Most modern businesses have incorporated cybersecurity solutions into their operations to increase efficiency. In general, administrative, accounting, marketing, communication and clerical tasks in companies are being performed on digital platforms.
This shift has notable advantages, including that it’s faster, usage of fewer paper resources, and effective collaboration between employees.
On the other hand, corporations and organizations are being attacked by IT hackers and other malicious characters frequently
“Almost 60% of cyber attack victims are small businesses, and within two years of the first attack, the likelihood that a small business will experience another is approximately 28%.”
The best mitigation strategies for cyber attacks are systematic. Therefore, a cybersecurity incident response plan has become necessary even for today’s small businesses.
Let’s talk about the need for a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan.
A strategic plan outlines exactly who, what, when, where, why, and how your team will respond to an attack. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to take the lead on developing a cybersecurity incident response plan. We’ve listed an entire article dedicated to Incident response which you can read here.
You must also consider how cyberattacks could impact customers, suppliers, web developers, and other third parties and include them in the disclosure policies.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Mitigation
The primary objective of an incident response plan is to cover every base. Here’s a step-by-step guide to each stage of an attack response.
- Identification: Due to the stealthy nature of hackers, many cyber-attacks aren’t immediately apparent. For instance, 33% of files cleaned by the malware scanner were JavaScript files. JavaScript attacks are often symptomless, which is why they’ve become a new favorite weapon of cybercriminals.
For this reason, your incident response plan should include the implementation of automated security tools to monitor and detect malicious activity.
- Discovery: The next step is to discover the nature of the attack and how it affected the business. This means coordinating with your web developer or third-party security provider to assess the damage,and defining the scope of the threat is essential for knowing how to stop it.
- Remediation and restoration: Expelling all hints of the danger requires somebody who can uncover each abnormality inside a framework. Likewise, in trixter we provide comprehensive automated solutions to eliminate traces of cyber attacks as soon as possible.
- Review: When the residue has settled, audit your present security stance to find any vulnerabilities that could be misused once more. This incorporates speaking with your group and talking about what components of the arrangement must be changed. Being exhaustive about this audit implies doing an efficient check (which ought to be illustrated in the arrangement) and may include acquiring a specialist.
- Communication: During this phase, communicating the breach with your employees, and implementing security awareness training is important. This training educates your employees on the importance of using strong usernames and passwords, identifying spam emails, and being aware of suspicious activity that could prevent another security breach.
- Implement: Implementing new security technologies for identified weak points with extra levels of cybersecurity requires installing a stronger web application firewall which involves additional investments, but in almost all cases, prevention is cheaper than another attack.
It’s hard to overstate how chaotic things can become after a successful cyber attack, especially in a small business, where human and monetary resources are limited.
To cover your bases, have a comprehensive cybersecurity incident response plan and ensure key stakeholders know how to follow it.
#StayCyberSafe
Shaunak Mody, Co-founder at Tixter Cyber Solutions.
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