2024 - it was gone almost as quickly as it came!
But what about Retrospect Labs, we hear you ask! Well, here are a few highlights from 2024.
We grew
The team grew quite substantially in 2024, from 10 people at the very beginning of 2024 to a team of 16 people at the end of 2024, with more growth already planned for 2025. That's a lot! It has certainly changed the dynamic of the company in a few ways – for example it’s much harder to organise a time where everyone is available for a meeting, or to fit everyone on the same Teams screen! It has brought increased capability to the team, and we're working hard to mature some of our processes and functions – going from start-up vibes to proper company vibes!
We can do a lot with a relatively small team – but we want to maintain the highest possible standards, so as more work comes in the door, more growth is necessary which is a good thing. And they are all pretty awesome people, even if we do say so ourselves.
We tackled bigger and more complex exercises
2024 was a truly epic year of work for the Retrospect Labs team. We took on a lot. We delivered a lot. The fatigue and exhaustion were felt by all – but the adrenaline, sense of achievement, and passion for our work never waned.
This year we delivered a total of 69 different engagements. Not individual exercises – we’re talking full program-level engagements with customers. These engagements were a mixture of incident response-based training, board/senior executive tabletop exercises, and functional or hands-on exercises for operational incident response teams. They were delivered in almost every single state and territory (except for the Northern Territory – we’ll get there) and included two trips overseas to deliver in the Pacific.
Not only did the number of engagements delivered increase in 2024, so did their complexity. We proudly delivered an exercise for the Australian energy market – enabling energy sector organisations to participate concurrently in a multi-day exercise, with tiered levels of participation, complexity, and technical challenges. This one also assisted organisations in meeting their exercise obligations under SOCI.
And we delivered more and more exercises using our cyber security exercise platform, Gauntlet, which is now the home of more than 1,000 exercises run over the last five years.
We made Gauntlet even better
Our Product team was flat-out in 2024, focussed on improving the platform for our customers and partners. Our new features increased the simulation experience of those participating in an exercise, as well as making life easier and simpler for our power-users who plan and facilitate them.
We welcomed more Gauntlet subscribers
Speaking of Gauntlet, this year we significantly increased the number of subscribers who currently have a licence for Gauntlet! We onboarded a total of 11 new organisations to Gauntlet in 2024, and we've been working with them to ensure they're getting the most from Gauntlet, routinely running exercises, and improving their incident response readiness.
Our customers have been extremely busy, upskilling their teams, practicing incident response, and identifying improvements to security and readiness processes. Great numbers, team – let’s see if 2025 can be as big as this!
We put a lot of effort into exercise scenario templates
Our content library expanded even further with 20 additional templates added to Gauntlet. Our pre-built scenarios make it super easy for any organisation to crack on with exercises in 2025. These scenarios drastically shorten the amount of time it takes to prepare for an exercise, laying out a structure of injects, tasks, and objectives for you to pick up and customise for your organisation.
What's on for 2025?
We have another big year ahead of us! More exciting product features. Bigger exercises than ever before. Growing the team. And maturing our internal processes so that we – as an organisation – are in the best shape possible.
Above all else, we enjoy what we do. And that's the biggest goal this year – to continue to achieve and to continue enjoying delivering what we think are the best cyber security exercises out there.
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