Lactalis approached Flame Tree with some cybersecurity technology already in place but lacked confidence in how they would respond appropriately if an incident occurred.
Despite having some incident response tools, they weren’t sure if these alone would be enough. There was no documented or rehearsed process, and limited confidence in areas like escalation, communication, technology response and regulatory reporting.
To address this, they invested in an incident resilience package tailored to their specific risk profile. This included building out relevant response processes and culminated in a facilitated simulation exercise, designed around their actual tech stack, to test what would realistically happen if an incident occurred today.
Challenge
The fundamental challenge wasn’t having some of the technology required in place, it was the absence of a structured and comprehensive incident response plan. Without this in place, Lactalis were unsure how to escalate or respond to common threats to meet regulatory obligations and had limited trust that their existing setup could withstand a real incident. What this organisation needed was a practical and structured framework that would enhance their existing tools and turn readiness into resilience.
Solution
To build incident resilience, we tailored a package designed around their specific threat landscape. We developed a fit-for-purpose incident response plan with customised playbooks and templates for the types of incidents they were most likely to face and aligned it all their organisational and technical environments.
Using the MITRE ATT&CK® framework, we were able to identify and understand the most relevant threats to the organisation’s environment. By mapping likely adversary behaviours against their specific systems and architecture, we were able to pinpoint potential attack vectors and tailor their incident response plan and playbooks accordingly. This structured approach ensured that their playbooks addressed realistic, high-impact scenarios aligned to known threats, tactics and techniques.
The next step was a facilitated simulation workshop, built around their current tech stack, to test what would realistically happen if an incident occurred today. This gave the team critical insight into their preparedness, strengthened their confidence and turned a major vulnerability into a capability.
Following the simulation, we delivered a workshop that presented detailed findings that helped the organisation critically assess and refine their capability. With all key stakeholders in the room, the session provided a unique opportunity to offer recommendations on how to keep the playbooks current and aligned with evolving threats. This wasn’t just a one-off fix, we established an entire process for continuous improvement and operational readiness.
Outcome
Lactalis Australia now has five customised playbooks, each mapped to specific incident types most relevant to their environment and threat profile. These cover key areas including ransomware attacks, denial of service (DoS) attacks and are written specifically for their architecture and team.
Based on the outcome of the simulation, we provided recommendations on how they needed to be actively maintaining their playbooks to improve their cybersecurity posture and alignment with regulations.
Team awareness and alignment has improved, and they’ve also clarified their incident criteria, addressing one of Gartner’s top ten reasons for incident response failure.
The process significantly improved the team’s confidence and awareness, helping them better understand their roles and responsibilities during a cybersecurity incident. By building muscle memory through practical exercises, they developed stronger incident resilience and a clearer sense of how to respond effectively.
Perhaps most importantly, they’ve recognised the critical need to have the right people involved for the right type of incident, – ensuring that future responses are faster, more coordinated and strategic.
“Flame Tree provided expert guidance by delivering an Incident Response Plan, supporting playbooks, a tabletop exercise and workshop. This has helped our team to improve our cyber defence capability as well as improved the way we communicate about cybersecurity internally.”
Team Leader, Security & Operational Technology
Ready to shift your incident response from reactive to resilient? Our approach delivers tailored incident resilience solutions including a customised incident response plan, practical playbooks aligned to your threat landscape, and a simulation workshop based on your actual tech stack, to give your team real-world confidence and capability.
Let’s build your incident resilience today.