Cyber threats are a serious risk for any company, government, or organization, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been working to mitigate these risks since 2018. Part of this risk mitigation involves training organizations to respond to potential security threats through cyber exercises. Cyber exercises give companies the chance to experience a cyber threat and learn how to react during an event.
Audrey Jacobs, Cyber Exercise Analyst, works closely with organizations to do just that. “As a Cyber Exercise Analyst, I work specifically with federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal partners to clean and correct these exercises,” she explained. “Depending on what our stakeholder is looking for, we see what kind of scenario we can build out. We’re working with their subject matter experts to build an exercise that’s as realistic as possible.”
These exercises give stakeholders the chance to work in a low-stress, no-fault environment where they can collaborate on issues they may experience in the future. They can test their incidence response plans, identify gaps, and adjust as needed so they’re better prepared for risks that could actually occur.
“Our two biggest goals for the organization are to defend today for a secure, more resilient tomorrow. You have to put in the work for preparation, and that lies in the plans and procedures you have in place to make sure you’re safeguarded,” explained Jacobs. “With our exercises, you’re prepared for the threat and you already know the steps.”
Every organization has different needs and capabilities, so these exercises are valuable training for planning, executing, and testing their responses to specific scenarios. “If you do face an event in the future, you’re able to refer back to that plan. You already have the familiarity with it and you’ve already tested it, so you can perform the steps and stop an incident either before it happens or prepare to mitigate it in real-time,” said Jacobs.
Putting in the work to prepare for potential threats by testing scenarios and taking the time to ensure procedures are in place to handle them is an important part of keeping organizations safe from cyber threats, and CISA is a valuable partner for organizations who are ready to take these steps.
“Our team is able to come in and help support organizations in taking those next steps to improve upon their overall security posture,” Jacobs explained.
CISA continues to help companies keep cyber threats at bay through cyber exercises and all the work they do to protect critical infrastructure.
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