As a cybersecurity professional, one question that likely keeps you up at night is "How well will we do in a real attack?" One way to sleep easier is to run a cybersecurity fire drill at your organization. What is a cybersecurity fire drill? It's a simulation of a cybersecurity breach that tests your internal systems. If you haven't run a cybersecurity fire drill at your organization, what are you waiting for? We're giving you 5 reasons for a cybersecurity fire drill and why you need to do one today.
As professionals in the infosec industry, we have four arrows in our quiver that try to give us an answer:
- Security and awareness training teaches concepts but fails to produce actionable intel.
- Breach and attack simulation tools test security product performance but don't test people or processes.
- Cyber Ranges teaches how to use security products but only focuses on infosec employees.
- Tabletop simulations take a discussion-based approach, but are hard to implement and have limited engagement.

While all of these are important to an overall security program, none answer how you'll perform in a real attack. Being proactive in your internal security is crucial to protecting your organization and your client's private and personal data. When your team is fully trained and aware of potential threats your clients can rest easier knowing you have their best interests in mind.
What is a cybersecurity fire drill and 5 benefits of having security and awareness training
An ideal attack simulation approach should be:
- Scalable. You need to be able to test hundreds or thousands of people. Not just the 10 people who can make the meeting.
- Role-based. Users need different simulations from I.T. people. Same with executives.
- Test PEOPLE, not just technology. Once the attacker is inside the house, Layer 8 is your most important layer.
- Actionable. The output must give CISOs actionable intelligence about tools, processes, and teams needing help.
- Engaging. Simulations should be fun, not boring videos or easy quizzes.
Introducing Cybersecurity Fire Drills
When the stakes are high, simulation is nothing new. There are many examples of using simulation to build "muscle memory." Pilots train in flight simulators. Surgeons use practice environments. Large buildings use actual fire drills.
A cybersecurity fire drill works similarly but simulates how a company would respond to a real-world attack. Employees play a dynamic, interactive game. Using a bit of AI magic, the game gives them bits and pieces of information and tests how well they pick the next correct action.
Let's walk through an example: as you know, account takeovers of cloud-hosted services (like Microsoft365) are rampant.
An account takeover cybersecurity fire drill includes the following:
- All your end users play a 1-2 minute game. When the game ends, you know exactly what they did and failed to do. You could see performance and common trouble spots across your whole team.
- All your I.T. and security people play a 5-15 minute game. When the game is over, you know what steps they took to detect and contain the incident. You also know how they escalated, and to whom.
- In a briefing with your executive team, you review actual data about how the company did and discuss how to improve results.
- You run the same simulation a month or two later to see if the results improve. And you bring that happy story back to your executive team to demonstrate progress.
- Rinse and repeat for other types of scenarios.
Cybersecurity fire drills let you test how well your organization will respond to real-world attacks. Each user plays a fun, interactive game that's short enough to do between their other work. And you get aggregated, actionable data and a clear path to measure improvement. And, ultimately, your whole team can rest easier knowing that your team is well-prepared for real attacks.