Backdoors & Breaches: How Talos is helping humanitarian aid NGOs prepare for cyber attacks

Cisco Talos collaborated with NetHope, Cisco Crisis Response, and later NGO-ISAC to develop customized Backdoors & Breaches tabletop exercise expansion decks tailored to the unique operational, technical, and political realities of international and U.S. domestic NGOs. Aimed at organizations with constrained cybersecurity resources, the decks help improve incident response readiness through realistic scenarios derived from real-world events, receiving positive feedback and wide distribution. The effort includes options for virtual play via a GitHub-hosted mini web server, reinforcing the message that TTX-based preparation lowers barriers to meaningful security planning for civil society organizations.