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Incident Response Plan

Chris Swagler | December 17th, 2021

 

Companies in all sectors realize how important technology is to attract and retain customers. However, with new technologies come new cybersecurity threats appearing every day, putting every industry at risk, particularly mobile messaging apps and online banking. When dealing with threats, it’s crucial for companies to have an incident response plan or IR plan in place to identify and respond to security incidents and mitigate the risk of being a cyberattack victim, especially with reputation, revenue, and customer trust at stake. From a study of 2800 security and IT specialists, 77% of respondents’ businesses lacked a consistent Incident Response plan in case of a security breach. Having an Incident Response plan allows companies to establish and test clear measures to reduce external and internal threats from breaching and impacting their networks.

Cybersecurity breaches cost companies time and money, and the longer vulnerabilities continue unresolved, the more extensive the damage. Breaches can affect stock valuation as well as consumer confidence. Having an incident response plan helps restore operations, minimize losses, fix vulnerabilities quickly and thoroughly, and strengthen security to avoid future incidents. Incident Response plans shorten the remediation timetable and can significantly impact a company’s budget, often decreasing related costs by over $1 million. With an IR plan, companies can address vulnerabilities before they become a more serious threat and minimize the damage to a company’s reputation with quick resolutions. An IR plan defines a breach, the security team’s roles and responsibilities in response, available breach management tools, how to address a security incident, how to investigate and communicate the incident, and the notification requirements following a data breach. Here are three important reasons why having an Incident Response plan is important.

Three Reasons Why Having an Incident Response Plan Is Important

Protecting Data

Protecting your data both personally and professionally is important, and companies can proactively protect their data. When threat operators implement their ransomware (whether it is WannaCry, Petya, REvil, or BlackMatter), the company’s data can fall into the wrong hands or their private information can be leaked publicly. Keeping data assets safe throughout the incident response process includes numerous tasks and responsibilities for the Incident Response team: securing backups, detecting malicious activities using logs and security alerts, avoiding insider threats by properly using identity and access management, and paying strong attention to patch management.

Protecting Reputation & Customer Trust

 78% of consumers who might have been affected by a data breach would take their business elsewhere. Companies risk losing some or all of their customer base if they do not properly handle a security breach. A data breach does not inspire trust in your customer as it can become a PR nightmare for any organization. A publicized data breach can drastically decrease confidence in an affected company, especially if they are a traded organization, investor, and shareholder.

Protecting Revenue

Having a thorough incident response process protects companies from potential loss of revenue. Revenue is always at stake when it comes to impactful data breaches: the average cost of a data breach is around $3.6 million. Data breaches can greatly affect small to mid-size businesses, with 60% going out of business within six months of a data breach. Direct company revenue is at stake along with the cost of legal, regulatory and compliance fines, remediation and forensic investigation when a company experiences a security breach. The earlier companies detect and quickly respond to a data breach or security incident, the less of an impact it will have on data, customer trust, reputation, and potential revenue loss. If your company does not have an incident response process in place, consider having a third-party managed security services provider implement a customized plan for your business.

Cyberattacks and data breaches are a real threat to cybersecurity. Having an effective incident response plan helps prevent IT downtime from frequent security incidents and companies from going out of business. That’s why it’s crucial for companies to remain current with the latest threat landscape and keep their network security posture updated to prevent potential threats. At SpearTip, we are the trusted provider of breach coaches and carriers everywhere, specializing in incident response capabilities and having one of the fastest response times in the industry. With our certified engineers continuously working 24/7 at our global network of Security Operations Centers, we are ready to respond to a security incident at a moment’s notice. In this current landscape, it is imperative that businesses are proactive, not reactive, in dealing with threat actors, which is why we offer a comprehensive suite of advisory services, including Tabletop Exercises, to ensure your business is protected from cyberattacks.

If your company is experiencing a breach, call our Security Operations Centers at 833.997.7327 to speak directly with an engineer.

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