Dalibor Gernhardt & Goran Polonji

When technical defenses and SOC procedures fail, the hardest part begins: making the right decisions under pressure. Cyber wargames are structured crisis simulations that expose gaps in procedures and decision-making that technical drills alone cannot reveal. From whether to isolate entire systems, to how and when to communicate with regulators or the public, wargames prepare organizations for rare but foreseeable “Gray Swan” events – scenarios that may not happen often, but can have devastating impact. In this talk we will explore why classical wargames are difficult to adapt to the cyber domain – from the non-linearity of time to the heavy dependence on expert moderators – and present a hybrid approach. Using the Cyber Conflict Simulator, we demonstrate how technical emulation and automated adjudication can bridge cyber ranges and classical wargames, reducing cost and reliance on scarce expertise. The result: scalable and realistic exercises that combine technical depth with management-level decision-making.

Dalibor Gernhardt is a Certified Wargame Designer (Naval Postgraduate School, US Army War College, US Center for Army Analysis) and PhD candidate at FER Zagreb. Goran Polonji is a cybersecurity auditor and co-developer of the Cyber Conflict Simulator, with extensive experience in cyber conflict simulation and hybrid approaches to training in complex environments.

Categorised in: 2025

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