* All persons, names, and events mentioned are purely fictional. This story contains content that, due to our expertise, may be perceived as promotional.
The Cyber Challenge
Snow is falling softly. It's December 31, 2025 - a short winter day in the future, still within this year. The annual winter race, the "Cyber Race Challenge,"* is about to begin. The participants compete with highly networked race cars, centrally connected to IT and cloud systems to transmit telemetry data about the race.
A few months earlier...
For months, a specialized consulting firm had been advising one of the participating car manufacturers to rigorously expand its cyber resilience—not only in light of new regulations like NIS2 and DORA, but also with a view to the ever-increasing number of ransomware attacks.
The CEO remained silent as he listened to what still needed to be done: implementing a zero-trust architecture, segmentation, tested backups, defined recovery plans, and much more. The consultants presented management with a key metric for the expected recovery time after an attack: the Cyber Recovery Time.
The consultants had repeatedly warned: "The crucial question is not whether an attack will happen, but how quickly you can be operational again." The presentations were convincing – but the board slashed budgets, postponed emergency drills, and the recovery architecture remained in draft form.
Nothing works anymore: Ransomware attack!
On race day, CEO Max M.* is already on his way to the Alps for Christmas vacation with his family in his company SUV, which is connected to the company cloud. His car continues to transmit data to the same environment where the racing systems are running. CISO Mira A.* is on-site, and all preparations are underway.
Just before the start, the team's data streams flicker, then telemetry fails completely. A classic ransomware message appears on all screens, demanding payment and setting a deadline: “We’ve locked your engines. Pay €1,999,000 in cryptocurrency within 24 hours.”
Central race and analytics systems are encrypted, and all processes are halted. Mira initiates the incident response, isolates systems, brings in forensic experts, and checks backups. It quickly becomes apparent that while the data is present, prioritization, recovery sequences, testing, and established procedures are lacking—just as previously warned.
Mira contacts Max via an encrypted connection while he is driving:
Management faces the decision of whether to pay or take the difficult route of cleanup and rebuilding.
Decision: The board of directors is in full charge
The consulting firm's documents contain figures from studies on the average cyber recovery time: from a few days in well-prepared organizations to several weeks or months when resilience measures and tested recovery plans are missing. Mira informs the police and contacts the consultants.
The decision is made to forgo payment, instead relying on forensic analysis, recovery from clean backups, and a phased restart – knowing that this may result in a longer downtime.
Quiz
Here's where the quiz begins – the question leading to the answer is:
What is the average cyber recovery time?
[... And do you know what the cyber recovery time is in your company?]
The answer is a core principle of modern cyber resilience: to realistically know your own recovery time, quantify it based on architecture, processes, backups, and tests, and gradually shorten it through targeted measures.
Those who know this figure, address it openly, and proactively improve it, possess the real key to the story – and thus the answer to the quiz.
Please note: The competition will be conducted in German, and the 1st and 2nd prizes will be awarded at locations within Germany!
Deadline for entries to the quiz: January 15th, 2026, 11:59 p.m. (CET)
From all entries, 10 winners will be selected, and from these, the three attractive first prizes will be drawn.
The answer to the puzzle is:
The most realistic answer, determined by a random draw.
Please note: The quiz will be conducted in German, and the main prizes will be awarded at locations within Germany.
The Prizes
- 1st Place: Porsche driving experience at the Hockenheimring* ("Race'n'Roll Light" - includes: 3 laps driving yourself and 2 laps as a passenger on the Hockenheimring (Race'n'Roll track variant); including track rental/insurance, provision of vehicles (Porsche Cayman for driving yourself and Porsche GT3/GT4 as a race taxi), provision of helmets and balaclavas, and drinks during the event. Preconditions: Minimum age 21 years and possession of a driver's license)
- 2nd Place: ADAC driver safety training* (Participants aged 18 and over with a driver's license are eligible for the ADAC driver safety training. The training can be conducted at the ADAC driver safety training facility of your choice. If you are selected, we will request your postal code to ensure the shortest possible travel time. The training takes place in your own car. Preconditions: Minimum age 18 years and possession of a driver's license)
- 3rd Place: A YUBI key (stick)
- Places 4-10: Empalis BitBox – Enjoy tinkering! **
* Travel expenses are not part of the prize. We assume that all legal requirements for participation in the trip or training are met by the winners. Otherwise, the prize is invalid. No substitute prize will be provided.
** Prizes will be sent after the winners provide their postal address. There are no additional costs.
The grand prize drawing will take place after the Christmas holidays!
The solution to the quiz will be drawn after the Empalis jury's evaluation, starting January 15, 2026.
You will receive a personal notification from us between January 16 and 27, 2026, at the email address you provided, if you are among the winners.
Terms and Conditions
The organizer of the New Years eve quiz is Empalis Consulting GmbH. The official deadline for submitting your answer to the quiz is December 15, 2025, until January 1, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. All submissions will be accepted and included after the quiz is published on the Empalis website, in the Empalis newsletter, on the business networks LinkedIn and XING, and in the PresseBox. The drawing and announcement of the winners will take place between January 16, 2026, and January 27, 2026.
All participants aged at least 21 years and submit an answer via the answer form will be included in the prize draw. Employees of Empalis Consulting GmbH and employees of Empalis Consulting GmbH partners are excluded from participation. Only one entry per person is permitted. Winners will be drawn at random. By submitting your answer, you agree to be contacted to notify you if you win and to receive our content and event newsletter. Participation requires the double opt-in procedure. To receive your prize – should your ticket be drawn – we will request your postal address via direct message (email to the email address you provided) so we can send it to you. Winners have until February 10, 2026, to contact us to claim their prize. After that, the price expires. The prize is non-transferable. Legal recourse is excluded. Please note: The competition will be conducted in German, and the 1st and 2nd prizes will be awarded at locations within Germany! You can find more information about the purpose and duration of the processing of your personal data in our privacy policy.
