Scenario-based incident response training: lessons learnt from conducting an experiential learning virtual incident response tabletop exercise

What is it about?

This paper discusses our experiences of designing and conducting an experiential learning virtual incident response tabletop exercise (VIRTTX) to review a business’ security posture as it adapts to remote working because of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The pandemic forced businesses to move operations from offices to remote working. Given that this happened quickly for many, some businesses had little or no time to factor in appropriate cyber-hygiene and incident prevention measures thereby exposing themselves to vulnerabilities such as phishing and other scams. The exercise highlighted the value of using scenario-based exercises in cyber security training. It elaborated that scenario-based incident response (IR) exercises are extremely useful because well-crafted and well-executed exercises are effective tools for raising cyber security awareness among managers and IT professionals. That such exercises with integrated operational and decision-making components enable businesses to evaluate IR and disaster recovery (DR) procedures, including communication flows to improve decision-making at strategic levels and enhance the technical skills of cyber security personnel.

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