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Why Incident Response Plans Fail Under Pressure
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am CDT
Swissôtel Chicago
Most incident response plans do not fail because the document is missing. They fail because people do. Under pressure, some teams panic and abandon strategy. Others choke, overanalyze, and freeze. In both cases, the plan may be technically sound, but human performance and cross-functional coordination break down.
 
This session explores why comprehensive IR plans still collapse in real incidents, even in organizations with mature security programs and well-documented procedures. Through breach case studies and practical lessons from high-pressure performance, we will examine what traditional tabletop exercises and compliance-driven training rarely test: legal pressure, executive escalation, media scrutiny, conflicting incentives, and the absence of pre-authorized decisions.
 
Attendees will leave with a practical framework for making incident response more resilient. We will cover how to reduce panic through cognitive offloading and automation, how to reduce choking through pre-authorized response paths and role clarity, and how to design adaptive simulations that force teams to make decisions under realistic pressure. We will also discuss how blameless postmortems turn failure into better instincts for the next crisis.
 
The goal is not a better-looking incident response plan. The goal is a response culture that still works when the facts are incomplete, the stakes are high, and every minute counts.
Speakers
avatar for Ron Dilley

Ron Dilley

CISO, Reflex Security
Ron Dilley works at Reflex Security as the Field CISO, focusing on technical evangelism, channel management, and community presence, while pushing the boundaries of what's possible in technology to deliver exceptional value for clients. He is also on the IANS Research Faculty, a speaker... Read More →
Saturday September 12, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am CDT
Swissôtel Chicago 323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA
  Talk

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