When cyber attacks happen: helping organisations recover

Of course, it’s best to prepare and practice for these types of incidents in advance. Organisations that act early are often better placed to respond effectively, maintain critical operations, and recover more quickly. The guidance will help you develop plans and test your response arrangements before an incident occurs.

It’s a bit like training for a marathon. Reading about the race, buying the right equipment, and writing a training plan are a good start. But it’s the actual running – regularly putting in the miles and building endurance – that prepares you for race day.

In the same way, it’s vital that organisations don’t just document a plan but actually practice and test their response to disruptive incidents. Testing failover systems, rehearsing shutdown and restart procedures, and rebuilding systems from backups can all provide valuable real-world lessons. While tabletop exercises have their place, realistic response exercises can reveal issues that plans alone cannot. This helps organisations to:

• learn lessons they wouldn’t otherwise learn
• more importantly, build the ‘muscle memory’ needed to respond effectively under pressure

Now it’s up to you to use the guidance to do just that.

Ralph B

Chief Technology Officer Economy & Society, NCSC

Source: UK NCSC (Cyber) (28 July 2026)