations around the world.
Master how to interact & engage with a wide range of stakeholders, senior board members, CEOs, CFOs and even deep technical staff.
Achieve tangible improvements in your crisis management and crisis preparedness, reducing business disruption in a real attack.
Highlights of the Cyber Crisis Tabletop Exercise Masterclass
12 hours of rich content dedicated to teaching you how to successfully conduct a cyber-attack simulation exercise
Increases attendee confidence in their own and the organisation's ability to respond and recover from a cyber crisis
Designed & delivered by a deeply-experienced cybersecurity professional recognised globally for conducting tabletop exercises remotely & in-person
Get Access to Cyber Tabletop Resources & Collateral Created by Experts
The course collateral supports structured cyber drill planning, including templates, checklists, scenario packs, facilitator guidance and reporting formats.
Course Collateral Includes:
- Access to our Templates: Access to our professionally curated and designed tabletop templates.
- Access to our tabletop content including question banks.
- Professionally created and designed documents including:
- Terms of Reference (ToR) Template
- Checklists - Tabletop Preparation, Production and Delivery Checklists
- 5 Tabletop Scenarios PowerPoint templates (Editable)
- Facilitator’s Guide
- Detailed Participant’s Guide
- Detailed Observer’s Guide
- Report Templates. Includes 4 Cyber Security Tabletop Exercise Templates:
- Top 30 Tabletop Scenarios: 30 Unique Scenarios including suggested threats
- Free 1-hour consulting session that includes a review of your current tabletop slide deck and approach
- 50% discount Executive Briefing and Awareness Sessions (or EBAS) session with your executives
- Free cursory review of your existing Incident Response plan document
- Additional discounts on any of our Cyber Crisis Tabletop Exercise (CCTE) Services
Learning Objectives - How to Conduct a Tabletop Exercise
In this Masterclass on How to Conduct a Tabletop Exercise, you’ll learn how to:
Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercise Modules
Module 1 - Introduction to tabletop exercises
- What is a tabletop exercise?
- The importance and relevance of tabletop exercises.
- Benefits of tabletop exercises.
Module 2 - Defining objectives & outcomes of your tabletop exercise
- What do you want to achieve with your tabletop exercise?
- Defining specific objectives of your tabletop exercise.
- Measuring the success of your tabletop exercise.
Module 3 - Choosing the right participants and exercise team
- Identifying and selecting tabletop participants.
- Roles and responsibilities of the exercise team.
Module 4 - Designing an interactive scenario and exercise plan
- Scenario & injects - The basics.
- Creating the optimal scenario for a tabletop exercise.
- Structuring the tabletop exercise.
- What are the key questions that you want to answer?
Module 5 - Identifying issues and key gaps
- Capturing the issues and key gaps identified during your tabletop exercise.
Module 6 - Creating an interactive environment
- Creating a supportive environment for your tabletop exercise.
- How to encourage participants to share ideas and insights?
Module 7 - Conducting the tabletop exercise
- Facilitating the tabletop exercise.
- What are the key things to keep in mind during the exercise?
Module 8 - Break the silence barrier and gain effective insight
- Specific questions you must ask during a tabletop exercise.
- Asking the right questions to identify key gaps and issues for the session.
Module 9 - Debriefing the tabletop exercise
- How will you debrief your tabletop exercise?
- What are the key takeaways from the exercise?
- How will you use this information to improve your emergency response plan?
Module 10 - Tabletop outputs to improve your response playbooks
- Putting your learning into action.
- Steps to take to improve your response playbooks.
- Using outputs from cyber drill planning to improve incident response playbooks and future exercises.
Learning Outcomes
After the completion of this course, you should be able to:
Evaluate the effectiveness of your tabletop exercise against key metrics of engagement, participation, decision-making, awareness of roles and responsibilities etc.
Drive deep and meaningful discussions around cyber incident response with the attendees
Use data from the tabletop session to improve existing Incident Response playbooks
Produce and deliver meaningful debrief sessions focussed on lessons learned
Why Choose Us for your Cyber Tabletop Training?
- Deep and Verifiable Experience
- We have conducted over 300 tabletop exercises!
- We can engage senior executives, management and deep techies
- Our facilitation experience and skills ensure all attendees take part
- We have numerous case studies and testimonials that demonstrate the success of our approach to tabletop exercises
- We are experts in crisis management, Incident Response and Cyber Consultancy
- Our training courses in Cyber Incident Planning & Response & Incident Response Playbooks are UK Government’s NCSC-Assured
Speak to us if you need a practical tabletop exercise guide or expert support to plan, produce and conduct cyber drills for your organisation.
Meet the Trainer
Amar Singh has a long history and experience in data privacy and information security. Amar has served as CISO for various companies, including News International (now News UK), SABMiller, Gala Coral, Euromoney and Elsevier. Amongst various other activities, Amar is a Global Chief Information Security Officer and Trusted Advisor to a number of organisations including a FTSE100 firm, and is chair of the ISACA UK Security Advisory Group. He also founded the not-for-profit cybersecurity service for charities, Give01Day.
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Amar has the highest integrity and is trusted by FTSE100 companies with some of the most sensitive commercial information. He has been involved with highly sensitive forensic investigations.
He has the ability to deal with both technically-astute, board-level executives and lead an organisation's information security direction. Apart from his experience and abilities, Amar holds a number of industry-recognised certifications, such as ISO 27001 Certified ISMS Lead Implementer, MoR, CRISC and CISSP certification.
Amar is an industry-acknowledged expert and public speaker and is regularly invited to speak and share his insights by some of the largest and most respected organisations in the world including The BBC, The Economist’s Intelligence Unit, The Financial Times, SC Magazine, InfoSec Magazine, Computer Weekly, The Register and the AlJazeera English Channel.
We pride ourselves on providing an exceptional service to our clients, but you don’t just have to take our word for it. Read what our clients have to say about our Cyber Tabletop Exercise Workshop.
- Mid Ulster District Council
- Northern Ireland Civil Service
Stranmillis University College - Queen's University Belfast
Newry - Mourne and Down District Council
- Causeway Council
Why not book a discovery call to discuss your requirements?
Want more information on the Cyber Tabletop Exercise Masterclass & our Cyber Crisis Tabletop Exercise services? Book a no-obligation discovery call with one of our consultants.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is the Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercise Masterclass?
The Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercise Masterclass is a two-day, instructor-led training programme that teaches you how to plan, produce and facilitate your own cyber crisis tabletop exercises in-house. Designed and delivered by one of the world’s most experienced cyber drill facilitators, it combines the theory with the practical skills needed to run engaging, effective exercises for executive, operational and technical audiences — and includes an extensive set of ready-to-use templates and resources.
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How do you create an effective cybersecurity tabletop exercise?
To create an effective cybersecurity tabletop exercise, organisations should define clear exercise goals, identify the right participants, develop realistic attack scenarios, prepare discussion injects, facilitate structured conversations, evaluate responses, and document lessons learned to improve future preparedness.
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What are the key components of a successful tabletop exercise?
A successful tabletop exercise includes clear objectives, realistic scenarios, active stakeholder participation, skilled facilitation, meaningful discussions, performance evaluation, and actionable recommendations for improvement.
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Who should attend the Tabletop Exercise Masterclass?
The Masterclass is ideal for anyone responsible for improving their organisation’s crisis preparedness and cyber resilience, including Business Continuity Managers, Cyber Risk Managers, Emergency Planners, IT and Project Managers, CISOs and Heads of Information Security, IT Security and Cybersecurity Managers, and Heads of Security Operations. It suits both newcomers and experienced practitioners who want a proven, repeatable approach.
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Do I need prior experience with tabletop exercises to attend this masterclass?
No. While cybersecurity or risk management experience is beneficial, the Masterclass is designed to provide a structured approach to planning, producing and facilitating effective tabletop exercises for both new and experienced practitioners.
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What templates and documents do you receive with the Masterclass?
Every attendee receives a comprehensive library of professionally designed resources to run their own exercises immediately. The collateral includes a Terms of Reference (ToR) template; preparation, production and delivery checklists; 5 editable tabletop scenario PowerPoint templates; a Facilitator’s Guide, a detailed Participant’s Guide and a detailed Observer’s Guide; report templates with four ready-made exercise templates (Ransomware, Executive, Operational and Technical); a question bank; and a Top 30 Tabletop Scenarios pack with suggested threats. Attendees also receive a free one-hour consulting session reviewing their current tabletop approach, a free cursory review of their existing incident response plan, a 50% discount on an Executive Briefing & Awareness Session, and further discounts on our Cyber Crisis Tabletop Exercise services.
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Who delivers the Masterclass and what expertise do they have?
The Masterclass is designed and delivered by Amar Singh, a globally recognised cyber tabletop facilitator who has planned and run over 400 tabletop exercises for organisations worldwide. Amar is a former CISO for major organisations including News UK, SABMiller, Gala Coral, Euromoney and Elsevier, chairs the ISACA UK Security Advisory Group, and holds CISSP, CRISC, MoR and ISO 27001 Lead Implementer certifications. Cyber Management Alliance is also the creator of the UK Government’s NCSC Assured incident response training and has trained over 750 organisations across 38 countries.
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How is the Masterclass delivered and how long is it?
The Masterclass is a two-day programme delivered privately and internally for your organisation, so the content, scenarios and discussion can be tailored to your team, sector and risk profile. It is not offered as a public or open course — contact us to arrange a session for your team.
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Is the Masterclass NCSC Assured, and do attendees receive a certificate?
The Cyber Attack Tabletop Exercise Masterclass is not currently NCSC Assured or formally certified. However, all attendees receive a certificate of attendance on completion. It is delivered by the same team behind Cyber Management Alliance’s NCSC Assured incident response courses, so it reflects the same depth of real-world expertise.
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What types of scenarios can be developed during a Tabletop Exercise Masterclass?
Participants learn how to build exercises around ransomware attacks, data breaches, phishing campaigns, insider threats, supply chain attacks, cloud security incidents and other cyber crisis scenarios relevant to their organisation. The course also includes a Top 30 Tabletop Scenarios pack with suggested threats to draw from.
