You must stop spread and restore operations fast. Theory isn’t enough. Practice shows the truth.
Ransomware Simulation
Safely simulate ransomware playbooks to test prevention, detection, and response. Evidence‑based actions. Talk to us.
Overview
Ransomware stresses the whole organisation.
We emulate realistic playbooks and pressure test prevention, detection, and recovery.
You see what holds, what fails, and what to fix first.
Why it matters
What Is a Ransomware Simulation?
A ransomware simulation is a technically led, controlled security assessment designed to test how well an organisation can withstand and recover from a ransomware attack.
During the exercise, specialists deploy safe, benign implants that mimic real threat actor behaviour — including network discovery, lateral movement, staging activity, and encryption style triggers — without causing operational damage.
The simulation evaluates your organisation’s ability to:
- Detect and contain early‑stage ransomware activity
- Validate backup integrity and recovery processes
- Assess privileged access governance and lateral‑movement exposure
- Measure the effectiveness of incident response and recovery orchestration
The output is a clear, prioritised set of technical and organisational gaps, along with practical, testable actions to strengthen resilience against real‑world ransomware attacks.
Key Features
What Are the Benefits of a Ransomware Simulation?
A ransomware simulation provides tangible, evidence‑driven assurance that your organisation can withstand and recover from a real attack. Key benefits include:
Example use cases
Home IoT fleet and cloud control plane
Ransomware simulation targets the OTA update path, device telemetry APIs, and mobile app backends supporting millions of home devices. Benign implants emulate discovery and encryption triggers inside staging environments while monitoring for mass file access and unusual token use. Findings highlight permissive service account scopes in CI/CD, weak separation between customer data and telemetry stores, and incomplete backups of firmware signing keys and device configuration metadata.
Remediation locks down CI secrets, enforces short-lived credentials for build agents, and isolates firmware signing with hardware-backed keys and dual control. Backup policy adds immutable storage and periodic restore tests for configuration and key material. Playbooks introduce customer communication templates, phased app updates, and kill-switch criteria for OTA. A follow-up exercise evidences smaller blast radius, recoverable signing infrastructure, and faster time-to-restore cloud services supporting in-home devices
What Makes Our Approach Different
Realistic, Threat‑Led Scenarios
We tailor every simulation to your environment, systems, and threat landscape. No generic playbooks — everything reflects how ransomware groups target organisations like yours.
Hands‑On Validation of Critical Controls
We stress‑test the controls that matter most:
- Identity and access security
- Endpoint and network isolation
- Backup availability and recovery
- Escalation, communication, and decision making
You see exactly what holds up — and what puts you at risk.
Pressure‑Tested, Cross‑Team Collaboration
Ransomware isn’t just an IT issue. Our simulations bring together security, IT, operations, and leadership to validate real‑world readiness across the business.
How JUMPSEC Conducts a Ransomware Simulation
JUMPSEC delivers ransomware simulations through a structured, controlled process that safely emulates real attacker behaviour without impacting production systems. The exercise blends environment review, scenario planning, and live‑play activity to assess both technical and organisational resilience.
Our Approach:
Plan
Define realistic attack scenarios, success measures, critical systems, and safety boundaries.
Prepare
Set up isolated test accounts, safe datasets, and controlled zones for live activity.
Simulate
Deploy benign implants that mimic discovery, staging, and encryption triggers to test detection and containment.
Validate Recovery
Confirm backup integrity, credential readiness, restore sequencing, and time‑to‑recover.
Debrief
Capture findings, decision points, and a prioritised improvement plan.
Improve
(Optional) Re‑run to verify fixes and measure improved containment and recovery performance.
Why JUMPSEC?
Certifications and Accreditations
We’re a member of and regular contributor to the CREST community. Our consultants hold a range of certifications including CREST, the NCSC and more across different specialisms, demonstrating their commitment to quality service delivery.
FAQs
Is there any risk to data?
No. We design safe simulations with guardrails.
Can we include suppliers?
Yes, when scope allows.
What if we find major gaps?
We help you prioritise and close them, then validate with a retest.
How long does a ransomware simulation take?
A typical engagement runs as follows:
- Planning & preparation: 1–2 weeks
- Simulation windows: Scheduled in advance (tabletop and/or controlled live‑play)
- Reporting: Delivered 5–10 working days after testing is complete
Is a Ransomware Simulation One Off or Ongoing?
A ransomware simulation is typically delivered as a one‑off assessment, but many organisations choose to make it part of an ongoing resilience programme.
- Optional re‑run / verification: Available on request to validate improvements, confirm readiness, or demonstrate progress to stakeholders such as insurers or regulators.