What Does a Real Cybersecurity Crisis Look Like? (And Why Most Teams Aren’t Ready)

In today’s digital environment, most organizations are well-equipped for prevention.

They have firewalls, endpoint protection, MFA, and backups. They invest in detection and response tools. And yet — when a real crisis hits, most teams fall apart.

That’s not a tech problem. It’s a coordination problem.

What Is a Cyber Crisis?

A cybersecurity crisis goes beyond a typical incident or alert. It’s not a phishing email or a false positive.

It’s a situation where:

• Core systems are compromised or encrypted

• Communication tools are no longer trusted

• Leadership has no clear picture of what’s happening

• Customers and stakeholders are impacted

• Decisions must be made under pressure

The difference between a routine event and a true cyber crisis is scale, speed, and chaos.

Real Example: Change Healthcare, 2024

In February 2024, Change Healthcare — a critical part of the U.S. healthcare infrastructure — was hit by a devastating ransomware attack. Systems were encrypted. Files were exfiltrated. And payments across the U.S. healthcare industry were frozen for weeks.

• Over 190 million people were affected

• PHI (protected health information) and payment data was exposed

• Providers couldn’t get paid. Patients couldn’t be processed.

• Trust was lost. Operations halted. Costs skyrocketed.

This wasn’t just a breach. It was a national-scale operational crisis — and it proved that even giants can be brought down by a single, coordinated cyberattack.

The Real Gap: Response Readiness

Most organizations focus 90% of their budget on prevention.

But few are truly prepared for what comes after the breach.

That’s where teams freeze. Emails stop working. Chat apps are disabled. VPNs are suspect. Decision-makers are siloed. IT and execs aren’t aligned. And there’s no clear response flow.

This is where cybersecurity becomes human: It’s not about stopping the attack. It’s about how you respond under pressure.

Building True Crisis Resilience

So how can organizations prepare for a real-world cyber crisis?

1. Plan for Coordination, Not Just Containment

Have a crisis response plan that defines roles, tasks, escalation paths, and communication tools. Update it regularly.

2. Use Secure, Out-of-Band Communication

Setup secure, independent communication channels (chat, video, SMS) that don’t rely on the affected systems.

3. Run Tabletop Simulations

Test your plan. Run drills. Involve your executive team, not just IT. Make “chaos training” a regular exercise.

4. Connect IT + Leadership

Ensure your response plan is cross-functional. Legal, PR, ops, and security must act as one team when the breach happens.

Final Thought

Cybersecurity isn’t just about defense. It’s about resilience.

If your crisis plan starts with “we’ll figure it out,” you may already be too late.

Plan. Simulate. Coordinate. And build systems that still function when everything else breaks.

Sources:

UnitedHealth Group. UnitedHealth Estimates Change Healthcare Hack Impacted About 190 Million People. The Wall Street Journal, 21 Mar. 2024, https://www.wsj.com/articles/unitedhealth-estimates-change-healthcare-hack-impacted-about-190-million-people-9564533c.

National Cyber Security Centre. Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2023. UK Government, 2023, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2023.

ANSSI. Panorama de la Cybermenace 2023. Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d’Information, France, 2024.