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Designing a Minimum Viable Company: How to Prioritise Systems During a Cyber Attack

A battlefield guide for CIOs to stay operational when everything is on fire

The moment a cyberattack hits, you no longer run a business. You run a crisis. And in that moment, your sprawling architecture, beautifully integrated platforms, and flawless dashboards don’t matter. The only question that matters is this:

What is the bare minimum we need to survive the next 72 hours?

Welcome to the age of the Minimum Viable Company (MVC). This is the stripped-back, functionally essential version of your business that can operate under cyber siege. If you’re in healthcare, finance, legal, or manufacturing, your answer to that question isn’t just operational. It’s existential.

The MVC Mindset: Forget Restoration. Focus on Continuity.

Most businesses plan for full recovery eventually. But modern cyber threats don’t give you that luxury. Ransomware does not pause while you consult your DR playbook.

Smart organizations are already building MVC frameworks — sector-specific system maps that define:

What must stay operational
What can fail gracefully
What gets turned off entirely

During a breach, you will not have time to debate these priorities. You will only have time to act.

Sector Snapshots: Real-World MVC Playbooks

Healthcare: Patient Before Platform

Core Priority: Clinical safety and uninterrupted patient care.

Must-haves:

Read-only or recently synced electronic health records
Radiology image systems (PACS)
Medication administration logs
Communication tools for clinical coordination

Can wait:

Billing and claims processing
Patient portals (if supported by outbound comms plans)

In 2023, 79% of healthcare organizations hit by ransomware reported care disruptions. 20% diverted patients elsewhere. In a crisis, you don’t need analytics. You need vitals. Clinicians must access identity, medications, scans, and coordinate — even if core IT is down.

Manufacturing: Keep the Line Moving

Core Priority: Maintain throughput and protect safety-critical systems.

Must-haves:

Segmented OT environments
PLC and HMI failovers
Real-time plant visibility
Communication with suppliers/logistics

Can wait:

CRM/ERP integrations
Financial back office systems

Half of manufacturers report that 24h of downtime costs over $100K per plant. MVC here isn’t about clean restart — it’s about controlled continuation.

Financial Services: Regulator-Ready Resilience

Core Priority: Ensure transactional integrity and regulatory compliance.

Must-haves:

Core banking and trading systems
Real-time fraud and anomaly detection
Access to risk management dashboards
Immediate communication channels with regulators and auditors

Can wait:

Marketing systems
Innovation environments and sandboxes

Most financial institutions now expect to face three or more regulatory inquiries within 48 hours of a breach. The MVC here is more than systems architecture. It is institutional credibility.

Designing Your MVC: A Tactical Blueprint

Create a Tier-0 System Map
Identify the essential 10 to 15 systems that must remain operational in each business unit. Make all upstream and downstream dependencies explicit.
Design for Degradation
If a system cannot run in a reduced or offline mode, it will likely fail during an attack. Prioritise those that can.
Build Isolation Capability
Assume compromise of your primary network. Prepare clean-room recovery environments and fallback communication infrastructure.
Pre-authorise Crisis Decisions
Define who has authority to activate the MVC, bypass normal policies, and reassign resources instantly. Do this before the breach, not during.
Test Aggressively
Run real-world drills and pressure tests. According to Ponemon Institute, 67% of companies with tested incident response plans contained the attack in under 24 hours. Without testing, that number drops to just 30%.< 5 step tactical blueprint highlevel journey map infographic>

How to Prioritise Under Pressure: The 3-Axis Triage Model

When seconds count and systems are failing, structured triage provides clarity:

Business Criticality
How much operational damage will loss cause?

Tier 0: Critical to customer promises or legal obligations
Tier 1: Significant operational impact
Tier 2: Useful but pause-able

Ask: If this system is offline for 48 hours, do we lose customers, revenue, or compliance?

Recovery Complexity
How difficult or risky is it to restore?

Easily restorable from clean backups
Manual workaround available
Complex interdependencies and re-infection risk

Ask: Can this be restored without elevating risk?

Blast Radius
How connected or exposed is it?

Isolated systems can be restored early
High-risk, integrated systems should be delayed

Ask: Will this system reintroduce vulnerability?

Visualise Your Priorities

Create a live matrix that maps systems by function, criticality, recovery time, and risk exposure. Use it in exercises and real events. Treat it like a digital war room.

Final Word: Resilience is Not Restoration. It is Prioritisation.

The comforting myth is this: if we restore everything quickly, we win. The real strategy is less cinematic, and more operational.

The Minimum Viable Company mindset isn’t about resignation. It’s about ruthless prioritisation, clean fallback plans, and unflinching clarity.

Your job isn’t to rebuild the business. It’s to keep the heartbeat steady, just long enough to fight through the chaos.

And in the years ahead, resilience won’t be measured in backup logs or insurance policies.
It will be measured in how fast you can reassemble a company while attackers are still in the building.

Ready to Build Your Minimum Viable Company?

SureLogik helps organisations prepare for the moment everything goes wrong so they can still keep moving forward. From essential systems mapping to clean-room recovery and industry-specific resilience frameworks, we give you the clarity and control to operate through disruption. Do not wait for a crisis to decide what matters most.

Partner with SureLogik to operationalise resilience, not just recovery.

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