Interpreting Chaos: Exploring Framing Strategies and Sensemaking Questions in Dutch Cyber Crisis Management

Cyber crisis management is a relatively new and under researched topic in scientific literature. Most research on cyber crises is focused on defining it and developing exercises. But to make sense of a cyber crisis has not been thoroughly examined. The current study aims to explore how incident response (IR) and crisis response (CR) teams in governmental (GOV) and critical infrastructure (CI) organizations make sense of a cyber crisis, in the context of a Dutch national cyber exercise, “ISIDOOR IV”. Through a questionnaire, observers of participating teams were asked to indicate how these teams show behavior related to the Data/Frame theory (Klein, 2010) and on the questions they ask in relation to situational, identity-oriented, and action-oriented sensemaking (Kalkman, 2019). In interviews, experts were asked to indicate challenges in sensemaking and suggest how sensemaking in teams, organizations and between organizations can be improved. This study revealed that IR and CR teams...Show moreCyber crisis management is a relatively new and under researched topic in scientific literature. Most research on cyber crises is focused on defining it and developing exercises. But to make sense of a cyber crisis has not been thoroughly examined. The current study aims to explore how incident response (IR) and crisis response (CR) teams in governmental (GOV) and critical infrastructure (CI) organizations make sense of a cyber crisis, in the context of a Dutch national cyber exercise, “ISIDOOR IV”. Through a questionnaire, observers of participating teams were asked to indicate how these teams show behavior related to the Data/Frame theory (Klein, 2010) and on the questions they ask in relation to situational, identity-oriented, and action-oriented sensemaking (Kalkman, 2019). In interviews, experts were asked to indicate challenges in sensemaking and suggest how sensemaking in teams, organizations and between organizations can be improved. This study revealed that IR and CR teams within GOV and CI organizations utilize framing strategies derived from the Data/Frame theory, with a particular focus on Identifying a frame. Behavior on other steps in the framework appears less pronounced. Especially Questioning a frame seems to pose challenges. The study demonstrated that IR and CR teams in GOV and CI organizations ask sensemaking questions. Particularly noteworthy are the high scores observed in Information sharing. And finally, the questionnaire and interviews provided insight into what the challenges to sensemaking in cyber crises are, and what can be improved on team, organizational and inter-organizational level when it comes to sensemaking.Show less

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Interpreting Chaos: Exploring Framing Strategies and Sensemaking Questions in Dutch Cyber Crisis Management