Cybersecurity has become a necessity in today's digital landscape as hackers come up with fresh ways to infiltrate your devices every single day. Businesses are especially susceptible to hacking since their data leaks are the most profitable. Despite taking even the best protective measures, many companies still end up getting hacked. So how do you keep your business running when information is compromised?
Check out these simple steps to keep your business running even after suffering a data breach.
- Assess the damage. When information has been compromised, it's crucial to remain calm, clear-headed, and focused. You'll need to assess the damage, which will require the expertise of an IT professional (unless you're one yourself). Identifying and understanding the details of the breach is key because this knowledge will inform all the choices you'll need to make moving forward.
- Mitigate further risk. After properly assessing the damage, you'll need to mitigate further risk by resetting the basic security measures on your data system. After a successful attack, your entire system is left exposed and vulnerable.
- Traceback the hacker. Though this step is optional, it is a prudent idea and should be seriously considered. Because hackers can eliminate the traces of their activities in your network, if you wait too long, you'll need to address this as soon after the attack as possible. If you're able to identify the hacker, you may want to consider taking legal action.
- Inform your web hosting service. This is a critical step in damage control, as the breach may have exposed a hole in your web hosting service's system as well. Informing them can potentially save a lot of other data from being accessed.
- Inform your customer. Depending on the level of damage, you may need to inform your customers of the security breach. Your best bet is to consult with an attorney for legal advice regarding the most appropriate course of action-one misstep can result in an expensive law-suit. A press release could be a great option to inform your business accounts, but make sure the decision and the content is legally sound.
- Protect against future attacks with IR software. Upgrade your cybersecurity measures to ensure that something like this won't happen again. It is imperative that your data security measures are stronger this time around as most small and medium businesses can't survive a second scandal.
While you can opt for data encryption, a far more cost-effective solution has recently become available. IR (Incident Response) software is the latest innovation in cybersecurity measures for commercial grade businesses and organizations.
IRs are cloud-based threat hunting systems that actively monitor your system security instead of passively waiting for a hacker to attack. The software is connected to a security center and dedicated team that actively monitors network responses going in and out of your system.
With an IR, you have the flexibility of customizing watch parameters and can even create automated watch lists based on preferences.
If you're interested in learning more about IR systems, here's our recommended tool for threat hunting by Carbon Black who also happens to be an industry leader in this new technological advancement
The Recap
If your business's information has been compromised, following a few basic steps will keep your business running while helping you mitigate further risk, control damage, and ensure that your system is more secure going forward. When it comes to cybersecurity, planning for the worst is the smartest course of action, because the truth is, breaches happen, even to the most secure systems.
