Breach Readiness Assurance
Every organization has an incident response plan. Almost none have tested it under pressure. We simulate real breach scenarios so your team knows exactly what to do when the alert fires at 2am.
54%
of organizations with an IR plan have never tested it under realistic conditions
SANS Incident Response Survey 2024
$1.49M
average cost reduction for organizations with tested IR plans and trained response teams
IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025
73 days
longer mean time to containment without exercised incident response capabilities
Mandiant M-Trends 2025
Plans don't survive contact
Your IR plan looks comprehensive on paper. But when the ransomware detonates and the CEO is calling every five minutes, paper plans collapse. The teams that survive breaches are the ones that rehearsed.
The Readiness Gap
54%
of organizations that have an IR plan have never tested it. The first real test shouldn't be a real breach.
$1.49M
average cost reduction for organizations with tested IR plans and trained response teams (IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2024).
73 days
longer mean time to containment for organizations without exercised IR capabilities.
Readiness across every dimension
Breach readiness isn't just technical response. It spans communications, legal obligations, business continuity, and stakeholder management.
Technical Readiness
Can your security team detect, contain, and eradicate a sophisticated adversary operating in your environment?
Organizational Readiness
Can your leadership, legal, and communications teams execute their roles during a crisis, or does everything funnel to one person?
Exercise types
Escalating levels of realism, from structured discussion to full-scale adversary simulation.
Tabletop Exercises
- Scenario-driven discussion exercises
- Role-specific decision points
- Communication chain validation
- Regulatory notification rehearsal
- Cross-functional coordination testing
- Executive-level and technical variants
Breach Simulation
- Realistic adversary emulation in staging
- Purple team detection validation
- Containment procedure testing
- Forensic artifact generation and recovery
- Time-pressured response measurement
- After-action review and gap analysis
IR Plan Assessment
- Comprehensive plan review and gap analysis
- Playbook completeness validation
- Contact tree and escalation path testing
- Tool and access readiness verification
- SLA and response timeline assessment
- Regulatory compliance alignment check
Forensic Readiness
- Evidence preservation protocol review
- Log source coverage and retention audit
- Chain of custody procedure validation
- Forensic tooling and access assessment
- Legal hold process testing
- Third-party forensic engagement readiness
Crisis Communication
- Internal communication template review
- External/media response preparation
- Regulatory disclosure process testing
- Customer notification procedures
- Social media response protocols
- Spokesperson training and rehearsal
Business Continuity
- Critical system recovery prioritization
- Backup restoration testing
- Degraded operations procedures
- Vendor and supply chain notification
- Remote work continuity in crisis
- Recovery time objective validation
How a readiness engagement runs
Structured methodology that tests your people, processes, and technology under realistic pressure conditions.
01
Readiness Assessment
2-3 days
We review your existing IR plan, runbooks, contact trees, and tooling. We identify gaps before any exercise begins, because testing a plan with known deficiencies wastes everyone's time.
Deliverable: IR plan gap analysis, readiness scorecard, and exercise design recommendations.
02
Scenario Design
2-3 days
Custom scenarios based on your industry, threat landscape, and organizational structure. We don't use generic templates, your exercise reflects threats actually targeting your sector.
Deliverable: Custom exercise scenarios, inject timeline, participant briefing materials.
03
Exercise Execution
1-3 days
Facilitated exercises with escalating injects that test decision-making under pressure. We observe, document, and measure response effectiveness in real time.
Deliverable: Exercise observation log, decision point analysis, and timeline documentation.
04
Adversary Simulation
3-5 days (optional)
For organizations seeking maximum realism: controlled adversary emulation that triggers your detection and response capabilities against actual attack techniques.
Deliverable: Attack timeline, detection coverage results, and containment effectiveness metrics.
05
After-Action Review
1-2 days
Structured debrief with all participants. We identify what worked, what failed, and where the critical gaps are, with specific, actionable improvements.
Deliverable: After-action report, gap prioritization matrix, and 90-day improvement roadmap.
06
Remediation & Retest
Ongoing
We support your team in closing identified gaps and schedule follow-up exercises to validate improvements. Readiness is a capability, not a checkbox.
Deliverable: Remediation tracking, updated playbooks, and scheduled revalidation exercises.
What you receive
Readiness Scorecard
Quantified assessment of your IR capability across detection, containment, eradication, recovery, and communication dimensions.
Exercise After-Action Report
Detailed narrative of exercise events, decision points, response effectiveness, and identified gaps with severity ratings.
Updated IR Playbooks
Revised incident response procedures incorporating lessons learned, with role-specific action cards and communication templates.
90-Day Improvement Roadmap
Prioritized remediation plan with quick wins, medium-term improvements, and strategic capability investments.
Why organizations engage us for readiness
Attacker perspective
Our scenarios are built from real adversary TTPs, not compliance checklists. We test against what attackers actually do.
Cross-functional scope
We exercise your entire organization - communications, executive, and technical, not just the SOC.
Industry-specific scenarios
Custom exercises reflecting your sector's threat landscape: ransomware for manufacturing, data exfiltration for finance, supply chain for SaaS.
Measurable improvement
Quantified readiness scores before and after. Track your IR capability maturity over time with consistent metrics.
Regulatory alignment
Exercises designed to satisfy DORA, NIS2, SEC, HIPAA, and SOC 2 incident response testing requirements.
Ongoing partnership
Quarterly or semi-annual exercise cadence with escalating complexity. Readiness is a muscle, it atrophies without use.
Frequently Asked
How often should we run tabletop exercises?+
At minimum, quarterly for security teams and semi-annually for executive leadership. Organizations subject to DORA, NIS2, or SEC requirements may need more frequent exercises to maintain compliance.
What's the difference between a tabletop exercise and a breach simulation?+
Tabletop exercises are discussion-based, participants walk through scenarios verbally. Breach simulations involve actual adversary emulation in controlled environments, testing your detection and response tools in real time.
How long does a full readiness engagement take?+
A typical engagement runs 2-4 weeks, depending on scope. This includes initial assessment, scenario design, exercise execution, and after-action review with remediation roadmap.
Can you run exercises without disrupting operations?+
Yes. Tabletop exercises are entirely discussion-based. Breach simulations can be conducted in staged environments or during controlled windows with safety mechanisms in place.
What if we don't have a formal IR plan yet?+
We frequently work with organizations at that stage. Our readiness assessment identifies gaps, and we help build foundational IR playbooks before conducting exercises against them.
Test the plan before attackers do.
Incident response readiness that proves your team can execute under pressure.