Business Resiliency: A Table Top Exercise
- CPE Credits: 8
- Prerequisites: None
- Learning Level: Advanced
- Instructional Method: Group/Live
- Field of Study: Business Management & Organization
Course Revision Date: March 1, 2023
Course Description
Table Top Exercises (TTXs) are an effective tool in employee training, allowing employees to:
- Become familiar with incident management and disaster recovery procedures;
- Identify problems in different components of response (e.g., incident command, communications, materials and resources, employee safety, business continuity, and security); and
- Provide the opportunity to apply lessons learned to a controlled disaster scenario.[1]
A tabletop exercise (TTX) is an activity in which key personnel assigned emergency management roles and responsibilities are gathered to discuss, in a non-threatening environment, various simulated emergency situations. Tabletop exercises are used to clarify roles and responsibilities and to identify additional enterprise-wide mitigation and preparedness needs.
For many participants who are new to the field of disaster recovery and incident management or are charges with assessing an organization’s business resiliency, a TTX/scenario may be their first introduction to the concept of operability. Participants will be exposed to the reality of working in an environment of great uncertainty, reducing the role of hindsight and dealing with information as it arrives, when it is in short supply relative to what needs to be known and has yet to be verified.
With a little gentle persuasion, participants can be encouraged to think realistically in operational terms, listing first the problems to be solved, secondly the needs that they generate and thirdly how to manage them by applying some simple rules.
A TTX will add a new dimension to the more traditional training/education conference. The participants will be the session.
[1] Hsu, EB, Jenckes, MW, Catlett, CL, Robinson, KA, et al., “Effectiveness of hospital staff mass-casualty incident training methods: a systematic literature review,” Department of Emergency Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Prehosp Disaster Med. 2004 Jul-Sep;19(3):191-9, www.pubmed.gov, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15571194, Baltimore, MD, USA. ehsu@jhmi.edu
Audience
This hand-on, team exercise is intended for:
- Internal and external audit professionals
- Infosec professionals
- Personnel charged with maintaining an organization’s business resiliency (e.g., DRP, BCP, IMP)
- Organization-trusted third parties
- Personnel employed in an enterprise-wide role, who need a deeper understanding of the relationship between business resiliency and enterprise governance, risk, compliance and security.
Objectives
After completing this Table Top Exercise, participants will be able to:
- Demonstrate a proficiency in utilizing processes and terminology, which would be identified by their organization, to respond to a disaster event.
- Provide a clear understanding of team participant’s specific roles and responsibilities, throughout the evolution of a disaster event.
- Describe approved communication processes, response methods, personnel roles and responsibilities, and available equipment, required for an effective response to a disaster event.
- Recognize deficiencies in their organization’s response plan and inconsistencies with corporate crisis management and crisis communications policies and procedures.
- Identify what additional training is needed, within their organization, to be better prepared to respond to a disaster event.
Course Outline
Table Top Exercise (TTX)*
- Description, Background and Parameters for Engagement
- Participant’s Roles, Limitations, Exercise Operating Parameters
- Deployment and Engagement of Teams
- Delivery of Exercise Injects (new data or information, introduced into the exercise, which brings/adds practical realism to the exercise)
- Hotwash (identify exercise successes and failures as well as issues, concerns, or proposed improvements, in response to the TTX)
*Specific TTX to be selected from the following major topic areas:
- Cyber Extortion – System Administrator
- Unknown Pathogen – Fantome Marques Cruise Line
- Medical Event – Employees at Risk – MayView Community Health Center’s (MCHC)
- Cyber-Attack Affecting or Disrupting Critical Infrastructure Elements
TTX duration is flexible, typical conference length is between 90 – 120 mins.
Need more information?
If have questions or would like more information about any of our courses please contact us using the form below. We look forward to hearing from you.
Request a Consultation Today
We provide a variety of consultation services and training options to fit the demanding and changing needs of our clients. Contact us today and we will help you determine the best way to meet your goals.
BAC is a vetted, current provider of training courses through the NICCS Education and Training Catalog. BAC’s courses are aligned to the specialty areas of the National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework.
