Keep the lights on: A live cyber resilience simulation for critical infrastructure

In critical infrastructure, the real objective of cyber defence is not simply preventing compromise — it is keeping essential services running.

This session delivers a live, immersive cyber resilience simulation where the audience actively participates in a Red Team vs Blue Team scenario affecting a fictional but realistic piece of critical infrastructure. The simulation focuses on operational continuity under attack, not perfect security outcomes.

The Red Team objective is clear: Disrupt, degrade, or stop business and operational services.

The Blue Team objective is equally clear — and harder: Maintain safe, lawful, and reliable operations for as long as possible, despite ongoing cyber pressure.

Audience members collectively assume Blue Team decision-making roles across executive leadership, operations, cyber security, engineering, legal, and communications. The scenario unfolds in real time through escalating cyber events that mirror real-world attacks on critical infrastructure — including IT/OT crossover impacts, supply chain disruption, and executive-level pressures.

At each stage, the audience must choose between imperfect options: isolate or operate, fail safely or keep running, disclose early or wait. Every decision has immediate operational consequences, demonstrating how resilience is built — or lost — in minutes.

This is not a technical attack walkthrough. It is a resilience exercise under pressure, designed to reflect the realities faced by critical infrastructure leaders when zero-risk decisions do not exist.