Scenario development · Simulation · Facilitated learning

Cyber simulation exercises

Practise the decisions your organisation would face during a cyber incident.

Hydra provides an environment for teams to work through an unfolding scenario, discuss their response and record the reasoning behind their decisions. We can design and build a cyber exercise with you, or support your team to develop its own.

Discuss your cyber exercise

A Hydra control room with workstations and screens showing the syndicate rooms — Inside a Hydra suiteExercise control and observation

Two ways to develop your exercise

We design and build it with you

Bring your training objectives and the challenges your people need to explore. We work with your subject specialists to develop the scenario, exercise materials and decision points around your organisation's context.

Together, we agree the participants, facilitation and delivery arrangements before the exercise runs.

Your team builds it in Hydra

Your exercise designers can create and run scenarios using Hydra's software and facilities. This gives your team control over the content and how it develops as your training needs change.

We can support that work with designer, operator and facilitator training and help with exercise development.

Cyber incident response and investigation

Organisational cyber incident response

A cyber crisis simulation can bring together the people responsible for technology, leadership, operations and communications. Participants work through the consequences of an incident and the decisions that cut across their responsibilities.

Discussion might explore when to escalate, who can authorise a decision, how to maintain essential services and what to communicate while information is incomplete.

Cybercrime investigation

Hydra can also support exercises focused on investigating cybercrime and offences involving digital technology. The learning objectives may concern developing an investigation, assessing information and coordinating decisions as new material becomes available.

The scenario and professional detail are developed with the relevant subject specialists and matched to the participants' roles and experience.

How a Hydra cyber exercise works

Participants work in small groups, known as syndicates. They receive information as the scenario develops, decide how to respond and record their reasoning. Facilitated discussions allow groups to compare approaches and examine the assumptions behind them.

Set the learning objectives. Agree the decisions, responsibilities and working relationships the exercise should explore.
Develop the scenario. Build a sequence of events, briefings and information around those objectives, with input from your subject specialists.
Run and discuss. Introduce developments, capture decisions and use facilitation to explore why participants took different approaches.
Review the learning. Bring together the discussions and decision logs to identify questions and actions for the organisation to take forward.

DLabs can support analysis of Hydra exercise discussions and decision logs. The reporting requirements are agreed as part of planning the exercise.

Read about the Hydra methodology

Planning the delivery

Already using Hydra? We can discuss developing a cyber exercise for your existing environment, the support your team needs and the roles required to deliver it.

New to Hydra? Start with the training need and who should take part. We will work through access to a suitable Hydra environment, the people needed to run the exercise and the scope of our involvement before agreeing a proposal.

You can explore Hydra simulation environments, suite installation and Hydra Presence. The delivery arrangement for your exercise needs to be agreed with the Hydra team.

Discuss your cyber exercise

Tell us what your team needs to practise, who would take part and whether you already have access to Hydra. Let us know if you would like us to develop the exercise or support your own designers.

Discuss a cyber exercise