The first flash of news that a data breach has occurred at business compromising the user’s data; brings the feeling of dread. Organizations need to value data, and many of them are taking steps to eliminate the threats from the systems; however, in this whirl of questions, systems, and technology, it becomes impossible. The goal should be to avoid cyber infiltration and have preventive steps developed in case of an attack.
The first step after any cyberattack is to find ways to contain the attack. Start by taking all the infected devices off the company’s network and clearing corrupted files off servers, followed by changing all passwords. In case of large cyberattacks affecting the complete business, it would require taking the complete network offline and then bringing the servers back online sequentially.
Moving from containment, investigation should be next on the priority list.. Here it is essential to determine how hackers were able to penetrate the business network and the system. Next look out for information that was exposed and what data might still be at risk, analyzing the data in the complete infrastructure, will assist in determining the depth of the content.
Some businesses that are governed by the federal or state laws and compliance regulations will need to follow a step by step process based on the attack area and saving the data. There will be many teams involved during this stage that will include the IT team, legal team, state legal authorities, and many other teams.
Businesses who have been breached are obligated to be transparent with their customers. Written notification must be sent to every customer, with a clear explanation about the breach, when it has happened, and what is being done to solve the breach problem.
Whether the attack happened due to internal actors or external actors, the complete organization is now exposed to vulnerability. Such types of attacks can happen again and again or never again, so how the business subdues further attacks will be a question.