By now, the pattern is painfully familiar. Another wave of malicious traffic hits and once again, there's nothing in place to stop it. Office systems crash. The plant network buckles. Staff sit staring at frozen screens for the third time this quarter, and IT are running out of ways to explain why the same problem keeps happening. The board is asking uncomfortable questions about why basic network defences still haven't been implemented. Clients and partners are losing patience. The share price doesn't just dip this time - it nosedives.

Could have been prevented by: Firewall (Office), Firewall (Plant)

The phishing kiddie attacker has evolved. Using freely available AI tools, they begin generating highly convincing phishing emails at scale - each one personalised, well-written, and near-indistinguishable from genuine internal communications. Employees across multiple departments are targeted simultaneously. The sheer volume overwhelms IT's ability to respond, and several more sets of credentials are compromised before the campaign is even identified. Business operations grind to a halt as systems are locked down for investigation. The board demands answers. The share price plummets.

Could have been prevented by: Security training

Attackers exploit a well-known vulnerability in the outdated software still running across office machines - a flaw that was patched months ago, but never applied here. Cryptocurrency mining malware is deployed across infected PCs, hijacking processing power and grinding systems to a near standstill. The office is forced to shut down while IT teams work to clean and rebuild affected machines. A major loss of business activity follows. The share price crashes.

Could have been prevented by: PC Upgrade

Data from the office server is found for sale on the dark web, including sensitive company information such as emails, HR records, client contracts, and banking details. The breach becomes public, leading to significant reputational damage and a sharp drop in share price.

Could have been prevented by: Server Upgrade, Database Encryption

As it turns out, the previous anomalies in the plant database weren't random. The Mafia has been changing the entries to affect the share price. The business is now being investigated for insider trading - it should have gotten encryption on that database!

Could have been prevented by: Database Encryption

Weeks after the suspicious visit, at 3 a.m., the team gets a cryptic alert from one of the turbines. Operators rush to the controller to realise they're locked out. Shortly after, a message is received: pay 1.2 million to regain control - or the disruption continues. NCSC, ICO and the Government are involved. While the disaster is critical, it's found that the attackers were no match for the NCSC. So within 2 weeks all systems were restored and online. This had a plummeting effect on the share price.

Could have been prevented by: CCTV (Plant), Controller Upgrade

Remember that controller that manages the turbines? That critical piece of technology was built by a manufacturer in the far east. Unfortunately, malicious actors found this to have a couple of critical firmware bugs. They used this to unlock the turbines during a storm. They accelerated to beyond the working limit, wearing out the bearings, and eventually causing a catastrophic explosion. Since the turbines are the heart of this business, this business is forced to shutdown.

Could have been prevented by: CCTV (Plant), Controller Upgrade

An employee's laptop is stolen from a car. It contains unencrypted client data and internal documents. Regulatory notification is required and share price suffers lightly.

Could have been prevented by: PC Encryption