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The Future of Cyber Resilience: Why Cyber Drills Are More Essential Than Ever

In today’s fast-evolving threat landscape, cyber resilience is not a one-time achievement—it’s an ongoing process. Organizations across industries face increasingly sophisticated attacks, many fueled by AI-driven adversaries, supply chain vulnerabilities, and evolving compliance requirements.

James Hadley, Immersive founder, and CEO, hosted a recent webinar featuring Forrester Research Principal Analyst Jess Burn and Oliver Newbury, Immersive Board member and former Barclay’s CISO. They discussed the state of cyber threats, key industry trends, and the role of cyber drills in ensuring organizations are prepared for the inevitable.

The Cyber Threat Landscape in 2025: What’s Changed?

Cyber threats have evolved significantly in the past year. AI-driven attacks, deepfake-enabled fraud, and software supply chain vulnerabilities are becoming more common. According to Forrester’s 2024 Security Survey, organizations reported an average of three breaches in the past 12 months, with some regions, like APAC, seeing even higher numbers.

Perhaps more concerning is that many companies still prioritize technology over people in their cybersecurity investments. While security budgets have increased, most of that spending goes toward new tech solutions for protection, detection, and response. Only 24% of surveyed organizations increased spending on upskilling security teams, and a mere 9% focused on hiring more cybersecurity professionals.

This approach may be leaving organizations vulnerable. As Oliver Newbury pointed out:

“Security is about people, process, and technology. I would have expected as much focus on upskilling people as on implementing new tools. It’s the people using those tools who ultimately prevent breaches.”

Why Cyber Drills Are the Missing Link in Cyber Resilience

Many organizations still rely on traditional tabletop exercises to test their cybersecurity readiness. While valuable, these sessions often fail to capture the real-time decision-making pressures of a live cyberattack. Cyber drills offer a more immersive and dynamic approach, enabling teams to practice responding to realistic threats in simulated environments.

According to Jess Burn, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, organizations need to move beyond static training:

“Tabletop exercises are helpful, but they’re not enough. A single session a year won’t prepare an entire organization for the rapid, unpredictable nature of cyber incidents.”

Instead, a comprehensive cyber drill strategy should include:

• Micro-simulations: Short, role-specific exercises that reinforce cyber response muscle memory.
• Full-scale crisis simulations: Company-wide drills that test real-time response and coordination.
• Cross-functional participation: Involving not just security teams, but also legal, PR, customer service, and executive leadership.
• Data-driven analysis: Capturing key decision-making insights to continuously improve cyber response plans.

By incorporating cyber drills into routine operations, organizations can move toward a culture of continuous improvement, rather than reactive crisis management.

The Role of AI in Cybersecurity: Friend and Foe

AI is already transforming cybersecurity—on both sides of the battle. Adversaries are using AI to create highly targeted phishing attacks, automate reconnaissance, and craft deepfake-enabled social engineering schemes.

On the defensive side, organizations are deploying AI-powered threat detection tools to identify suspicious activities and streamline investigations. However, as James Hadley, CEO of Immersive, noted, many teams aren’t prepared to use AI effectively:

“Security leaders now need to prove not only that their teams can respond to cyber threats—but that they can also leverage AI-driven security tools effectively.”

This presents a new challenge: Organizations must train their cybersecurity teams not just on traditional threat detection, but also on how to integrate AI-driven security features into their workflows.

Proving Cyber Readiness: The Future of Regulatory & Insurance Demands

With rising cyber risks, regulators and insurers are increasingly requiring hard evidence of cyber resilience. Simply stating that an organization conducted a tabletop exercise is no longer enough.

Companies must be able to demonstrate improvement over time by tracking:

• Response time trends during crisis exercises.
• Decision-making effectiveness under pressure.
• Cross-functional coordination across business units.
• Handover efficiency in global teams operating across different time zones.

Some multinational organizations are even running cyber drills that simulate handoffs between security teams in different countries, ensuring that real-world response procedures align across time zones.

This data-driven approach will become increasingly important as regulators and cyber insurers demand quantifiable proof of cyber resilience.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Cyber Drills

The next evolution of cyber drills will go beyond traditional exercises. Future-ready organizations will integrate:

• AI-driven simulations that generate dynamic crisis scenarios in real-time.
• Behavioral analytics to assess decision-making quality and stress responses.
• Gamification and scoring models to measure workforce readiness and improvement over time.
• Industry-wide collaboration on large-scale cyber drills to stress-test entire supply chains.

As cyber threats continue to grow in sophistication, the need for frequent, realistic, and data-driven cyber exercises has never been greater.

Be Ready for Anything

Cyber drills are no longer a “nice-to-have.” They are an essential part of any robust cybersecurity strategy. Organizations that fail to implement continuous cyber exercises risk being caught off guard when—not if—an attack occurs.

The future of cyber resilience isn’t just about better technology—it’s about better-prepared people.

To dive deeper into this important topic, check out our Cyber Drills and The Future of Resilience webinar.

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