Creating an Incident Response Plan*:
While maintaining strong defenses for your network is essential, no defense is completely foolproof.
It’s essential to prepare to respond quickly and efficiently in the case of a breach to reduce damage. Even for small businesses, it’s critical to build that plan ahead and develop an incident response plan.
The plan helps guide your company’s response before, during, and after a confirmed or suspected security incident. The plan should be as prescriptive as possible, starting with how an incident is defined. Some companies might consider an attempted, but unsuccessful hack, as an incident. Others may not. Based on your specific needs, your incident response plan should determine what circumstances require a coordinated response across your organization.
The value of a well-thought-out incident response plan is that it allows everyone in the company to know what they are supposed to do in the moment, rather than having to scramble to figure out what to do when tensions are running high and critical systems may be unavailable.
Well before a data breach occurs, every employee should know what their role in an incident response will be. The plan should designate cross-functional team members who should respond in the event of a breach, as well as any cybersecurity solutions providers and consultants who will be immediately available to assist. In addition to knowing their roles, it’s critical that every employee has the correct access and authority to carry out their responsibilities during an incident response.
The steps for recovery in the plan also should be detailed and clear, accounting for different scenarios, such as what should be done if an attack occurs after hours or when response team members are on vacation and not reachable.
Responding effectively and quickly to an active cybersecurity threat can make a real difference—in revenue loss avoided, reputational risk averted, customer data protected, or even the survival of an organization. By thinking through worst-case scenarios well in advance and documenting actionable steps to take during an incident, you can help mitigate or avoid damage altogether.
Call on Gailey Solutions to help you build your Cyber Security Incident Responce Plan
*Credit: Comcast Business
