Share
Tabletop Exercise (TTX)
A Tabletop Exercise (TTX) is a structured, scenario‑based simulation designed to evaluate your organization’s ability to detect, respond to, and recover from a cyber incident. Canary Trap’s TTX engagements go far beyond traditional workshops. We build exercises using real adversarial tradecraft, threat intelligence, and insights gained from our offensive security operations—ensuring every scenario reflects the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by today’s most capable threat actors.
Our team collaborates with your leadership, security, and operational stakeholders to design realistic, high‑impact scenarios that are tailored to your environment, industry, and risk profile. Examples include ransomware outbreaks, data breaches, insider threats, supply‑chain compromises, and more—allowing executive, technical, and operational teams to practice coordinated decision‑making in a controlled environment.
During the facilitated session, participants walk through the unfolding incident, making decisions in real time as new intelligence, constraints, and complications emerge. This approach allows teams to validate their incident response plan, uncover communication or process gaps, and strengthen cross‑functional coordination before a real attack occurs.
Following the exercise, Canary Trap delivers a detailed findings report that highlights strengths, weaknesses, and actionable recommendations to improve your readiness. The result is a more resilient organization—one that has practiced the breach before the breach.
Canary Trap combines human expertise with sophisticated tools, proven methodologies and, where appropriate, threat intelligence to ensure a thorough, in-depth approach to security testing and assessments.
For more information, please complete our Scoping Questionnaire or Contact Us.
Take the next step to
engage with Canary Trap
engage with Canary Trap
If you require our cybersecurity services please share your details below and we will be in touch!
FAQs
What is the purpose of a Tabletop Exercise (TTX)?
A TTX helps organizations evaluate how effectively their teams can respond to a cyber incident. It identifies strengths, weaknesses, communication gaps, and process deficiencies across technical, operational, and executive stakeholders.
How is Canary Trap’s TTX different from standard tabletop workshops?
Our exercises are built on real adversarial behavior, not hypothetical checklists. Scenarios are crafted using threat intelligence, industry‑specific attack patterns, and insights from our offensive security practice. This ensures the exercise reflects realistic attacker motivations, capabilities, and escalation paths.
Who should participate in a TTX?
Participants typically include:
- Executive leadership
- IT and security teams
- Legal and compliance
- Communications and PR
- HR, operations, and other business units We tailor the participant list based on your organizational structure and incident response plan.
What types of scenarios can be simulated?
Common scenarios include:
- Ransomware and data extortion
- Business email compromise
- Cloud account takeover
- Insider threat activity
- Third‑party or supply‑chain compromise
- Critical system outage or data destruction Scenarios are customized to your environment and risk profile.
How long does a TTX engagement take?
Most exercises run 2–4 hours per scenario, depending on complexity and the number of participating teams. Planning, scenario development, and post‑exercise reporting typically occur over several weeks.
What deliverables are included?
You receive:
- Custom threat‑aligned scenario(s)
- A facilitated live exercise conducted onsite or online
- Observations and findings
- A maturity‑based assessment of your response capabilities
- A Findings Report which provides actionable recommendations to strengthen processes, communication, and technical readiness
Does a TTX require technical testing or system access?
No. A TTX is a discussion‑based exercise. It does not involve live exploitation, system disruption, or hands‑on technical testing.
How often should we conduct a TTX?
Most organizations benefit from conducting a TTX annually or whenever major changes occur—such as new leadership, new technology deployments, or updates to the incident response plan.
Can the TTX support compliance or regulatory requirements?
Yes. Many frameworks—including ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST CSF, and various industry‑specific regulations—recommend or require periodic incident response testing. A TTX helps demonstrate due diligence and preparedness.
