It always starts like a normal day. You grab coffee, glance at your calendar, maybe get ready for the morning rush. Then you notice something small: the printer won’t work, a system feels slower than usual, or an application hiccups for no obvious reason. Nothing worth calling IT about. Everyone has workarounds, right?
But here’s the catch. Those tiny glitches can be the first signs of something much bigger. I’ve seen real incidents where ignoring “minor” issues gave hackers hours, even days, to move deeper into the business. What looked like an unresponsive printer or a sluggish system was actually the opening move of a ransomware attack.
I’ve run this exact scenario with dozens of business owners in tabletop exercises and the reactions are always the same. Shock at how quickly things escalate, and an uncomfortable realization: the real decisions weren’t IT’s to make. They were yours.
So what’s a tabletop exercise? It’s basically a fire drill for cyberattacks. Instead of practicing where to line up outside the building, you’re practicing how you’ll respond when the worst day hits your company. Who do you call first? Do you notify clients right away or wait for more information? Do you pay the ransom or stand your ground? How much downtime can your business survive before customers start walking away?
The truth is, these aren’t technical decisions. They’re business ones. And if you’re the owner, the CEO, or the person holding ultimate responsibility, they land squarely on your desk.
Here’s the uncomfortable part: most leaders assume they’ll “figure it out” when the time comes. But in reality, you don’t rise to the occasion in a crisis. You fall back on whatever you’ve practiced. If you’ve never practiced? You’re gambling with your company, your clients, and your reputation.
And if you think a tabletop exercise sounds expensive or time-consuming, wait until you see the price tag of a real incident. In Part Two, we’ll break down the difference between spending coffee money today and funding your attacker’s next yacht tomorrow.
