How a Ransomware Tabletop Exercise Can Dramatically Reduce Your Losses If You’re Attacked

Cyberattacks don’t wait for your team to be ready. When ransomware strikes, your ability to respond effectively can mean the difference between a disruption and a catastrophic business failure. A Ransomware Tabletop Exercise is one of the best ways to test your organization’s ability to handle an attack, identify process gaps, and ensure a swift, coordinated response. These exercises simulate real-world ransomware scenarios, allowing your team to evaluate their readiness and refine incident response strategies before an actual incident occurs.

Why Conduct a Ransomware Tabletop Exercise?

A Ransomware Tabletop Exercise helps organizations uncover gaps in their incident response plan by forcing teams to confront realistic attack scenarios. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their tactics, and an outdated or untested response plan can lead to costly delays and mistakes. According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, the average total cost of a data breach in the US was $9.36 million, and full recovery took more than 100 days for most organizations. In good news, the same report found that your organization can reduce your losses by an average of $248,072 with IR planning—like a ransomware tabletop exercise. How does it help? A well-structured tabletop exercise improves response times, enhances coordination across departments, and strengthens overall cybersecurity resilience. Let’s dive into the common incident response failure points we find during these exercises, and then we’ll cover simple scenarios and best practices for running a ransomware tabletop exercise.

Common Failure Points in Ransomware Response

Matt Durrin, an expert in cybersecurity incident response, has facilitated countless ransomware tabletop exercises and finds the following are the most common incident response failure points:

1. Overreliance on a Single Communication System – If your organization relies solely on Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email for communication, what happens if those systems are compromised? Many companies lack an out-of-band communication plan, leaving them scrambling when their primary channels are disabled or being watched by the attackers.
2. Backup Limitations – Many organizations assume they can recover quickly, only to realize their backups are either infected, outdated, or take too long to restore. Immutable and cloud-synchronized backups are crucial to ensuring a successful recovery.
3. Lack of Incident Response Awareness – In many exercises, only a handful of employees are familiar with the organization’s incident response plan. Without proper training and practice, confusion can delay critical decisions when every minute counts. If you don’t have any team members trained as a Cyber First Responder, we recommend taking a Cyber First Responder or Ransomware Response training class.

“One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is assuming they know how long recovery will take,” Matt Durrin, LMG Security’s director of training and research, emphasized.” Many teams discover in a tabletop exercise that they have never actually tested their backups, or that their restoration process takes days, not hours.”

Make sure you check your incident response plan to ensure it takes these top failure points into account!

Matt’s Favorite Ransomware Tabletop Exercise Scenarios

To maximize the value of your ransomware tabletop exercise, it’s essential to use realistic and relevant scenarios. Below are two of Matt’s favorite scenarios that expose critical vulnerabilities and improve preparedness.

Scenario 1: Operational Disruption – What Happens When Everything Goes Dark?

Imagine arriving at work on a Monday morning to discover that all servers and workstations are completely offline. The IT team scrambles to assess the damage, only to realize that a ransomware attack has locked down critical infrastructure. Employees are unable to access systems, and business operations grind to a halt.

Key Discussion Points:

• • How do you determine the initial point of compromise?
  • What is your containment strategy to prevent further spread?
  • How quickly can you restore operations using backups? Do you know how long it will take?
  • What if your backups are encrypted or compromised? What’s the alternative?

Curveball: Your backup system requires 10 days to restore. Can your business survive that downtime? What contingency plans are in place?

“Organizations often overestimate how quickly they can recover from a ransomware attack,” Matt shared.” It’s not just about having backups—it’s about knowing how to implement them under pressure.”

Scenario 2: Data Exposure – Handling a Public Breach and Extortion

Many organizations believe that restoring their files from backups will resolve a ransomware attack. However, modern ransomware groups frequently steal sensitive data before deploying encryption, threatening to publish it unless a ransom is paid.

Key Discussion Points:

• • How do you determine what data was stolen?
  • How do you notify customers, partners, and regulatory bodies?
  • What is your plan for responding to negative press and public scrutiny?
  • Will you pay the extortion or risk the data being released?

Curveball: Attackers have infiltrated your email and internal chat system and are watching your response in real-time. How do you pivot to secure communications?

“Attackers are getting smarter,” Matt cautions. “They’re not just encrypting data; they’re monitoring how you respond. If your communications are compromised, your entire response plan is at risk.”

Best Practices for Running a Ransomware Tabletop Exercise

A ransomware tabletop exercise is only as effective as its execution. Here are our team’s best practices to ensure a meaningful and impactful session:

1. Make It Realistic

A successful exercise should reflect real-world attack scenarios tailored to your organization’s industry, infrastructure, and business processes. Unrealistic scenarios lead to disengagement and do not provide actionable insights.

2. Follow Your Incident Response Plan

Before the exercise, review your incident response (IR) documentation to ensure all participants understand their roles and responsibilities. Many organizations discover that employees either don’t know the IR plan exists or find that it doesn’t work as expected in practice.

3. Encourage Open Discussion and Failure

Open discussion and finding failure points are one of the most valuable parts of your ransomware tabletop exercise. “A tabletop exercise isn’t about proving how prepared you are—it’s about discovering where you’re not,” Matt explained. “Teams must feel comfortable discussing mistakes and exploring alternative solutions. The facilitator should provide just enough guidance to keep the conversation on track while allowing participants to navigate the scenario independently.”

4. Test Alternative Communication Methods

One of the most overlooked aspects of incident response is how teams communicate when normal channels are down. Organizations should establish secure, out-of-band communication methods that remain functional even if primary systems are compromised. Read our

5. Identify and Document Gaps

A ransomware tabletop exercise is only valuable if you take action based on the findings. Document the gaps and weaknesses uncovered during the exercise and create a remediation plan to strengthen your defenses before a real attack occurs.

Take Action: Strengthen Your Cyber Resilience Today

Conducting a ransomware tabletop exercise is a proactive step toward improving your organization’s cyber resilience. By simulating realistic attack scenarios, testing response strategies, and identifying process gaps, your team will be better prepared to handle an actual ransomware event.

Whether you choose to facilitate your own exercise or request a guided ransomware tabletop exercise session, the key takeaway is clear: test your defenses now—before a real attack.

If you’re ready to strengthen your ransomware response plan, reach out to schedule a professionally facilitated ransomware tabletop exercise.