In recent times, there have been many cyberattacks. 9News, the national news service in Australia, was the target of a large cyber attack, which led to the complete halt of digital and television product systems in Australia.
T-mobile faced a $50 million breach into the user data of T-mobile users. Another victim of cyberattacks was the Colonial Pipeline in the U.S.,which led to 5,500 miles of the pipeline shutting down and 17 states going into regional emergency.
There has been an overall 600% increase in cyberattacks ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. According to Gartner analysts, cyberattacks will continue to increase rapidly, and by 2023, the financial impact of these attacks will be over $50 billion. This would become a personal liability for 75% of CEOs.
In this guide, we’ll discuss how to recover from a cyberattack.
How to Recover From a Cyber Attack
To minimize the impact of a cyberattack is to have preventative measures in place. It’s essential to have tried and tested plans for responding to and recovering from a cyberattack. In case of a cyberattack, here are some tips to help your business recover.
Step 1
The first step is identifying lost data and determining how much damage has occurred. Then, you will put together a team that will work on this recovery task. This team will craft an effective recovery plan. Ensure you’ve documented every little detail about the attack, including who was impacted and which assets were affected.
Step 2
The next step is to work closely with your marketing and PR teams. You have to issue a public statement regarding the cyberattack. A data breach could affect your customers and other stakeholders, and they need to be aware of any potentially suspicious activity.
You can add the compensation information and ensure your stakeholders about new policies regarding future incidents.
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Step 3
Replace your old technologies and systems with stronger, robust systems. Make sure to apply patches where any weak security spots occurred. Find automated solutions that will alert you in case of any cyberattack. You would need integrated, viable, and highly scalable third-party or in-house products for enhanced security.
Step 4
If you have data backups in your systems, you have to validate their integrity and verify the backups. Evaluate the information and figure out what has been changed or impacted. Loss of information needs to be accounted for. Continue to back up the information you still have.
Step 5
If you have certain obligations, make sure you fulfill them on time. Address all future risks and assure all your stakeholders. Regulators might also want reports and documentation from your organization according to certain legal procedures.
Step 6
Educate your employees about being careful about their passwords and creating stronger passwords to avoid cyber threats. You also have to ensure they know what they should be doing in case of future attacks. Consider adding multi-factor authentication.
Who Should Be Involved in the Recover Process?
Your employees will be your biggest asset when dealing with a cyberattack. You need a comprehensive task force and response team to help you address all issues arising from a data breach. This team will formulate an intricate, multi-faceted plan.
Your task force should have cybersecurity experts, risk management teams, compliance and legal teams, the head of the IT department, and IT disaster recovery experts. They will carry out a thorough post-attack analysis.
Enhancing Your Recovery Plan
There are a few ways you can enhance your cyberattack recovery plan.
- Align your recovery plans with your business operation’s continuity. You need to identify essential systems and processes that will shorten the recovery time.
- You can use various recovery strategies depending on each asset. You will have to consider the cloud servers, data backups, and all available resources. Technical recovery and emergency management plans will also play a huge role here.
- Prioritize the risks involved. Handle the most fatal risks first.
- Continue to test and enhance your disaster recovery audits, plans, and strategies.
- Simplify your current systems and replace outdated software. Rethink your IT strategy and processes.
- Use beneficial recovery and crisis management tools.
Reach out to Counterspherics for their Crisis & Incident Management Support System (CIMSS) service. This will help you prepare, plan, act, and recover from any emergencies and security threats like cyberattacks. Their MERLENN® EIRMA Business-in-a-Box (BiB) Recovery Management Appliance is a small hardware box which backs up critical data securely to the Amazon Cloud. Prices begin at an economically $99/month for 2GB of data.
Counterspherics Labs use advanced technology to work on and formulate enhanced safety and threat management systems to help people and businesses in crisis events. You can reach out to them today for more info.
About The Editors and Counterspherics®
Rushton Prince and Henrie Watkins are Safety and Disaster Preparedness experts. Both have extensive backgrounds as First Responders, Safety Technology Implementers, Human Protection, and Occupational Health and Safety Trainers.
Counterspherics, the company behind MERLENN® has 22 years of experience in providing crisis response infrastructure and boasts a 100% customer satisfaction rate. To view illustrated examples of the software in action, follow Counterspherics on YouTube.