Between cyberattacks, data breaches and factors related to human error, security risks organizations face today are more widespread than ever. Is there enough focus on proper incident response in your industry, and more importantly, across your organization? Many will answer no. What can you do to improve your ability to respond to threats and breaches?
Going Step by Step
The best plans are those that account for anything and everything that can happen. These are plans with a step-by-step description of how each person on your incident response team will react when an emergency strikes. Everyone knowing their role will dramatically improve the incident response effort.
Each emergency situation should be fully described so that you know exactly what the problem in front of you is. And your carefully planned steps will help limit any damage going further, while also considering how to keep business continuity flowing in the right direction for as little interruption to the business as possible.
Naming and Defining the Problem
Can you put a name to the incident and do you know exactly how you got to this point? Next, can you determine how much data has been leaked, corrupted, or lost? If you were to put a number in terms of the severity of the threat, how high would that rating be?
When you can answer these questions, your incident response can be customized to address the issue. Educating your incident response team on how to identify suspicious activity can hasten response time.
Ridding Yourself of the Disruption
Once you’ve determined what and how it happened, secured your data, and have everything up and running again, it’s time to rid yourself of the source of the disruption. A thorough audit of your system needs to be undertaken to ensure you’ve completely rid your system of the malware.
Once it’s eradicated, determine what you can do to make sure it doesn’t happen again. For example, if the incident was the result of weak passwords, a system-wide effort needs to be made to close that open door by putting in place a more rigorous password hygiene protocol.
Patching and updating your weak points is also a must. If you’re fortunate enough to have an on-premise IT professional with the expertise to pull this off, have them do it immediately. It is also beneficial to your company to bring in a third party to assist you.
At Computer Security Solutions, we assist organizations that are having a tough time keeping up with security and business IT. Managed services, cybersecurity and disaster recovery solutions are where we excel, so contact us today and let us assist you with a strong incident response strategy.