Tabletop exercise
In one sentence
A 60–90 minute practice run of your incident response plan, talking through a realistic attack scenario.
A tabletop is a discussion-based drill where the team walks through a scenario (say, ransomware on a Monday morning) and finds the gaps (a dead phone number, an unclear decision-maker) before a real incident does. Dated notes from it are your proof of testing.
Why it's on your cyber insurance application
Satisfies the 'has the plan been tested?' application question when documented.
How the Readiness Check scores it
The free Check asks the same question a carrier will. Here it is, why it's asked, and the fix if today's honest answer is no. The full application question list has the rest.
Incident response
Have you tested your incident response plan in the last 12 months?
Why carriers ask: A written, tested incident response plan is a hard requirement on most applications. Untested plans are treated as no plan.
If the answer is no: Run a 60-minute tabletop this quarter: one ransomware scenario, the leadership team, someone taking notes. Date-stamp the notes; that's your evidence.
The written evidence carriers accept
A “yes” on the application needs a document behind it. In the Readiness Pack, that document is:
Related terms
Would you pass this question today?
The free Readiness Check scores you across the ten control domains carriers probe, in five minutes, no email required for the score.