When a flight unexpectedly hits turbulence, the last thing any passenger wants to hear from the pilot is, “Hang on a second. I’ve never handled this before.” Air travel feels secure not because unexpected situations never occur, but because pilots spend countless hours training for emergencies they hope they'll never experience.

Mike Tyson famously said, "Everyone has a plan until
they get punched in the mouth." For businesses, that moment often arrives as an unexpected disruption they believed they were prepared to handle. It could be a backup that won't restore, a system outage that lasts longer than expected or a cybersecurity incident that reveals vulnerabilities no one realized were there.

When a school's fire alarm sounds, there’s no hesitation or confusion about what comes next. Students form orderly lines, teachers guide them safely outside, and everyone follows the established procedure because they’ve practiced it before. Your backup and recovery plan should operate with that same level of confidence.

Compliance issues don’t usually begin with a breach event. They begin much earlier with incorrect assumptions that go unverified. In many organizations, tools are deployed and systems are in place, but there's still uncertainty about whether those controls are functioning as intended. That uncertainty typically only becomes obvious during external scrutiny or a security incident.

From above, the water can look completely calm. That's one of the reasons Shark Week captures so much attention. The things people worry about are rarely visible from the surface. The real danger is often already moving below the waterline. The same is true for today's cyber threats.