A global medical products manufacturer partnered with Bryghtpath to design and lead an enterprise cyber crisis simulation that tested its response to a ransomware attack across the full escalation chain, from technical containment to executive decision-making with the chief executive.
The Opportunity
A global medical products manufacturer needed to know whether it could manage a fast-moving ransomware and data-extortion event across every level of the organization at once. A real attack would require coordinated action from technical responders, crisis teams, and executives, with production systems, regulatory disclosures, and reputation at stake.
The manufacturer engaged Bryghtpath to design and lead the crisis-team portions of an enterprise-wide cyber simulation, testing how its cyber crisis team, corporate crisis team, and executives would escalate, coordinate, and decide together.
Approach and Results
Bryghtpath helped design an exercise that followed a single incident up the entire escalation chain. A branching ransomware and data-extortion scenario began with technical detection and moved through the cyber crisis team, the corporate crisis team, the business continuity plans for affected manufacturing sites, and finally the executive leadership team, including the chief executive. Bryghtpath led and evaluated the crisis-team sessions, the core of how the organization would actually coordinate and decide under pressure.
Throughout the simulation, teams faced a realistic, high-pressure event: a ransom payment decision, regulatory disclosure obligations, engagement with federal law enforcement, reputational exposure, and disrupted production.
The exercise confirmed strong cross-functional collaboration and surfaced the highest-value opportunities: clearer decision authority and containment triggers, tighter communications ownership, and fuller use of the playbooks and decision tools the organization had already built.
Bryghtpath delivered a prioritized after-action report to guide the next stage of the program.
Key Activities
- Co-designed the exercise flow and a branching ransomware and data-extortion scenario.
- Led the cyber crisis team and corporate crisis team simulation sessions.
- Built escalation triggers linking technical response to executive decision-making.
- Exercised site business continuity plans for affected manufacturing locations.
- Conducted a structured debrief and delivered an after-action report with prioritized recommendations.
Outcomes
- Validated coordination across technical, crisis, and executive teams in one connected scenario.
- Gave executives, including the chief executive, realistic practice on ransom and disclosure decisions.
- Identified where decision authority and containment triggers need to be defined.
- Surfaced clearer communications, ownership, and external-partner engagement needs.
- Delivered a prioritized after-action report to mature the enterprise cyber crisis program.
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