Incident Response

Cyber Incident Exercising

Cyberus develops a proportionate scenario and captures evidence for a constructive, cross-functional debrief.

Plan an incident exercise See how exercises run

Agreed incident scenario and objectives
Relevant technical and business participants
Facilitated decision injects
Observations and improvement actions

The proposition

Practise coordination in a safe setting

Give decision-makers a safe setting to practise how they would coordinate through a plausible cyber incident. The work focuses on agreed incident scenario and objectives and records where evidence or authorization limits the conclusion.

Practise the hand-offs

Plans become useful when people practise the hand-offs.

An incident exercise explores how teams interpret incomplete information, make decisions and communicate under pressure. It can include technical, legal, operational and leadership perspectives without disrupting live systems.

The scenario is designed for learning, not to trick participants. Assumptions and artificial constraints are stated so observations are not mistaken for proof of real-world performance.

Practising decisions under pressure

Learning objective. The exercise starts from the decisions and teams the organization most needs to understand better.
Scenario inject. Controlled developments arrive in turn and ask participants to decide, escalate or hand over.
Recorded choice. Observers note what was decided, what was assumed and which questions nobody could answer.
Owned action. Each gap becomes an improvement with a named owner who can be asked about it later.

Why it matters

Business risk: Plans that have never been tried tend to fail at hand-offs, where people disagree about who decides or who speaks.
Decision it supports: Teams can decide which roles, contacts and procedures to fix first, using what the group actually did in the room.
What you receive: You receive an agreed scenario, a facilitated session, written observations and an action register, within the agreed scope.

Exercise evidence for practical improvement

Exercise brief

Defines objectives, participants, scenario boundaries and evaluation themes.

Why it matters: A vague exercise produces vague lessons, so aims and boundaries keep time spent on questions that matter.
Supports: A shared view of what the session will and will not test

Inject sequence

Introduces controlled developments that prompt relevant decisions and hand-offs.

Why it matters: Decisions only surface when something changes, so staged developments reveal gaps a document review would miss.
Supports: Evidence of how teams respond as events unfold

Observation record

Captures decisions, dependencies, unanswered questions and useful practices.

Why it matters: Memory of a session fades fast, and unrecorded disagreements return in a real incident.
Supports: A reliable record for the debrief and later review

Action register

Assigns agreed plan, process, contact or capability improvements for review.

Why it matters: Findings without owners rarely become change, leaving the same weakness for the next event.
Supports: Accountable follow-up that leaders can track

How an incident exercise develops

Set learning objectives
Choose the decisions, teams and dependencies the exercise should explore.
Why it matters
Narrow objectives stop the session sprawling and make sure the right people are in the room.
Build the scenario
Create plausible injects that fit the organization without using unsupported incident claims.
Why it matters
A scenario that fits the organization keeps participants engaged and avoids arguments about realism.
Facilitate the session
Present developments, capture choices and keep discussion tied to the objectives.
Why it matters
Skilled facilitation keeps debate on the objectives and draws out quieter views that would otherwise be lost.
Debrief and assign
Separate strengths, gaps and assumptions, then identify owners for improvement.
Why it matters
Separating strengths from assumptions helps leaders act on facts and gives each improvement an accountable owner.

Why choose Cyberus for cyber incident exercising

Format
Facilitated and non-disruptive
Focus
Decisions and coordination
Evidence
Observed exercise behavior
Follow-up
Owned improvement actions

Team certifications

Individual qualifications held by members of the Cyberus team. They are not company accreditations, and not every consultant on an engagement holds every badge.

OSCP
Hands-on penetration testing skills, from enumeration to exploitation and privilege escalation.
OSWE
Web application security skills, including source code review and exploiting complex web vulnerabilities.
OSED
Exploit development skills, including analysing Windows software and writing custom exploits.
OSCP+
Hands-on penetration testing skills, from enumeration to exploitation and privilege escalation.
CRTA
Red team analysis skills, including adversary tactics and techniques.
eWPT
Web application penetration testing skills, from assessment method to exploiting common web flaws.
eWPTX
Advanced web application penetration testing skills, including complex attack techniques.
eMAPT
Mobile application penetration testing skills for Android and iOS applications.
BTL1
Defensive security skills across security operations, phishing analysis, forensics and incident response.
eCIR
Incident response skills, including investigating, containing and analysing security incidents.
CRTE
Red teaming skills focused on Windows environments and the tradecraft used against them.
CCT
EC-Council's Certified Cybersecurity Technician (CCT) validates foundational security, network, and defense skills.
Security+
CompTIA Security+ validates core skills in baseline cybersecurity, risk management, and threats.