No company wants to deal with a data breach. Like watching a fire across the street, one might think “it will never happen to me.” But the tough reality is a company is likely to experience some form of cybersecurity bypass over the course of its lifetime. How well prepared said company is will determine the damage they suffer (or don’t.)
To help you better handle the event of a data breach, here are five steps you must take within twenty-four hours of one.
1. Record and Analyze
It’s important IT security and specialists pinpoint the data and time the breach occurred. Logging this will help form a picture about the type of breach and behavior of it.
It’s crucial to identify what was targeted. Servers containing consumer information? Accountant hosts? Manager systems? This will give you an idea of the situation’s severity.
2. Secure Devices and Alert Parties
We’re cheating by adding two steps here, but they go together and are important all the same. You’ll want to secure additional devices after the breach is identified. Do what it takes to accomplish this by taking systems offline, removing the LAN from internet, or even disconnecting hosts from your local topography.
If applicable, you’ll want to alert third parties, such as management, backup providers, IT teams, or anyone else who needs to know about the breach.
3. Preserve Information/Backup Data
Here it’s important to protect and recover as much data as possible. This may require a task force of IT specialist and various methods to contain the breach.
In some cases, breaches can be managed by a third-party provider like an MSP. In that example, the provider hosts and protects information offsite, keeping it secure while the business assesses the situation.
4. Investigate
Now that you have things locked down, your business will want to conduct a top-down investigation. This includes discussing details with those who identified the breach, how they discovered it and what was stolen/damaged.
Record everything during this process, including all parties involved with knowledge about the breach. This will give you a the most in-depth picture of how the breach occurred.
5. Secure
Post-investigation and testing of the breach, it’s time to apply new security solutions to close the gap. Your IT teams should have solutions prepared, and ways to strengthen the network from future attacks.
If your small business doesn’t have an IT security team, it’s another reason we recommend an MSP or security provider.
Once a fix is prepared, it should be readily tested before deployment. After such, you can bring your network back online, keeping an eye on network activity post-breach. Stratosphere Networks is a leading provider in IT security and BDR plans. Contact us today to speak with one of our security specialists about creating a plan to secure your data today and in the future.
