Every organization is at risk of a data breach or cyber attack. Cybercriminals and malicious adversaries are becoming more and more sophisticated. And with the wealth of sensitive customer data businesses are privy to, hacking can pay off in information that can be sold or ransomed for substantial financial gains.
In 2023, 3,205 data breaches occurred in the US breaking the previous record and marked a 72 percent increase from the previous year, according to a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). Healthcare, finance, business and retail were the most attacked, affecting not only the companies but their customers.
6 Steps to Take After a Cyber Attack
- Assemble your incident response team.
- Identify and contain the breach.
- Understand your legal requirements.
- Develop a communication plan and notify those affected.
- Protect against another attack.
- Learn from the experience.
It’s not a matter of if an attack occurs, but when. Companies need to be protected from both angles: a proactive approach that includes threat hunting, penetration testing, security awareness training and a remediation plan to respond to an attack if it occurs.
If your company has experienced a data breach, here are the steps you can take to respond, mitigate damage, and arm yourself for the future.
1. Assemble Your Incident Response Team
Cybersecurity incident response is the first critical step to manage and mitigate the effects of a cyberattack or security breach. This process includes:
- Identification: Use IT monitoring to detect, evaluate, validate and triage security incidents.
- Containment: Take appropriate steps to stop an incident from worsening and regain control of IT resources.
- Eradication: Eliminate any threat activity, including malware and malicious user accounts. Identify vulnerabilities that may have been exploited by the attackers.
- Recovery: Restore normal operations and mitigate relevant vulnerabilities.
Assemble your incident response team, which may include legal, forensics, information security, information technology, communications, human resources and management. You may wish to hire independent forensic investigators to help you determine the source and scope of the breach, collect and analyze evidence and outline the steps for remediation.
You should also speak with legal counsel to ensure you’re following federal and state laws that may be impacted by a breach. If you hire outside counsel, make sure they have expertise in data security and privacy.
2. Identifying and Containing the Breach
One of the first and most important steps your incident response team should take is to identify and contain any breach that has occurred. The decisiveness of your team in this area will play a significant role in how quickly the business will be able to bounce back.
During this stage, teams should work closely with their respective incident response team leads to analyze all available evidence, including any preserved data, logs, or security solutions, to pinpoint the source of the breach and quickly incorporate any necessary access restrictions if they haven’t automatically been put in place.
Containment is a vital part of this process since an ongoing breach could quickly derail efforts being made to reverse any malicious actions that have been taken. Part of the containment process could be further segmenting compromised systems from larger networks, identifying and blocking any suspicious IP addresses, and working with security teams to patch any discovered vulnerabilities that have been exploited.
If third-party service providers are involved, it’s crucial to determine what sensitive information they can access. If necessary, change privileges. Contact service providers to ensure that they’re taking the necessary steps on their end to ensure another breach doesn’t occur.
3. Understand Your Legal Requirements
After a breach has been successfully identified and contained, it’s important to analyze the scope of the incident and take note of what type of data was accessed or compromised. Depending on the extent of the breach, your business may need to take additional actions to remain compliant with certain legal requirements.
For example, if personal credit card information or PII (Personal Identifiable Information) has been compromised, your business will be accountable for following all PCI-DSS guidelines, including notifying acquiring banks, payment brands, law enforcement, and any other required parties of the incident.
Other laws or regulations may apply as well. For example, electronic personal health records are covered by the Health Breach Notification Rule, which requires you to notify the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the media. The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule may also apply, which requires you to notify the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
While not all security breaches may require the same legal actions, it’s important to document any regulations your business is subject to in the event of a breach. This will help you to streamline your recovery efforts and ensure you carry out any legal requirements your business has during the process.
4. Develop a Communication Plan and Notify Those Affected
Depending on the type of data that has been compromised, you’ll want to have a plan of action in place on if, when, and how you communicate all areas of a security breach. Certain breaches may only require you to notify certain personnel, while others may be much larger in scope and require a much more thorough communication plan that includes investors, business patterns or your customers.
It’s important to anticipate the questions that people will ask. Prepare and relay the appropriate information to the appropriate parties.
5. Protect Against Another Attack
In addition to mitigating the effects of the current attack, you need to determine how it occurred and revise your existing cybersecurity strategy to prevent future attacks.
Take the information you’ve gathered about the vulnerabilities that were exploited and use it to build a comprehensive cybersecurity plan with vulnerability assessments, employee education and training and incident response procedures.
Your cybersecurity or information technology teams should be involved in your strategy. If necessary, consider working with a third-party cybersecurity provider to shore up your defenses and gain access to ongoing support and monitoring. These providers are experts in their field and may find weaknesses in your defenses that you may otherwise miss. They test against the latest security standards.
With training, employees can be your greatest cybersecurity asset. Make awareness and accountability part of your company culture and encourage your employees to be vigilant against potential threats.
6. Learn From the Experience
Dealing with a cyberattack can be overwhelming and stressful. However, taking appropriate action after your business is breached can mitigate the damage to your stakeholders, reputation, and bottom line. Once the threat is neutralized, you can learn from the experience to safeguard your company’s data security in the future.
Cyber threats are ever evolving. Staying proactive in addressing your cybersecurity – and having a robust plan in place to mitigate the threat if it occurs – can ensure your company is prepared and protected.
