Micro exercises
Short exercises each designed to be a mix of fun learning styles, focussing on a single subject.
Exercise in a Box
A free resource to help organisations rehearse their response to cyber attacks.
What is Exercise in a Box?
Exercise in a Box is an online resource from the NCSC which helps organisations test and practise their response to a cyber attack. It is completely free and you don’t have to be an expert to use it.
The resource provides exercises, based around the main cyber threats, which your organisation can do in its own time, in a safe environment, as many times as necessary. It includes everything needed to set up, plan, deliver, and identify post-exercise actions.
Exercise in a Box is used by small and medium sized enterprises, local government and the emergency services, as well as other private and public sector communities benefiting from using it, depending on their needs.
We have a number of exercises to choose from that cover a variety of topics, including: Ransomware, Phishing, Supply Chain, Risk management, Passwords, and Vulnerabilities.
Exercises
We have 20 exercises available for you to choose from that cover 12 different topics and require varying amounts of your time.
Why should I use a cyber exercising tool?
Running cyber security exercises is an immersive and effective way for you to evaluate and practise the skills and decision-making mechanisms you need to respond to cyber incidents. Using Exercise in a Box, you'll find out how well your organisation is protected (or not), and where opportunities for improvements may lie.
How will my organisation benefit from using Exercise in a Box?
The NCSC consider cyber exercising to be one of the most cost-effective ways an organisation can test its ability to respond to cyber incidents. By running Exercise in a Box you will:
- Establish how effective your current defence and response mechanisms are
- Test and check your existing policies and procedures
- Improve your colleagues' internal relationships and skills (specifically their ability to deal with an actual cyber attack)
- Identify areas for further improvement
- Gain access to relevant guidance from the NCSC
Help shape the future of Exercise in a Box
Your feedback matters—whether it’s a suggestion, an issue, or an idea, we’d love to hear from you.
Additional exercising resources
All organisations can benefit from exercising their response to a cyber incident. You may find our guidance on how to create cyber exercises useful.
Find an NCSC assured Cyber Incident Exercising (CIE) provider
Practice, evaluate, and improve your cyber incident response with tailored exercising provided by NCSC-assured providers. All companies assured under the NCSC CIE scheme have met our rigorous standard for high quality cyber incident exercising.