Has your business recently been the victim of a cyber-attack or data breach? With cybercrime becoming increasingly prevalent and posing more threats to companies than ever before, many businesses across Canada are now finding themselves facing the reality of dealing with the aftermath of being hacked or targeted by digital criminals.
While prevention is always preferable, it’s just as important to know what to do should you find yourself in such a situation, and having the right directions in place can help to minimize your damage and operational interruptions. Simply put, with the right strategic approach and the right steps in motion, you can recover, rebuild, and emerge stronger than before.
Below, we’ll take a closer look at what you need to know about getting your business back on track after a cyber attack. Read on to learn more.
Assess the Damage: Understanding the Impact
The first step in recovery is to assess the extent of the damage caused by the cyber attack. Identify which systems, data, and processes were compromised. This assessment will help you prioritize your efforts and allocate resources effectively, and ultimately how to prevent things from occurring again in the future.
Contain and Isolate: Prevent Further Damage
The last thing you want when you’re dealing with a cyber attack is for it to be able to infiltrate further. Take action right away to contain and isolate compromised systems and immediately disconnect any affected devices from all networks to prevent further spread. While you may or may not be able to recover the initially compromised data, the faster you act to regain control, the better your chances are of minimizing widespread damage.
Notify Stakeholders
All invested parties should know about the cyber attack, including what was affected and how you will be resolving things moving forward as quickly as possible. Make sure employees, customers, partners and any relevant regulatory bodies are informed and ensure that all involved parties have clear communication throughout every stage of recovery.
Learn, Review, Plan
While cyber-attacks are never a pleasant experience, they present you with the opportunity to partner with trusted professionals to develop a better path forward. Use your current headaches to reassess your cybersecurity posture with the help of trained experts, identify weaknesses in your current security protocols and update them to prevent similar attacks in the future. In many cases, breaches point to a need for overall staff (re)education about current threats, active phishing/fraud scams, and other dangers they should be aware of. In other circumstances it may mean beefing up your approach and implementing multi-factor authentication, regularly patching software, and conducting thorough employee training on security best practices.
No matter your business, a skilled team like the experts at Solūt can help you find what gaps may be in your current system.
Restore Data and Systems
The recovery process involves restoring your systems and data to their pre-attack state (or doing so as closely as possible). This can be a complex process, and having an ongoing digital/IT security strategy in place in advance can greatly expedite this process with the help of backups and other resources to pull from.
Continuous Monitoring and Improvement
Recovering from a cyber attack means being better prepared to prevent a repeat. Implement continuous monitoring and threat detection mechanisms to swiftly identify and respond to potential future breaches. Regularly assess your security posture and adapt your measures to evolving cyber threats. With the right future-minded strategy in place, you can greatly reduce your chances of falling prey to criminals again.
We’re Here to Help
We know that recovering from a cyber attack can be a devastating process that costs your company additional time and funds in addition to any further inconveniences. That’s why, at Solūt, we’re happy to help our clients set up preventive, proactive strategies that work, and to stand by your side should the worst happen. With decades of experience under our belt, you can trust our team to help you get back on your feet as quickly as possible and to avoid the chance of repeat incidences with ease.
Contact us today to learn more!