Reducing the damage following a cyberattack: A quick guide!

The alarming increase in cyberattacks remains a shared concern among organizations. Small businesses, in particular, have suffered serious blows, often because they fail to take enough corrective and preventive measures. Hackers seem to be a step ahead, as they continue to find methods to utilize and exploit security flaws and vulnerabilities. In this post, we are discussing further how a company can minimize damages and losses following a cyberattack.

1. Create an incident response plan

While this is not what you would ideally do after an cyberattack, but having an incident response plan is critical for your cybersecurity policy. This is also about compliance and proving to the regulatory bodies that your company has taken all the necessary steps to prevent a hacking attempt, or security breach. Ensure that employees are aware of how and when to report an incident, and such behavior should be encouraged.

2. Take immediate action

Figuring out the source of cyberattack and alienating the source from other devices, networked assets, and subnetworks are critical steps. This will not only reduce the extent of financial losses, but also minimize the disruption to operations. Ensure that every step in the incident response plan is followed.

3. Reset the passwords

If the cyberattack or security breach has been caused by a backdoor exploit, make sure that the passwords are changed immediately. This just ensures that hackers don’t access to the resources or data anymore. In case you have used networked segmentation, make the most of it.

4. Report when necessary

Depending on the nature and extent of a security breach, or cyberattack, it is more than necessary to report the incident. If you believe that data protection laws have been violated, law enforcement and other regulatory bodies must be informed. Reporting or making a statement also helps the brand image, because you are being transparent about the attack, which will help other businesses in taking proactive steps.

5. Re-evaluate your cybersecurity measures

If there has been a breach, or data theft, it is certain that there is some lapse as far as preparing and implementing cybersecurity measures are concerned. Re-evaluate your cybersecurity plans, and figure out if additional steps can help in preventing such incidents in the future. Also, let your employees know of the source of the leak or breach, so that they can be aware about the possible impact of their actions.

For more help, engage cybersecurity experts and take additional help.