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Cyber Incident Exercising & Capability Development

Test, refine, and improve your incident response plans in a safe, controlled environment before a real incident occurs. Our framework helps teams to practise coordination, decision-making, communication, and execution across IT and OT domains.

Cross-team awareness

Fail safely, learn quickly

Build cyber culture and capability

Realistic scenarios

Actionable outcomes

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Who is it for?

Pilots don’t wait for mid-flight emergencies to learn how to respond. They train in simulators. Military leaders don’t test strategies on the battlefield, they run war games. Cybersecurity deserves the same discipline. Our cyber incident exercising is for technical teams, continuity leads, and senior decision-makers who need to see risks, test responses, and coordinate under pressure. By rehearsing in a safe environment, you build not just awareness, but confidence, making cyber risk visible from the control room to the boardroom, and ensuring your organisation is ready when it matters.

Find the right exercise for your team

Build your team’s confidence and capability through discussion-based exercises or controlled, execution-focused scenarios, without impacting live operations.

Tabletop Cyber Incident Exercising (IT/OT)

Structured, scenario-based exercises using micro-exercises and tabletop exercises from NCSC Exercise in a Box, combining facilitated discussion with guided investigation to help teams:

Clarify roles, responsibilities, and communication
Validate existing policies and procedures
Practise escalation and decision-making under uncertainty
Coordinate response across IT and OT teams

Resulting in clearer, more confident incident response.

Live-Play Cyber Incident Exercising (IT/OT)

Time-driven incident scenarios delivered in a controlled environment, using realistic injects and where appropriate with real and simulated IT/OT equipment and cyber-range environments to help teams:

Respond to evolving incidents under time pressure
Investigate realistic telemetry, signals, and technical artefacts
Coordinate decisions across technical and operational teams

Resulting in greater confidence and preparedness handling realistic IT/OT cyber incidents.

Incident Response Playbook Exercising & Maturity

Structured, scenario-driven exercises that test and refine IT/OT incident response playbooks, designed with reference to the organisation’s Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCP/DR) arrangements, by helping teams:

Walk through playbook steps and decision points
Identify gaps, assumptions, and handover risks
Test escalation paths and cross-team dependencies
Spot opportunities for further improvement

Resulting in more usable, trusted, and effective incident response playbooks.

Detection & SOC Workflow Exercising

For organisations developing or maturing OT monitoring capability, we offer exercise-driven workshops that explore the link between detection and response:

Guided detection engineering activities
Security Onion and Malcolm-based monitoring and telemetry analysis
Dashboard walkthroughs and alert interpretation
Exercising SOC workflows for OT scenarios

Delivered as facilitated exercises rather than operational SOC services.

All incident exercising and capability development activities are intended to support preparedness, learning, and informed decision-making. Operational incident response and control of live systems remain the responsibility of the organisation.

Stronger Response, Built Here

Cross-Functional Impact

Engages leadership and frontline staff for shared resilience.

Culture Change

Build awareness and accountability across the whole organisation.

Confidence Under Pressure

Teams practise response before real incidents hit.

Realistic Scenarios

From ransomware to supply chain breaches, we model your risks.

Actionable Outcomes

Identify gaps, refine plans, and strengthen long-term capability.

Sector Expertise

Scenarios shaped by experts with real-world cyber experience.

“As Chief Security Officer of National Highways, I am aware of evolving cyber threats. We collaborated with Cyber Innovation Hub, using immersive testbed facilities to simulate attacks in a controlled setting. This hands-on approach enhanced our understanding of threat management and fostered collaboration and learning across our organisation.”

Keith Price

Chief Security Officer, National Highways

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