How To Deal With A Data Breach

Data breaches are a regular threat for any business, but does your team know how to deal with them when they show up uninvited?

Some software and cloud providers claim their offerings are the Titanic of the tech world, unsinkable and unbreachable. But, in reality, calling something unbreachable makes it more tempting to try.

It goes without saying the best protection against a breach is cyber security measures, but does your team know what to do in the event of a breach? Will you know you’ve been breached?

A nonchalant attitude or thinking, “it could never happen to me,” will not be beneficial to your business when your data is plastered all over the dark web. In fact, you could have already been breached without knowing about it.

Use these three Cs to manage your data breaches. Even better, a managed service provider can help you handle all aspects of this and ensure you’ve covered all your bases. Experts in their field, an MSP deals with many customers and will have an excellent grasp on how to secure your data correctly.

Confirm

The first step to dealing with a data breach is to confirm what has been affected.

If the breach is from another business that holds your data, and you’ve confirmed your information is involved in the leak, keep an eye on their social media and press releases. They’ll likely release more details on how your data has been affected and the steps you need to take to help secure it.

Suppose this breach is an attack on your business network. In that case, you’ll need a capable team to thoroughly investigate what data has been affected and how to stop the breach. Your business should have a clear Incident Management Policy and Procedure to follow when a breach is suspected.

Be careful not to enter passwords or personally identifiable information into websites to verify this breach.

Cushion

Now that you’ve confirmed you’ve been hit, it’s time to ‘cushion’ your network, protecting it from further attacks.

Protections will be issued by the breached company to accounts affected by the breach or will be detailed in your incident response policy and procedure. It could include changing your passwords, cancelling credit cards, or restricting access to resources to remediate.

Once the breach has ended, a review should take place to ensure all aspects of your network are protected. This review should include the cloud locations and how other businesses hold your company data.

Check

Review your systems regularly, and review your suppliers. Breach protection isn’t something you can “set and forget” but something you have to keep checking up on.

Using services like haveibeenpwned.com and business-grade scanning services can detect your breached data in the wild.

Apply additional protections to accounts using multi-factor authentication and give your users cyber security awareness training to ensure they do all they can to prevent individual breaches.

Follow these three C’s to manage your Data Breaches, and keep your company data as secure as possible.