4 Reasons Your Business Needs a Cybersecurity Incident-Response Plan

Cyber-defense isn’t enough—you need a plan to mitigate the effects of an attack!

With so much discussion surrounding cybersecurity, you’d think by now every business would have a dialed-in approach to protecting themselves from cybercriminals. The truth is, not everyone does. In fact most businesses aren’t prepared at all. A recent study revealed that while 80% of survey respondents expect a cyber attack to impact their business this year, the majority of organizations are as yet still unprepared and are struggling to keep pace with the current threat landscape.

Even less encouraging, today’s security experts believe that cyber attacks are no longer a question of ‘if’, but a matter of ‘when’. Businesses of all sizes and in every industry must come to grips with the reality that there will come a time when they must contend with a data breach.

It’s vital to take proactive steps to keep your business protected, and it is equally important to have a plan in place to address the worst-case scenario. That’s where your cybersecurity incident-response plan comes into play.

Keep reading to learn 4 reasons your business needs a cybersecurity incident-response plan:

1. 1. Cyber Attacks are inevitable – just ask Equifax

      Cyber-attacks happen. Its an unfortunate part of doing business in the digital era. Hackers want your data, they want your money and sometimes they just want to be a nuisance. It’s possible, likely even, that at some point your business will be forced to contend with a data breach and when that time comes, you’ll want to be prepared. Crafting an incident-response plan will help your business have the appropriate steps in place to respond and recover as quickly as possible.

   2. Your incident-response plan will help you get to the root cause of the attack-and make sure it doesn’t happen again

      Every incident-response plan should include a checklist of items that will help your team to determine how, when and where the breach occurred. Your plan provides the steps you need to take to uncover the details associated with a cybersecurity event and to make effective changes that safeguard your business against future attacks.

   3. An incident-response plan reduces the cost of a data breach

      Implementing a cybersecurity incident-response plan will save your business money following a data breach. The measures laid out by your plan provide a roadmap for swift action that will drastically minimize the impact and amount of data accessed or lost to hackers. One of the primary reasons an incident-response plan for cybersecurity is important is that it readies your team to face both the seen and unforeseen, and lessens the panic and disorder that can cripple your ability to respond and costs your organization precious time and money.

   4. Your ability to speedily recover from a data breach is a matter of survival

      Downtime, for any reason, can have a significant financial impact on your business. When downtime is the result of a cybersecurity incident, the ramifications extend beyond lost revenue. According to a Ponemon Institute report, 90% of organizations that go offline due to a cyber attack find themselves out of business within two years. Having an incident-response plan in place prior to experiencing a data breach is critical to your organization’s ability to recover quickly and remain operational into the future.The first step to failure when it comes to defending your business from cyber criminals is to assume that you and your organization won’t be compromised. By taking proactive steps with your technology and preparing for the worst-case scenario with an incident-response plan, you’ll be able to stave off an attack or at least be ready to handle things should a breach occur.

At iConvergence, we are focused on addressing and delivering solutions to help your business stay safe from the threats posed by cyber criminals. Our solutions are delivered as components of a Self-Defending Network Security strategy. This approach allows organizations to streamline IT Risk Management by reducing security and compliance risk, enforcing business policies and protecting critical assets, all while decreasing IT administrative burden and reducing total cost of ownership.

IS YOUR BUSINESS PREPARED TO HANDLE THE THREAT OF A CYBER ATTACK? CONTACT US FOR A CYBERSECURITY ASSESSMENT.