Microsoft Sentinel: Threat Hunting Tools You Could Be Missing Out On
As a SOC analyst, incident responder, or cloud security engineer using Microsoft Sentinel as your SIEM, you’ll be familiar with its standard features, such as incidents, analytics rules, and threat intelligence. However, you might not be so familiar with workbooks, which enable data visualisation and dynamic reporting, or notebooks, which empower you to document threat hunts and build replayable incident response playbooks. Let’s look at how these Microsoft Sentinel features can improve your incident response and threat hunting. Eyes on: monitoring metrics with workbooks One key advantage of workbooks is their ability to dynamically visualise data from a range of sources across your Microsoft environment and beyond. This provides obvious security advantages via monitoring of metrics such as request rates, egress traffic, CPU utilisation, and management plane actions. If your workbook dashboard shows an unexpected spike in requests to a sensitive resource, it could be a sign that something isn’t quite right. Visualising these metrics in near-real-time graphs helps spot early signs of compromise and speeds up detection. The other, often overlooked advantage of metrics in workbooks comes from a management perspective. Microsoft Azure offers many template workbooks for common data reporting needs, including the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification and Azure Security Benchmark workbooks. Up-to-date reporting on performance against these core security benchmarks is critical for security engineers to identify insecure points in your Microsoft estate. For CISOs and SOC managers, the capability to track improvements in KPI metrics like Mean Time to Triage or Mean Time to Repair can prove invaluable in monitoring SOC performance and evidencing the positive effects of realistic training. This can be achieved using the Security Operations Efficiency Workbook offered as a template workbook. To learn more about monitoring metrics with workbooks, check out the newly released Azure Workbooks: Monitoring Metrics lab. Diving deep: security analysis with workbooks From a security perspective, workbooks can be a powerful tool if you get creative. The ability to query logs and metric data across a wide range of sources means you can combine information to enhance threat intelligence and identify unusual behavior in investigations through visual comparison of standard baseline activities. Workbooks can build complex queries into logs from a range of sources, including sign-in logs, Windows Event logs, networking logs, and resource activity logs. By cleverly designing log queries within your workbooks, you can visually detect anomalous activity and chart this in workbook reports that can be shared across a SOC team. Graphically representing data in workbooks can have numerous advantages. By visualising resource relationships, you can easily identify shadow IT or resources deployed by threat actors for persistence, such as a lone resource in a location your business doesn’t use. For another example, you can diagram external collaborations in Microsoft Teams or email connections in Microsoft Outlook to identify anomalous behaviour and hunt for potential risks. By visualising data dynamically in workbooks, you can boost security analysis and threat hunting across every stage of the Cyber Kill Chain. Our Microsoft Sentinel: Security Analysis with Workbooks lab covers this further. Improved response: incident investigations with notebooks Microsoft Sentinel integrates Jupyter notebooks into the Microsoft Azure portal, enabling you to run and document code during SIEM investigations in Microsoft Sentinel. If you’re in a SOC team, notebooks provide some seriously useful advantages: Readable code for other analysts: By tracking your steps in a notebook using markdown, you can explain your queries, capture outputs, and make your work easy for another analyst to understand. Standardise your analysis and response: Once you've made a notebook for a specific security event, you can reuse it whenever a similar incident occurs. This gives you a step-by-step guide to analyse and respond to the new incident. Share incident response knowledge: Notebooks are also very easy to share with other people. If you want to train a more junior team member in how to analyse and respond to that specific security event, you can share the notebook with them. This reduces reliance on individuals, helps to prevent silos, and teaches other members of your team. Improve your response: The next time a specific security event occurs, you may realise that other data sources or queries can be helpful to investigate. It's very easy to add to and develop your notebook. This means you can improve your response over time as you iterate on the work you've already done. For hands-on experience getting to grips with notebooks, check out the Microsoft Sentinel: Introduction to Notebooks lab. Tracking threat actors: hunting with notebooks It’s not just the inherent advantages of Jupyter notebooks that this feature brings to the table. By enabling sophisticated automation and log querying, notebooks in Microsoft Sentinel can offer detailed investigation guides, empowering your threat hunting and incident response teams. By connecting natively to Microsoft Sentinel workspaces, notebooks can query Log Analytics log tables to investigate recent activity, sign-in logs, requests, and more. By collating this information into a centralised location, your investigation can seamlessly track a threat actor’s movements through your estate. Then, by storing these queries in a notebook, you can reuse them repeatedly, which can rapidly reduce investigation times for commonly occurring incidents. The example below shows a saved query that displays any write operations against a virtual machine with a provided name. It’s reusable, repeatable, and reliable. By standardising incident investigations and creating reusable, documented queries for threat hunting, you can reduce time wasted by rewriting the same playbooks repeatedly, greatly improving your SOC team's efficiency. The new Microsoft Sentinel: Threat Hunting with Notebooks lab gives hands-on experience tracking a realistic threat actor who has compromised a Microsoft Azure account. Beyond workbooks and notebooks: Empowering your SOC team Workbooks and notebooks are handy tools in Microsoft Sentinel, but they form only a small part of the arsenal. The newly released Microsoft Sentinel: Threat Hunting with Notebooks and Workbooks collection is ideal for SOC analysts, incident responders, forensics specialists, and cloud/security engineers who use Microsoft Sentinel as their SIEM and want to expand their knowledge. By adding this collection to our existing Microsoft Sentinel content, we cover the core areas of the Microsoft Sentinel (SC-200) certification while offering more advanced content for experienced SIEM users. Gain a competitive edge by building hands-on experience in realistic scenarios so you can use Microsoft Sentinel to its fullest potential. Share your thoughts Why not give this content a try and let me know how you got on? Remember, if you need help with a lab or want to collaborate with other community members, share your question on the Help forum!Begin Again: How to Plan for Your Next Crisis Sim Exercise
Welcome back to the third installment in our series for managers using Crisis Sim. If you missed the first two episodes, check them out here: Crisis Sim Complete: Now What? Between Two Sims: What to Focus on Between Exercises The threat landscape is ever evolving and shows no sign of slowing down. Focus on cyber resilience is more important than ever. Everyone must continue to upskill and improve their incident response strategy so businesses can function as usual. In this guide, we’ll help you understand how you can effectively prove and improve your organizational cyber resilience in a crisis. Not sure where to begin? Here’s your guide to planning and preparation You've analyzed the data, bridged the gaps in your processes between exercises, and started building a culture of cyber resilience. Now, it's time to gear up for your next simulation! Remember, each exercise is a fresh opportunity to refine your team's skills, highlight existing strengths and weaknesses, and problem-solve together – all while strengthening your organization's cyber resilience. Let's dive into how to plan your next Crisis Sim for maximum impact. Next steps for managers Goals and objectives Every successful Crisis Sim starts with a clear destination. Before you jump in, take a moment to align your exercise objectives with your organization's priorities. Ask yourself: What specific skills do you want to test? Are there already any areas of concern? In a crisis, what are the most important considerations? For example, if your last exercise revealed communication gaps during a ransomware attack, your next objective might be to improve interdepartmental communication protocols within a defined timeframe. Tip: Incorporate next steps, action items, and the ownership of those items in your debriefs! This way, all parties walk away understanding what must be done to address immediate needs. Ahead of a crisis, you should consider areas that have a critical impact on your organization. Factors could include: Reputational impact: Damaged public and stakeholder trust, eroded image, social media amplification, and strained business relationships. Financial impact: Stock price drops, revenue losses, increased costs incurred, including legal fees, potential fines, and recovery efforts. Operational impact: Disrupted operations, production delays, supply chain issues, service interruptions, and the potential for both physical and digital infrastructure damage. Physical safety impact: Cyber incidents can lead to safety system failures, utility disruptions, security breaches, and equipment sabotage – posing serious risks to employees and the public. Legal and regulatory impact: Cyber incidents can trigger lawsuits, regulatory or criminal investigations, and significant fines – especially for safety or ethical violations. Did you know? IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report found that the global average cost of a data breach has surged to USD 4.88 million. Scenario selection and target audience Choose scenarios that reflect the real-world threats your organization faces. Consider the level of difficulty, technical skill, and complexity, and select participants from diverse departments to ensure a comprehensive evaluation. Even though you may eat, sleep, and breathe cybersecurity, others may be less familiar – cater to your audience! Customize exercises from our Scenario Catalog to make them relevant and impactful for your organization. The goal is to realistically test your team’s readiness while reinforcing best practices, processes, and decision making. Consider including participants who aren’t usually involved in cyber incident response to break down silos and boost collaboration. If they’re unclear on how to report an issue, it could delay notification and hinder activation of your response plan. Effective injects and options Design injects that challenge decision making and reflect real-world scenarios. Use branching paths and feedback to boost engagement and learning. Leverage all Crisis Sim features – like Option Ranking, and Inject Confidence – to gather valuable data. This not only highlights knowledge gaps and overall risk, but also directly supports your After Action Report, helping you capture the insights, graphs, and charts managers often look for post-exercise. Tip: Use injects that require participants to consider multiple factors and make tough choices under pressure. This will help them develop critical thinking skills. Preparation and facilitation for a successful exercise Preparation is essential for a successful simulation. Set clear expectations, share resources and training materials, and ensure technical, timing, and contingency logistics are in place. Involve stakeholders and leadership early to gain support and align the exercise with organizational goals – they can provide critical input on objectives, attack vectors, and realism. A well-prepared team is a confident team. Make sure everyone knows what to expect and has the tools they need to succeed. Facilitation During the exercise, focus on managing the flow and timing, encouraging active participation, and paying attention to your team's conversations. We recommend having an internal notetaker who can focus on the conversations so that key insights and takeaways don’t get lost or overlooked. Remember, your role is to guide the learning process and ensure everyone gets the most out of the experience – the discussion and collaboration of your teams is a key benefit! Keep the atmosphere positive and supportive, even when things get challenging. Not all options in a crisis are good options, so encourage your team to take risks, make mistakes, and play out what their gut instincts tell them. Reinforce the idea that this isn’t a test, but an opportunity for individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole to take stock of what improvements can be made. It’s a learning experience for participants and facilitators, not a pass/fail exercise. There’s a reason why athletes practice! It’s better to make mistakes when the game isn’t on the line, and the same goes for incidents! It’s better to be wrong and learn from the exercise than to see these gaps in knowledge and processes play out during a real incident. Feedback and considerations Depending on your exercise objectives, follow up with stakeholders and participants to gather feedback and key takeaways. This can be done through a group hotwash, an anonymous survey, or scheduled feedback sessions after the team has had time to reflect. Tip: Encourage additional feedback after a brief cooling-off period to capture both immediate reactions and more thoughtful insights once the team has had time to reflect on the exercise. Planning your next Crisis Sim exercise is an opportunity to build on your team's strengths and address any remaining vulnerabilities. Set clear objectives, select the right scenarios and participants, design effective injects, and prepare thoroughly to facilitate a smooth exercise. By doing this, you can maximize the impact of your simulations and strengthen your organization's cyber resilience. You know your organization and teams better than anyone, so it’s ultimately up to you how you want to proceed! To ensure your next exercise is a success in proving and improving upon your cyber resilience, we encourage you to prioritize these items: Define and communicate the objectives to all participants, whether it's testing a new process, improving communication and handoffs, or enhancing crisis preparedness. Develop realistic scenarios by incorporating real-world, industry-specific events to create relevant and challenging experiences. Prepare logistics, including technical setups, briefing documents, and technology like video conferencing tools or software. Tip: For presentation exercises, remember to send out calendar holds and account for virtual or in-person meeting logistics! Share your thoughts If you’ve recently started planning your next Crisis Sim exercise, what changes did you make from the previous exercise? What recommendations do you have for others who are beginning their Crisis Sim journey? Join the discussion below!Between Two Sims: What To Focus On Between Exercises
We're back with another installment of our series for managers using Crisis Sim. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Episode 1, which covers Crisis Sim outcomes for managers. The results and data from your first Crisis Sim exercise provided valuable insight into your team’s decision-making skills. But you know this isn’t a one-and-done thing – the landscape is ever changing. There are always new ways to arm yourself and your organization with knowledge and skills. Enhancing your cyber resiliency and improving the quality of your responses to incidents allows you to get back to the most fantastic and underrated aspect of your role as a cybersecurity professional – maintaining business-as-usual operations without interruptions. The opportunities are endless. Where should you focus your efforts? Episode 1 covered outcomes by means of the Results and After Action Report sections of the platform when you complete a Crisis Sim exercise. This blog post will shift gears to what goes on – or should be going on – between exercises. Next steps for managers between exercises Exercise debrief Host a debriefing session for exercise participants and any key stakeholders in your organization you’d like to gather feedback or additional insights from. Debriefing is a valuable process following any exercise, providing a structured opportunity for reflection and learning. Primarily, you’ll want to discuss successes, identify areas for improvement, and gather feedback. A successful exercise debrief will include: Clear expectations and ground rules Reflection on successes and challenges A review of existing processes and procedures Feedback on the scenario, delivery, and identifying improvements for the future Details around the lessons you learned from the exercise Defining action items and ownership Moreover, debriefing fosters open communication and builds trust within teams, strengthening their resilience and overall effectiveness. If you’re looking for additional guidance on debriefs, check out our guide in the Help Center! Internal review If time allows, take a step back and conduct an internal review with stakeholders and leadership. This can be an opportunity to identify trends or recurring patterns that might need a deeper dive, and allow you to determine what’s most important from a leadership perspective going forward. Be sure to consider the following in your internal review: Did you come across any knowledge gaps or assumptions that surprised you? Did you come across any areas of strength that were unexpected? Should you adjust the difficulty or coverage areas? Does the team need to be benchmarked against this same scenario in the future? What other organizational stakeholders should you bring in moving forward? And what will be important for them in Crisis Sim exercising? Implement insights Demonstrate your commitment to improving cyber resiliency by fostering a collaborative learning environment. Encourage open and honest dialogue where your team feels comfortable sharing their perspectives freely, without fear of judgment. This will help you identify both strengths and weaknesses, providing valuable insights that may not be apparent from your own perspective. By implementing changes based on this valuable feedback, you prove your dedication to continuous improvement. Your action plan A key component to improving your organizational cyber resilience is creating and executing an action plan with clear objectives, stakeholders, and deadlines. The After Action Report from your last exercise will provide a solid foundation, but these specifics will help you enhance its impact. Dive into the Inject and Participant Breakdown areas of the After Action Report – this will help you pinpoint your team’s strengths and weaknesses identified in the last exercise, or identify participants that could benefit from individualized training plans to accelerate their development. Using this existing information will help you specify the concepts or topics of priority for you to address between exercises, begin benchmarking progress, and explore additional scenarios down the road. Review scenarios and upskilling content relevant to the areas you identified as needing improvement from the last exercise. In Crisis Sim, you can leverage the existing scenarios in our catalogue, create a custom scenario (from scratch or using our templates), and even take our AI Scenario Generator for a spin! Tip: Exercise specific teams or individuals in Single Player mode between organization-wide sessions to give them additional opportunities to improve their decision-making process. Three key areas of focus between exercises You know your organization and teams best, so what works best for your program between Crisis Sim exercises is up to you. But we encourage prioritizing these areas: Debriefing and feedback sessions to get the most value out of your exercises Individualized or team-focused learning plans for upskilling – don’t forget to leverage relevant content in labs! Reviewing and updating internal processes and procedures that may be out of date or contradictory If you’ve recently completed your first Crisis Sim exercise and begun working on goals for improvement between exercises, what have you focused on? If you’ve completed many, what tips do you have for others? Join the discussion in the comments below!Transforming Bug Triage into Training: Inside the Making of Immersive AppSec Range Exercises
“We all know the pain of bug reports clogging up a sprint—we thought, what if we could transform that drain on time and morale into a challenge developers are excited to tackle?” Rebecca: Oh, I love that—turning bug backlog dread into bite-sized victories is brilliant. I’m excited to hear more, but first, congratulations on launching Immersive AppSec Range Exercises! This is a BIG deal! No one else does anything like this for developers. Naomi: Thanks! What can I say? My love for cybersecurity goes back to university capture-the-flag events. Pushing yourself outside your comfort zone with hands-on challenges is by far the fastest way to learn. My main goal was to bring that same energy to application security—there are loads of CTFs for pentesters, but not really for developers who need to sharpen their defensive and remediation skills. I also wanted this to be inherently team-friendly. Our individual AppSec labs are built for individual learning, but group dynamics demand different pacing and collaboration tools. Rebecca: Makes total sense. Offensive skills get the headlines, but developers need a solid, team-centric defensive playground too. So how did you translate that vision into the actual structure of our AppSec Range Exercises? Naomi: I anchored everything in the maintenance phase of the software lifecycle: Receive bug → Triage → Fix → Test → Merge. That mirrors real dev workflows, so participants don’t just patch vulnerabilities—they live the ticket management, version control, and testing cadence they’ll face on the job. [Inside scoop: When we build any security exercise, our team maps it to a real-world experience. In Immersive AppSec Range Exercises, a common SDLC workflow—teams learn best when they see exactly how it will play out in their daily sprints. ] Rebecca: I love that you’re training both mindset and muscle memory—jumping through the same process you’d use in production. Once you had that flow, what were the first steps to bring the framework to life? Naomi: Well, I knew that this project was going to need quite a few applications to house the functionality for the exercises, so I audited what we’d need from scratch versus what open source could handle. For ticketing, most OSS Kanban tools were overkill, so I built a lightweight app called Sprinter. Then for version control, we leaned on GitLab—it was quick to stand up and gave a familiar UI for branching and merges. Once those pieces clicked—vulnerabilities surfacing in Sprinter, code pushes in GitLab, and test runs in the Verification view—we had a minimally viable range exercise in action. Rebecca: A smart “build-what-you-must, borrow-where-you-can” approach. Seeing that prototype come together must’ve been so cool. Naomi: Absolutely. It was one thing to design on paper, but watching the pipeline live—tickets flow in Sprinter, GitLab merge requests, automatic test feedback—was a genuine “wow” moment. Rebecca: Speaking of “wow,” let’s talk scenarios. How did you land on “Blossom,” your vulnerable HR app in the Orchid Corp universe? Naomi: Well, we needed something with enough complexity to showcase the framework. HR apps hit three sweet spots: business logic richness, varied user roles, and sensitive data. Tying it into Orchid Corp—our fictional corporation for Immersive Cyber Drills—gave it narrative depth, especially for returning users of our Immersive One platform. Rebecca: And when you designed the actual vulnerabilities inside Blossom, what guided your choices? Naomi: I started with the OWASP API Top 10—that’s our gold standard for spotting the biggest threats. Then I looked at what slips through most scanners and frameworks—nuanced business-logic flaws and edge-case logic bugs—and made those the core of the challenge. To keep things well-rounded, I also added a few classics—things like IDOR, SSRF, and command injection—so every player gets a taste of both modern pitfalls and time-tested exploits. [Inside scoop: Mixing modern, real-world API flaws with a few known “gotchas” keeps Immersive AppSec learners guessing and builds confidence when they spot the unexpected.] Rebecca: I know you’re busy working on the next exercises we’ll release, but before we wrap, how did you test Blossom among developers and engineers? No doubt you wanted to make sure it delivered the right experience! Naomi: Yes, absolutely! We ran a pilot with our own Immersive engineers and a third party, creating a realistic dev team. Watching them collaborate—triaging, patching, merging—validated every piece of the design. Their feedback on pacing and hint levels let us polish the final release. It was one of my favourite days—seeing months of work click into place. After that, we shipped it to customers knowing it was battle-tested. Rebecca: This has been fantastic—thank you for sharing your full planning and development journey, Naomi! From initial vision to a live, collaborative exercise … I’m awed. You certainly put incredible thought and care into developing this revolutionary approach to AppSec training. Final Thought Security is a team sport, and training like Immersive AppSec Range Exercises is the fast track to confident, resilient DevSecOps teams. If you’re a developer or engineer looking to level up your remediation skills, have your team lead reach out to your Account Manager for a demo. In the meantime, watch a sneak peek of what your experience would be like in this demo below:Crisis Sim Complete...Now What?
Picture it: you’ve designed, built, and exercised your first Crisis Sim. You're pleased with the scenario and satisfied to see your team sharpen their skills, deepen their understanding, and boost their incident readiness. You can bask in the glory of this job well done for a moment, but the journey of the Crisis Sim doesn’t end here. The devil is in the details of the exercise data. Completing the exercise and gathering the results is only the beginning of your journey of fostering people-centric cyber resilience! Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered Remember how meticulously you mapped out those injects and options to build your scenario? The feedback options, the performance indicators, the branching paths, the exercise types? Your hard work is about to pay off. We’ve processed the exercise responses for you because you’ve earned it – and because there’s more work to be done. Next steps for managers Crafting outcomes from outputs You can expand on the work you’ve already put into the exercise by leveraging both the Results and the After Action Report (AAR) for your scenario in the Immersive platform. Follow these steps to access these items: Go to Crisis Sim in the Exercise tab. Locate your exercise. Hint: use the filters available on the left to show “ended” exercises. Click to open your “Ended” exercise. From there, you’ll see how to dive into the available outputs with a few clicks! If you need a bit more info, here are some additional guides from our Help Center: Where to find Crisis Sim exercise results & reports View Results After Action Report (AAR) Analyzing exercise results Results If you’re looking for granular data down to the details of each inject, you can find it here. In Results, you’ll see an overview including the summary from the exercise scenario, along with key details such as scoring and completion metrics. Need to examine responses to specific injects? In the platform, you can quickly drill down into each inject by using the navigation on the left-hand side of the report. By selecting an inject, you can review responses and start to see patterns that emerged throughout the exercise. If you’d prefer raw data, you can export a CSV file of your results. It's straightforward, packed with detail, and puts all the key metrics and figures within easy reach. Check out our documentation for more details on key information and metrics. This is an invaluable resource for anyone passionate about data! It allows you to establish a foundation, set comparative standards, and ultimately gauge and improve your cyber resilience – all with concrete data to back your efforts. If the mention of statistics and spreadsheets doesn't excite you, no worries, the Immersive platform generates an After Action Report for you 30 minutes after completion of your exercise. After Action Report (AAR) Enter the After Action Report! The AAR presents an interactive visualization of your data analysis, offering valuable insights at your fingertips. And, as a bonus, you can download it as a PDF. The AAR is more than a deliverable; it’s a guide to fostering a people-centric cyber resiliency culture. It offers an outline of the exercise and crucial data points that will help drive what you and your team do next. Overall performance, inject-by-inject analysis, and participant breakdown provide a comprehensive view of your team's current capabilities and readiness, wrapped up with relevant recommendations for you and your team. Remember, insights are only available for data that’s collected as part of your exercise, so make sure you offer ranked inject options and enable response confidence and feedback to maximize your exercising. This is defaulted in the Immersive Crisis Sim Catalog presentation scenarios. In the performance overview of the AAR, you'll encounter a high-level snapshot guide for your next steps. Think of this as a performance gauge (based on our experience with Immersive clients) that maps to the following: >=75%: Excellent >=50%: Good >= 25%: Fair >=0%: Needs improvement As you dive deeper into the AAR, these broader performance indicators unfold with more granular data, and you’ll be able to understand the gaps that exist in cyber resilience for your organization. Mind the gap By understanding your organization's current state, you can create targeted improvement plans, whether reinforcing strengths, addressing weaknesses, or identifying opportunities for further training and exercises. This provides a clear starting point for overall improvement and upskilling. Inject breakdowns help pinpoint your team's strengths and weaknesses. Imagine the exercise in a real-world scenario: would there be a data breach, or would operations continue as normal? Assess your team's confidence and accuracy in their responses to identify knowledge gaps and points of failure. Use these insights not to dwell on mistakes but to improve and ensure your team is well-prepared for future challenges. The participant breakdown takes this introspection into your team's capabilities a step further by plotting decision scores against confidence levels. This helps you understand the accuracy and confidence of your team’s responses. Are your strongest team members operating confidently? Are those with knowledge gaps posing risks by overcompensating with confidence? Create an action plan This data helps you prioritize your next steps. Will you address weaknesses, reinforce existing skills, or increase exercise frequency to build confidence? There are plenty of upskilling routes to choose from. After each exercise, you'll see related Crisis Sim scenarios and lab content based on the threats and attack vectors encountered. When creating your action plan, you should consider the following outcomes and their related recommendations: Weaknesses identified at the individual level ⇢ Assign recommended lab content to key users, and reinforce the importance of upskilling by communicating the purpose of the content. Hint: Don’t forget to use assignment deadlines to effectively track progress and keep the team on track. The participants' skills resulted in high accuracy decision-making but low confidence ⇢ Reinforce strengths with clear communication of processes and expectations. Consider reviewing your internal playbooks! Are processes clear, concise, and aligned with organizational needs and expectations? Are policies current and up to date? Are there conflicting processes or policies within your organization? The team performed exceptionally across the board with high confidence ⇢ Test response readiness by exercising on a more difficult level scenario. Does the team excel in all areas, or is this an opportunity to better prepare? The landscape is constantly changing, and new threats are constantly emerging. Ensure your team has a wide breadth of knowledge and coverage by continuously proving their skills and encouraging further learning. Three essential steps to maximize your post-simulation impact Of course, you know your organization and teams best, so the Crisis Sim results are always best interpreted by you. Once you’ve analyzed and understood the results, prioritize these steps: Review the results and gather feedback promptly to identify growth opportunities. Did outcomes align with expectations, or were there surprises? Plan specific changes for future Crisis Sim exercises and build a strategic timeline. Should you adjust the difficulty or coverage areas? Is there time for additional training between exercises? Create an action plan with clear objectives, owners, and deadlines to ensure individual and team development. What other organizational stakeholders should you bring in moving forward? And what will be important for them in Crisis Sim exercising? Share your thoughts If you’ve recently completed your first Crisis Sim exercise, what will you do next? If you’ve completed many, what tips do you have for others? Join the discussion below!The Softer Side: Non-technical Benefits to Technical Team Exercises
In my role, I have the privilege of working with many different organizations through their technical exercise events and programs. One of the most rewarding aspects is seeing the spark ignite in the people as they band together to achieve a common objective. In this article, I’ll be sharing some of the common benefits I see emerge across organizations of all sizes, industries, and maturity levels, no matter the exercise's purpose. Encouraging curiosity and problem-solving Cyber Range Exercises provide a virtual network environment to explore. Defensive exercises focus on detecting and monitoring malicious activity, while offensive exercises involve exploiting vulnerabilities to uncover target information. Within these simulated environments, participants must utilize a wide array of skills and decide on the best approach, as the correct course of action isn't always obvious. This technical challenge is great for reinforcing knowledge and applying skills. I've seen players puzzle over unsuccessful methods, forcing them to rethink their approach entirely, asking plenty of “what if” questions before testing them out. This experimentation process educates players while simultaneously promoting lateral thinking and encourages sharing problem-solving insights. Improved communication Trawling through logs and analyzing (or preparing) a malicious payload usually calls for quiet focus. But in the real world, we’re rarely working alone. More often than not, investigations and tests happen in small teams, under pressure, and good communication becomes just as important as technical skill. That’s why team-based exercises reflect this reality. You’ve got to explain what you’re doing clearly, so everyone’s on the same page – both in terms of the situation and the technical jargon. Creating clear written logs and documentation matters too, especially in incidents where language may need to be adapted for different audiences. The most effective teams I've observed in these exercises prioritize organization. They set up a central place to track everything – whether that’s a Teams channel, a spreadsheet, or a crisis response tool – and they’re smart about assigning roles and carving out time to keep everyone synced up. Better distraction management A deliberate challenge I sometimes incorporate into technical exercises is surprise leadership requests for incident updates. This tests the team's ability to rapidly consolidate information under pressure, dealing with the uncertainties of an active investigation. Teams with strong organization, detailed incident logs, and a dedicated spokesperson or team leader consistently manage these interruptions best. Practicing in a simulated setting helps teams stay productive and accurate, even when real-world distractions come into play. It builds the ability to block out noise, manage stakeholders, stay focused on individual tasks while keeping sight of team goals, and smoothly switch contexts when needed. Stronger team dynamics Unlike individual training, these exercises require participants to actively communicate, share knowledge, and rely on each other's strengths to achieve a common goal. Team members learn to understand each other's working styles, identify individual expertise, and build trust in their colleagues' abilities. The shared experience of overcoming technical challenges, even simulated ones, creates a sense of camaraderie and shared accomplishment. While every team comprises diverse personalities and communication styles, it's crucial that each individual feels comfortable and empowered to share their insights and findings. These contributions can significantly alter the outcome; for instance, a critical discovery during a technical investigation might directly influence the business's crisis response strategy. Increased efficiency The more a team works together responding to the exercise challenges, the more they develop shared understandings of processes and expectations, learn to delegate effectively, and identify bottlenecks in their collaborative efforts. Eliminating issues arising from a lack of confidence or familiarity with the team or processes is especially critical for incident response teams, leading to quicker response times and improved agility when situations change rapidly. After each exercise, I like to conduct a team debrief, which is crucial for reflecting on lessons learned. Prompting players to consider their individual strengths and challenges, alongside open discussion about team dynamics and processes, helps identify opportunities for improvement. Technical exercises are undoubtedly key to boosting individual technical proficiency. However, their even greater value lies in cultivating these skills alongside the crucial professional attributes demanded by our field. Considering the significant pressure and expectations placed on these teams to deliver trustworthy outcomes, ensuring their preparedness within a high-trust setting is essential. These are merely some of the advantages I've witnessed through these exercises. Share your thoughts What benefits have you experienced through technical exercising? Share your thoughts in the comments!Decoding Coding: Picking a Language
These days, more and more jobs can benefit from being able to write simple scripts and programs, especially in cybersecurity. For example, pulling data from an API, scraping web pages, or processing large data files to extract information – the list of uses is virtually endless! Tempting as it is to dive right in, there are several things worth thinking about before you begin. This article will discuss one of the most important choices – selecting a language. What to consider when choosing a language A basic understanding of programming languages can make your life easier, increasing your adaptability and finesse in different environments. But with tons of languages like Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, Rust, and more, which one should you choose? Here are the crucial factors to consider: What's available Can you install whatever language you like to run your code, or are there limitations? If you have an enterprise-managed computer, you might not be able to install new software or languages, and you may need to use the default options. For Windows, this is PowerShell. Bash Script is the equivalent for Mac and Linux devices, and Python is often available too. Your personal experience and interest This one might sound obvious, but it does matter. We learn better and faster when we're invested in the subject. Look at your previous experiences. Have you worked with any programming languages before? Did you enjoy them? For example, if you had a good experience working with Python, let that guide your decision! That said, don't shy away from learning something new if there's a good reason or you’re curious to do so. What's trending in your organization Does your organization or team predominantly use a specific language? Not only would learning that one help you communicate better with your colleagues, but it could also give you an edge while working with systems developed in that language. Plus, there’ll be plenty of people to talk to if you get stuck! The language's capabilities and nature Like people, different languages have different strengths. Some are fantastic for web development (like JavaScript), while others are better suited for system-level programming (like C). Python is often an excellent choice. It's considered easy to learn, incredibly flexible, and powerful due to the huge catalog of packages available. While it isn't as fast as many other languages, for most purposes, it's usually more than fast enough. Java is a very widely used object-oriented programming language and can be extremely fast. The learning curve is steeper than Python, but there are loads of learning resources available. JavaScript (not to be confused with Java!) isn’t as useful for quick standalone scripts or applications, but it's the dominant language for websites and browsers, so understanding it is practically a superpower for testing and manipulating websites and applications. C and C++ allow low-level access to memory and offer a lot of flexibility – incredibly helpful when evaluating systems with these languages at their core. Available tools and training Great tools can make tough jobs easier. Certain programming languages have robust toolsets that can help automate your tasks. For instance, Python has a wide array of libraries and frameworks that make handling big projects a cinch while saving you time and effort – why reinvent the wheel when you can just import it? Take a look at what training is available for the language you’re interested in. Older and more popular languages are likely to have more to choose from, but there’s loads out there and a lot of it is free! Also, consider what tools you might already have access to within your organization. Community and support If a programming language has a large active community, it means help is readily available when you get stuck. Languages like Python, JavaScript, and Java have strong communities and plenty of online resources available. Scope for growth If you're planning to learn a language, why not pick one that's in demand? Check job boards, look at industry trends, and see if learning a particular language can give your professional growth a boost! Summary Remember, no language is “the best". The best is the one that suits your needs and circumstances. You might even find mastering multiple programming languages useful over time. Just like speaking multiple languages, the more you know, the better you can communicate in different environments! Once you understand some of the basic programming concepts, like variables and loops, it’s easier to learn a second or third language. Learning a programming language may initially seem like climbing a steep mountain. But once you get the hang of it, you'll realize that the view from the top was well worth the hike! Want to take the next step? Here are some lab collections that may help you learn a bit more about PowerShell and Python: PowerShell Basics Offensive PowerShell Introduction to Python Scripting Share your thoughts If you’re new to coding, tell us what language you’re trying out! Why did you pick it, and would you make the same choice again? Are there any specific challenges you found or any relevant experiences you’d like to share?Secure Code Comments: One Easy Way to Steward Your Application Security Culture
While traditional code comments focus on explaining the code's functionality, security-focused comments are crucial to promoting secure coding practices throughout the development lifecycle (SDLC). By making this simple tactic part of your natural workflow, you can assert your knowledge and become a security champion. Let's explore how integrating security comments into your code can benefit you and the security team. Leading Forward Using Secure Code Comments Integrating security into your daily coding isn't just about ticking requirement boxes; it's about building a security mindset that makes you indispensable. Secure-code comments are low-hanging fruit for sharing knowledge, learning from others, and making security a seamless part of your day. Senior developers and application security champions can quickly and effectively educate other developers about best practices without leaving the comfort of their Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Best practice for code comments suggests emphasizing the why, not the what. Security-focused comments are no different. Meanwhile, they play a crucial role in promoting secure coding practices, enabling teams to: Explain Key Security Moves: Share the rationale behind specific security measures, such as input validation, encryption, and access control mechanisms. Flag Red Flags: Spot potential weaknesses in your code, like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and unprotected data. Share Knowledge: Link to relevant security standards, guidelines, and resources and facilitate efficient code reviews. Enhancing Code with Security Comments–Two Examples Example 1: Preventing SQL Injection with Parameterized Queries (Python) Let’s consider a simplified Python function, which performs a simple insert operation into a database: def insert_user(conn, name, email): """ Inserts a new user into the 'user' table. Args: conn: A sqlite3 connection object. name: The name of the user. email: The email address of the user. Returns: None This function uses a parameterized query to prevent SQL injection vulnerabilities. See: CWE-89 https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/89.html By using placeholders (e.g., `?`) and passing the actual values as separate arguments, we avoid direct string concatenation. This ensures that user-supplied input cannot be manipulated to modify SQL commands. """ sql = """INSERT INTO user (name, email) VALUES (?, ?)""" cur = conn.cursor() cur.execute(sql, (name, email)) conn.commit() cur.close() As you can see, in addition to the regular docstring, we succinctly mention why we’re using parameterized queries over string concatenation. We also reference a CWE and provide a link for anyone who wants to learn more. With just three extra sentences in a function comment, we’ve given less experienced developers who are code spelunking a quick lesson (or reminder) about why and how to prevent SQL injection. Example 2: Mitigating XSS Vulnerabilities with DOMPurify (React) Let’s take a look at another example, this time on a React frontend. Here, we’re knowingly doing something potentially dangerous but effectively communicating to other developers the mitigations applied. /** * Displays user-generated HTML content, sanitizing it with DOMPurify to prevent XSS vulnerabilities. * * This component uses `dangerouslySetInnerHTML` because the content being displayed *must* include HTML markup. * Alternatives like rendering plain text or using a limited subset of HTML tags are not sufficient for this use case. See: https://kanban.system/t/123 * **Security Considerations:** * * **CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an HTML Page): https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/79.html * This code directly addresses CWE-79 by sanitizing the user-provided HTML before rendering it. Without sanitization, malicious * users could inject JavaScript code that would be executed in the context of the website, leading to * XSS attacks. * * **Why not just use textContent?** If we used `textContent` or similar methods, any HTML tags in the user * input would be treated as plain text and displayed as-is. This would prevent XSS, but it would * also defeat the purpose of allowing users to input HTML in the first place. * * **Why DOMPurify?** DOMPurify is a widely used and well-maintained library specifically designed for * sanitizing HTML. It's more robust and secure than attempting to create a custom sanitization * solution. It handles a wide range of potential XSS attack vectors. * * @param {string} htmlContent The user-generated HTML content. This is assumed to be untrusted. * @returns {JSX.Element} The sanitized HTML rendered within a div. */ function SafeHTMLDisplay({ htmlContent }) { const sanitizedHTML = DOMPurify.sanitize(htmlContent); return ( <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: sanitizedHTML }} /> ); } This time we go into more detail about the why. Let’s break it down: First, it’s important to acknowledge that the original approach isn’t best practice. Second, you can level up developer awareness about alternative options.Then, connect the dots for maximum impact, sharing why this approach is required to satisfy product requirements. Finally, it’s important to detail security considerations with CWE IDs, codifying the weakness you’re proactively mitigating; yes, you can even justify the introduction of another dependency compared to a custom implementation. Any future developer tasked with modifying the comment feature will quickly understand the importance of keeping this mitigation rather than “cleaning up the code” because it still functions “the same” without it. As an AppSec developer or security champion, you’ve just avoided another security report being raised because of a regression introduced by an over-eager junior developer. It's well worth the 15 lines of extra code. Even better, any security engineer performing a secure code review will be much more confident that their developer understands why they wrote the code the way they did. This knowledge, in turn, expedites that coveted ‘approve’ on their pull request, reducing the time to get the code safely into production. Identifying and codifying vulnerabilities with Find the Flaw Setting the tone with security-focused comments largely falls to the lead developer or security champion, presenting an easy opportunity for aspiring champions to stand out. Remember, the goal is to identify and codify weaknesses in code before or as it is being written; this approach ensures others can craft easy-to-understand security comments too. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to grow your skillset, Immersive AppSec’s Find the Flaw collections provide ample opportunities to build critical DevSecOps muscle memory. You’ll learn to identify various common vulnerabilities in code and recognize what CWE IDs they correspond to. Writing security-focused comments will feel like second nature when you're coding up a storm! Beyond Code Comments: Empowering Your Manager to Recognize the Power of AppSec Training Code comments are a valuable AppSec tool, albeit only one piece of the puzzle. To cultivate a developer-led security culture, organizations need managers who recognize the power of comprehensive training programs for their elite developers. These programs support proactive developers with the knowledge and skills to build secure applications from the ground up. As a result, the organization achieves development velocity SLAs and application security simultaneously. Remember to share your experience learning by doing, gaining the attackers’ perspective, which Immersive Labs AppSec offers. Your manager and teammates should recognize the value of using safe, real-world scenarios and interactive exercises, such that the training you do (now) targets the problems you have (now). Share your thoughts Check out this Find the Flaw collection and then share your thoughts with The Human Connection community: For developers: Does adding security rationale to your comments feel like an ‘easy enough' lift? For security champions: Are you already using this technique or something similar? How have you convinced other developers to adopt this style of commenting?When the Lights Went Out at Heathrow: A Crisis That Was Never Meant to Be “Won”
In the early hours of March 21, 2025, a fire broke out at the North Hyde electrical substation in West London, just a few miles from Heathrow Airport. Within hours, a local infrastructure incident had triggered widespread disruption across the global aviation ecosystem. Flights were grounded, operations were halted, passengers were stranded, and local residents were left without power. Suddenly, one of the most connected airports in the world found itself completely disconnected. This wasn’t just a power failure, it was a systems failure. The fire itself was severe yet containable, but what unfolded afterward exposed far deeper vulnerabilities. It has since been claimed that Heathrow had “enough power” from other substations, which now raises difficult but fair questions: If there was enough power, why shut the airport down completely? If there wasn’t, why wasn’t the site resilient enough to handle a failure like this? And most importantly, how did one single point of failure have this much impact on such a critical national and international asset? These are the questions that will dominate the post-crisis scrutiny, but while many rush to applaud or condemn, I think the truth lies somewhere more uncomfortable. Crisis leadership isn’t about perfect outcomes Crisis response is never clean. It’s messy, fast-moving and incomplete. You make decisions with partial data, under pressure, in real time. And in the majority of cases, you choose between bad and worse – which is exactly what Heathrow’s leadership team faced: Compromised infrastructure Uncertainty about the integrity of power and systems Thousands of passengers on site and mid-flight en route to the airport Global operations and supply chain at risk The common response is, “we need to tackle all of these problems” – and rightly so – but what people often forget is that in a crisis, you don’t have the resources, time, or information to tackle everything at once. Heathrow's leadership chose safety and containment, and in just under 24 hours, they were back online again. That’s impressive. That’s recovery under pressure, and that’s business continuity in action. But it doesn’t mean everything was done right, and it certainly doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask hard questions. “Enough power” means nothing without operational continuity Having backup power doesn’t mean having functional operations. Power alone doesn’t run an airport – systems, processes, and people do. If the backup didn’t maintain critical systems like baggage handling, communications, lighting, or security, then the airport was right to shut down. However, the next question is, why didn’t those systems have their own layers of protection, and where was the true resilience? This leads us to the real issue: this wasn’t just about Heathrow, it was about the entire ecosystem. Resilience isn’t just a plan – it’s a whole system of dependencies The recent disruption is a real reminder that resilience doesn’t just live inside an organization. It lives across every partner, vendor, and hidden dependency. In critical services like aviation, the biggest vulnerabilities are often outside the walls of your own operation. There’s a web of partners involved in keeping an airport running: Power providers Facilities management IT and communications vendors Outsourced security Maintenance crews Air traffic systems Second and third-tier subcontractors Many of these providers sit outside the organization’s direct control, yet their failures become your crisis in an instant. True resilience requires more than internal readiness, it demands visibility across the whole supply and vendor chain, coordination protocols with external stakeholders, and clear ownership of critical functions. When something breaks in the background, you won’t have time to figure out who’s responsible; you’ll only care about who can fix it. So identifying and (most importantly) testing and exercising your supply chain is paramount. This wasn’t a “winnable” crisis – and that’s the point I’ll discuss this concept further in my upcoming webinar, The Unwinnable Crisis: How to Create Exercises That Prepare Teams for Real-World Uncertainty, but the Heathrow disruption is a perfect case study. This was never going to be a clean “win.” No plan could have delivered a flawless response, and no leader could have avoided disruption entirely. Instead, this crisis asked a different question: When everything seems to be falling apart, can you contain the damage, protect your people, and recover quickly? That’s the real test. It’s what separates the theoretical resilience plans from the operational reality. Heathrow passed parts of that test, but the system around it has questions to answer, and every other organization watching should be asking the same thing: “How many hidden dependencies are we one substation, one outage, one contractor failure away from exposing?” The next crisis may not give you a warning, and it certainly won’t give you time to figure out who’s holding it all together. Crisis leadership isn’t about perfection; it’s about being ready for the moment when no perfect option exists. The question now is, what did it reveal that we can’t afford to ignore? Ready to prepare for true crisis readiness? Join me for the upcoming community webinar, The Unwinnable Crisis: How to Create Exercises That Prepare Teams for Real-World Uncertainty on April 11. We’ll explore what true crisis readiness looks like and how you prepare your team to lead when there is no “win” – only choices.Cyber Drills and Outcome-Based Programs: A Hands-On Approach to Cyber Resilience
What are cyber drills and outcome-based programs? Cyber drills vs. outcome-based programs Cyber drills Prove Outcome-based programs Improve Simulate a realistic cyberattack to test response capabilities Ongoing, structured programs to build and improve security operations Benchmark security preparedness at a given point in time Measure progress over time with defined success metrics Team-based exercises that focus on immediate response Tailored multi-year programs that address specific security gaps One-off or periodic events Continuous learning and improvement The key difference is that cyber drills test and prove preparedness and expose improvement areas; outcome-based programs address the improvement areas and enhance an organization’s ability to detect, respond, and recover from cyber threats. Combined, these approaches provide sustainable, robust cyber resilience. Designing an effective outcome-based program To implement an outcome-based program successfully, organizations must consider the following factors: 1. Understanding business objectives and risk tolerance Before designing a program, it’s crucial to understand: Business goals – what is the organization trying to achieve? Risk appetite – how much risk is the company willing to take? Regulatory requirements – what compliance standards must be met? 2. Defining measurable outcomes Success should be based on quantifiable improvements, such as: Reduced incident response time Fewer security breaches Improved threat detection capabilities More substantial alignment with regulatory requirements 3. Tailoring the program to the organization Organizations are unique, and outcome-based programs must be customized to fit: Risk assessment results Threat landscape Technology stack and processes Security team capabilities 4. Implementing and monitoring progress A phased approach ensures better adoption: Pilot phase – test the program with a small team before full deployment Phased rollout – implement step-by-step to ensure success Continuous reporting – regularly track metrics and adjust the program as needed 5. Demonstrating ROI and business value To gain leadership buy-in, organizations must: Showcase case studies of successful implementations Use data-driven insights to highlight improvements Demonstrate long-term value beyond compliance Example: A multi-year cybersecurity resilience program A well-structured outcome-based program can span multiple years, evolving as threats change. Year 1 – Conduct cyber drills, crisis and incident response exercises and assessments, and document response plans. Develop improvement plans and program scope. Year 2 – Technical and executive training, incident handling exercises. Year 3 – Advanced cybersecurity drills, scenario-based threat modeling, multi-team exercising. Process and policy stress testing. Year 4 – Purple teaming, improving collaboration between defense and offense teams. Year 5 – Full-scale red teaming and supply chain cyber drills. This approach ensures that organizations continuously prove and improve rather than just react to incidents. Final thoughts: The future of cybersecurity training Moving from traditional cybersecurity upskilling to cyber drills and outcome-based programs requires: A shift in mindset – focus on long-term resilience, not just one-time testing. Cross-department collaboration – security is not just IT’s responsibility; leadership buy-in is crucial. Expertise in design and delivery – outcome-based programs must be well-structured and measurable. By embracing cyber drills and outcome-based cybersecurity training programs, organizations can stay ahead of threats and build a stronger, lasting security culture. Share your thoughts Is your organization ready to move beyond traditional cyber upskilling? Where do you feel the biggest challenge lies, out of the three points mentioned above? Have you had success in overcoming these challenges? If so, share how with the community. Let’s build a cybersecurity strategy that delivers accurate, measurable results.
