Many people know that things like suspicious emails, ransomware, and data breaches can put their company at risk. But knowing about these dangers is different from being prepared to act if something unexpected happens during a normal workday.
Imagine that employees arrive at work and discover that important systems are unavailable. A message appears on their screens. Information may have been stolen. Customers are beginning to ask questions, and nobody yet knows exactly what has happened.
What should the company do first?
Should people keep working as usual? Who should talk to customers? What can managers say? When is the right time to report the incident? And who decides what to do when not all the facts are clear?
These questions are not just for the IT team. A serious cyber incident can quickly involve managers, communications, HR, legal, customer service, finance, operations, and really anyone who relies on the systems that are affected.
That’s why everyone in the company needs to be prepared, not just a few teams.
Awareness gives people knowledge. Exercises turn it into real action.
Cybersecurity awareness helps people spot threats and know how to stay safe. That’s important. But when something actually happens, people also need to talk to each other, make decisions, and work as a team, even when things are stressful.
A cyber exercise lets people practice these skills before they have to use them in a real crisis.
Instead of just listening to a talk about ransomware, people take part in a scenario that changes as it goes along. They get new information, talk about what it means, decide what to do, and see how their choices affect the whole company.
PrepJam exercises use different tools like branching scenarios, polls, questions, messages, calls, and web content to get everyone involved as the situation develops. These exercises can be done online or in person, with small groups or the whole company.
The goal is not to catch people doing something wrong. It’s to help everyone see things that are usually hidden.
A company-wide exercise starts conversations that regular training often misses.
When people from different teams work through the same incident, they often find out they have been thinking about things in different ways.
For example, one team might think management will make a decision, while management thinks it’s up to IT. The communications team might need information that the response team does not have ready. Employees might know they should report an incident, but not know how to do it if the usual systems are down.
An exercise gives everyone a safe space to bring up these questions.
It can help the organization:
Clarify roles and responsibilities
Test reporting and escalation routes
Identify dependencies between teams
Uncover gaps in existing plans
Discuss difficult decisions before a crisis
Create a shared understanding of what happens next
The most valuable result is not always a perfect response. Sometimes, it’s finding out what needs to be improved while there is still time to fix it.
Preparedness is something a company builds together
A policy can explain how a company plans to respond. An exercise shows if everyone understands the plan in the same way.
When everyone takes part, cybersecurity becomes more than just an IT issue. People can see how their daily work connects to the company’s ability to keep running, communicate well, and help customers during an incident.
This shared experience is what helps move a company from just being aware to actually being prepared.
How would your company respond?
One exercise is just the start. By trying out different scenarios with different teams, the company can check its assumptions, get better at working together, and build confidence over time. This fits with PrepJam’s focus on practicing together in real situations, not just learning about them.
We have created a detailed walkthrough of Company Prepares: a cyber preparedness exercise for everyone in the organization. It shows how your company can get ready and run a cyber exercise that includes not just the IT team, but people from all areas and roles across the whole organization. You can start with a team of any size and scale up to include everyone.
Follow the story, explore the decisions participants face, and see how your company-wide exercise can reveal gaps that are easy to overlook during ordinary training.
