Tennessee Tech's CEROC hosts tabletop exercise for local hospitals, medical personnel
Attendees are pictured at the recent CEROC-hosted tabletop exercise.
Tennessee Tech University’s Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center
(CEROC) hosted a recent tabletop exercise for regional hospitals, emergency medical
services and the Upper Cumberland Healthcare Preparedness Coalition.
A tabletop exercise is a structured, discussion-based simulation used in cybersecurity
and incident response planning. It brings together key personnel—such as IT teams,
executives and compliance officers—to walk through a hypothetical critical event.
This process helps organizations evaluate their disaster response plans, identify
gaps and improve coordination before a real crisis occurs. By simulating various scenarios,
businesses can strengthen their preparedness and ensure a swift, effective response
to potential threats.
The exercise focused on what would happen if a fictitious hacker group injected malware
across multiple healthcare facilities across the region. Participants were encouraged
to consider mitigation measures to ensure that patient care quality and safety could
be maintained in such an event. Participants were given the opportunity to engage
in a question-and-answer session with subject matter experts from CEROC, the Tennessee
Bureau of Investigation (TBI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and county
and regional emergency management experts in the room.
Topics covered within the exercise included using manual processes during system outages,
transportation coordination between regional facilities, integration of local, state
and federal law enforcement resources and both internal and public communications.
Such tabletop exercises are crucial as they provide realistic, risk-free environments
to assess responses to large-scale cyberattacks. Via the ransomware simulation, teams
identified gaps in their incident response plans, tested coordination across agencies
and reinforced the need for rapid decision-making under pressure. The exercise highlighted
the importance of adaptability when critical systems fail and emphasized the need
for clear communication, both internally and with the public. Ultimately, it strengthened
preparedness; ensuring that participants would be better equipped to protect patients,
restore operations and maintain public trust if a real attack occurred.
“The exercise was a great opportunity for all healthcare and emergency management
partners to work together to prepare our response to any cyber issues that could impact
the hospitals and healthcare system in the Upper Cumberland," said Brandon Smith,
Putnam County emergency management director. "We are thankful to Tennessee Tech and
CEROC for hosting a great day of training and testing.”
Eric Brown, CEROC's associate director of workforce development, added “This exercise
was a step in a new and exciting direction for CEROC, allowing us to contribute back
to the healthcare professionals that support our communities. We are looking forward
to future collaborations with the first responder and healthcare community. We also
appreciate the continued collaboration with our state and federal law enforcement
partners and our partners with the Tennessee Department of Health.”
A longtime leader in cybersecurity issues, Tech was selected by the National Security
Agency (NSA) and National Science Foundation (NSF) to deliver the Tennessee GenCyber
on Wheels program, building upon its long-standing GenCyber summer camps. Tech is
recognized as a center of academic excellence in cyber defense education by the NSA
and hosts the first and largest CyberCorps SFS program in the state, along with the
Department of Defense Cyber Service Academy.
The university is also home to the Golden Eagle Cyber Certificate program, a dual
enrollment program allowing high school students to take college-level cybersecurity
courses contributing to their post-secondary work.
CEROC focuses on K-20 cybersecurity education programs, research in emerging cybersecurity
topics and outreach programs to stakeholders in academia, government and industry.
Learn more at www.tntech.edu/ceroc or by emailing ceroc@tntech.edu.