ICS4ICS Exercises

Benefits of ICS4ICS Exercises

Expedited resolution of cyber incidents by providing effective management processes
Establish the Incident Commander as the final authority to make decisions
Provide clear roles and responsibilities of all ICS4ICS Team members
Ensure all cyber incident staff are performing their work based on the same set of orders
Allow the various teams to focus on their work to resolve the incident while receiving periodic directions from the ICS4ICS Team

The ICS4ICS exercise materials were developed based on:

FEMA provided exercise overview information
FEMA ICS resource center information: ICS resource center (fema.gov)
FEMA Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP)
FEMA exercise evaluation guides
CISA tabletop exercise package
FEMA ICS forms
- FEMA ICS forms can be download together:NIMS ICS forms booklet

The ICS4ICS exercises provide an excellent way to understand ICS4ICS and the various resources, procedures, and processes. These exercises are scripted to help new participants play the various ICS4ICS roles. The exercise can also be delivered using prerecorded videos that are combined with a tabletop discussion with exercise participant to ensure they have the resources and organization capabilities to be able to perform during an actual cyber incident. The ICS4ICS Team uses the feedback from ICS4ICS exercises to improve the exercise, processes, and other materials. The participants provide feedback at the end of the exercise as part of a Hot-Wash. These are some of the past ICS4ICS exercises: