LEADERSHIP EXERCISE / FINANCIAL TIMES
The demand arrives.
What happens next?
Explore a ransomware scenario before facing a real incident.
The Financial Times simulator puts the reader in a chief executive’s role during a fictional ransomware attack. Use it to open a discussion about decisions, uncertainty, and recovery.
A DISCUSSION PROMPT
Your systems are unavailable.
What do you need to know before making the next decision?
Write down your assumptions.
Then challenge them together.
USE THE EXERCISE WELL
- Play to explore choices, not to rehearse a payment script.
- Separate the fictional scenario from your organisation’s actual arrangements.
- Finish with decisions about preparation, evidence, and responsibility.
THE INTERACTIVE RESOURCE
Try the FT
ransomware simulator.
The game is hosted by the Financial Times. It opens on the publisher’s website, where you can start the fictional scenario and make decisions as it develops.
AN EXTERNAL NEWS GAME
Financial Times · interactive exercise
Opens in a new tab.
BEFORE YOU START
Give the discussion a purpose.
Invite colleagues who would make or support real incident decisions: business operations, technology, communications, and legal or risk specialists as appropriate. Agree what you want to learn rather than trying to maximise a game score.
Keep the exercise fictional. Do not enter confidential information or use a public exercise to test real credentials, systems, or response channels.
A SHORT FACILITATION GUIDE
Notice the decisions behind the clicks.
BEFORE
State your assumptions.
What can be restored? Who can authorise a decision? Which facts would you need from the response team?
DURING
Record the uncertainty.
Which choices felt urgent? What information was missing? Where did people disagree about the next step?
AFTER
Return to your own plan.
Choose the assumptions your organisation needs to test. Give each an owner, an evidence requirement, and a review date.
KEEP THE BOUNDARY CLEAR
An exercise is not
a payment decision.
A fictional negotiation cannot establish whether a real payment would be lawful or effective. For an actual incident, obtain specialist response and legal advice, assess recovery options, and check the obligations that apply.
Our ransomware and sanctions briefing signposts official UK guidance. The simulator should not be read as endorsement of paying an attacker.
Turn the exercise into preparation.
If your team needs to test its own recovery priorities and decision process, discuss a practical incident exercise with CyberSolace.
SOURCES & REVIEW
Financial Times ransomware simulator. This page introduces the publisher’s exercise; it does not reproduce the game, its scoring, or its reporting. Facilitation prompts are CyberSolace suggestions.
Originally published 31 October 2022. Resource links and presentation reviewed 20 October 2026.