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Crisis desktop exercise

Client name Curtin University
Year 2024
Work completed Crisis and issues management
Team Chris Leitch, Ruth Callaghan

Overview

Curtin is an innovative, global Western Australian university known for its high-impact research, strong industry partnerships and commitment to preparing you for jobs of the future.

Curtin is an innovative, global Western Australian university known for its high-impact research, strong industry partnerships and commitment to preparing you for jobs of the future. Curtin sought to conduct a simulation of a cyber security breach to review the communications team’s preparedness for a significant incident, to build confidence that the team can respond appropriately in a timely manner to stakeholders including students, internal staff including the executive, media and relevant agencies.

Example crisis simulation graphic

Challenge

Purple helps organisations prepare for communicating during a crisis by assessing existing protocols and templated responses, putting teams through their paces under pressure, and providing best-practice advice to support actions.

Curtin operates in a public-facing environment that includes many internal and external stakeholders, as it seeks to remain on the cutting edge of tertiary education in Western Australia, and recognise the reputational damage that can occur through a poorly-handled crisis.

Solution

Purple developed a customised soft crisis exercise that included two simultaneous attacks on the University’s computer systems – a phishing attack to steal login credentials, and a denial of service attack to prevent students and staff from logging into the university’s network.

In the live scenario, participants experienced the pace and emotions of a realistic crisis scenario within a safe environment. The exercise was designed to create a sense of urgency and pressure, with evolving complications to test their team’s engagement with stakeholders. It was also immersive, including role-play elements such as media, IT teams, students and other external stakeholders.

Following the desktop exercise, we facilitated a debrief with Curtin’s teams, which encouraged immediate take-aways and lessons, and provided a written report on the strengths, risks, and key development opportunities observed during the exercise.

Example crisis simulation graphic

Example crisis simulation graphic

Results

Curtin found the exercise highly valuable in identifying processes and communications that fell short of expectations or where protocols were unclear.

Purple provided the university with recommendations for strengthening their processes and protocols that the executive intended to implement in their crisis and issues management plans.