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Navigating the Storm: Using Crisis Simulations to Build OT Cybersecurity Resilience


Course

Martin Laberge of Énergir shares a four-year journey building OT cybersecurity resilience through progressively intensive crisis simulations - and what each exercise revealed about the gaps that mattered most.

A crisis response is only as strong as the muscle memory built before it. At Énergir, a natural gas distributor operating across Quebec and Vermont, cybersecurity was not part of the organization's operational culture until systems became interconnected and the stakes became undeniable. What followed was a four-year, progressively intensive simulation program - from basic awareness tabletops in 2022 to a live production cut-the-wires exercise in 2026.

This session, led by Executive Director and CISO Martin Laberge, will cover:

  • How Énergir built executive and board-level buy-in by tying cybersecurity KPIs directly to the annual bonus of every employee - from CEO to technician;
  • How a full-day, 60-person crisis simulation exposed communication breakdowns between operational, tactical and strategic crisis cells, and what the organization rebuilt as a result;
  • How a surprise backup restoration test failed after 27 hours, triggering a full infrastructure overhaul and a more resilient recovery program.
 

 

Here is the course outline:

Navigating the Storm: Using Crisis Simulations to Build OT Cybersecurity Resilience

Completion

The following certificates are awarded when the course is completed:

CPE Credit Certificate