The First Hour: Leading Through a Cyber Crisis
Category: Cyber Event
Event date: 8th October 2026
Time: 09:30
Closed-door cyber incident response session for CISOs, security leaders and board members
Overview
If your organisation suffered a serious cyber attack today, would your leadership team know what to do next?
This closed-door session brings together CISOs, senior security leaders and board members to explore how organisations should lead, communicate and make critical decisions during a cyber incident.
Experts from Red Helix, Thomas Murray Cyber and Risk Crew will share practical insight drawn from real-world incident response, helping delegates identify the gaps between having a plan and being genuinely prepared to use it.
You will leave better equipped to test your cyber incident response plan, prepare your leadership team and respond with greater confidence when the pressure is real.
Format
A confidential, peer-led gathering for CISOs, senior IT and security leaders, and board members.
The session combines expert insight, practical discussion and an honest examination of how organisations need to operate when a cyber incident is unfolding and the facts remain incomplete.
The event will be held under the Chatham House Rule, creating a trusted environment in which delegates can share experiences, challenges and lessons openly.
What you will cover
The first hour of a cyber incident
Understand the decisions leaders must make when information is limited, the situation is changing quickly and the consequences of delay can be significant.
Pressure-testing your incident response plan
Explore the difference between a plan that works on paper and a leadership team that can execute it effectively under pressure.
Preparing for the board conversation
Learn how to communicate cyber risk, operational disruption and financial exposure to the board before a crisis forces the conversation.
Leading through uncertainty
Consider how roles, responsibilities and decision-making should work across security, technology, communications, legal and executive leadership.
Open peer discussion
Share real-world cyber resilience challenges with other senior leaders facing the same strategic and operational decisions.
Session 1 – Leading Through an Incident
Ioan Peters, Thomas Murray Cyber
Drawing on real-world incident response experience, this session explores what leadership actually looks like when a cyber crisis hits: making decisions with incomplete information, communicating across the organisation and to the board, and managing the operational and reputational pressure of the first hours and days of an incident.
Session 2 – Incident Preparedness: Testing Your Plan to Ensure Success
Peter Wells, Risk Crew
A plan that reads well on paper is not the same as a leadership team that can execute it under pressure. This session examines how to genuinely pressure-test an incident response plan, uncover the gaps between documented process and real capability, and build the confidence that comes from having actually rehearsed the moment before it happens.
Roundtable – Preparing to Succeed in Incident Response
An open, expert-led discussion giving you the chance to share your own resilience challenges, question the day’s speakers, and compare notes with others facing the same decisions, closing the day with practical, insight from the room itself.
Who should attend?
- CISOs and security leaders
- CIOs, CTOs and IT Directors
- Board members and non-executive directors
- Risk, resilience and compliance leaders
- Senior executives responsible for cyber incident response
Why attend?
Cyber incidents are not resolved by technology alone. The speed and quality of leadership decisions can determine the operational, financial and reputational impact of an attack.
Taking time now to test your assumptions, clarify responsibilities and prepare your leadership team could make the difference between a controlled response and a crisis that escalates.
Feedback on past events
Could your leadership team make the right decisions under pressure?
Register here