Not All Heroes Wear Capes: Cyber Resilience of the Social Administration at a Swedish Municipality

ABSTRACT This study examines the role of crisis management as an enabling practice for organizational cyber resilience within the public sector. Taking a stakeholder perspective, this qualitative case study analyzes how a Swedish municipal social administration, which was the victim of a ransomware attack that escalated into a crisis, managed to maintain essential services despite widespread disruptions to its digital systems. The case study demonstrates the limitations of a purely technical approach to managing cyberattacks. It offers valuable insights into the characteristics of a cyber crisis and its impact on critical municipal services. The results highlight the need to integrate crisis management and cybersecurity efforts for enhanced organizational cyber resilience. They also highlight the role of specific stakeholders “at the edge” of the organization during a (cyber) crisis: the nontechnical employees who were the first to handle the operational consequences of the digital disruption and ensured that the public services continued to function. The article presents findings on how public service cyber resilience can be strengthened and sustained through effective crisis management practices, including adaptability, sound decision‐making, and clear communication. This study thus contributes to an enhanced understanding of cyber crisis management in public organizations in general and practices relevant to strengthening cyber resilience in particular.