Your Business Will Face Cybersecurity Attacks: Here's How to Prepare and Respond

By Joe Dibley

With the constant evolution of the cybersecurity landscape, security attacks are constantly occurring, whether they're fully automated or human-operated attacks. Even though companies are spending billions of dollars to shore up their security defenses, vulnerabilities still exist for most companies.

So, what is to be done? What steps need to be taken to react to a critical vulnerability announcement to help prevent devastating damage? The answer is, “It depends.” That is, it depends on what the company has done to prepare for cybersecurity attacks and what its plan is to respond when the attack occurs.

The saying goes, “If you fail to prepare, you are prepared to fail.” This is especially true as it relates to cybersecurity. The following are a few steps to help you prepare and respond.

Steps to prepare for a cybersecurity attack

1. Stay informed

Information is critical to our ability to make good decisions and respond effectively. And it is vital to our ability to adapt and cope. One of the best ways to stay informed is to subscribe to CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) feeds and read threat monitoring websites to ensure you have full awareness of any new vulnerabilities.

2. Document your environment

Often overlooked, the documentation of your digital environment is of utmost importance. Be sure you know where your sensitive data lives, and what software and applications your business relies on.

3. Back up your data

If you have ever lost important data, or even felt a moment of panic where you thought you did, you know how critical it is to back up your data. Data losses can occur in many forms, from hard drive failures to ransomware attacks, and even human error or physical theft.

No matter the misfortune, a data backup strategy gives you the peace of mind you need. Ensure that critical systems have a reliable backup process and test it regularly to ensure it works.

4. Patch and update

Patching vulnerabilities and updating systems is essential for front-line defense, yet unpatched vulnerabilities remain a leading cause of data breaches. All systems and applications should be regularly updated and patched to ensure you have the latest security fixes.

5. Map your emergency process

An emergency management process will ensure you are ready to respond in the event of an emergency. But beyond this major benefit, you may discover unrecognized hazards in your environment that could aggravate an emergency and you can work to eliminate them proactively. You may also uncover deficiencies, such as lack of equipment and personnel.

A clear, simple, and coordinated process could save you millions of dollars, so spend the time to carefully document your internal process for emergencies, including roles, responsibilities, and timing.

More articles from AllBusiness.com:

• How to Engage Remote Employees in 5 Simple Steps
• 7 Cybersecurity Strategies to Prevent Ransomware Attacks and Account Takeovers
• The Office of the Future Is Here—And It Needs a Lot of Work
• Are You at Risk From a Cyber Attack? Here’s Why Your Business Needs a Cybersecurity Plan
• 6 Remote Work Best Practices to Keep Your Team Energized and Engaged

Responding to a cybersecurity attack

When you are prepared and informed you can shift focus onto how to respond in the event of a new critical or zero-day vulnerability being released that may affect your company. These steps include the following:

6. Determine the potential impact

A successful cybersecurity attack can cause major damage to your business. It can affect your bottom line, as well as your business’s standing and overall customer trust. Should a cyberattack or data breach affect your business, one of the first things you must do is identify the scope of what has been affected.

7. Harden systems

Systems hardening is a collection of tools, techniques, and best practices to reduce vulnerability in technology systems and environments. Systems hardening can be completed proactively to reduce security risks by eliminating potential cybersecurity attack vectors and condensing the system’s attack surface.

However, for certain systems, when a new critical vulnerability is released, it may be possible to work further to reduce the risk of being compromised. This may include activities such as limiting network connectivity, segregating access, or even turning off the system until patches are made available.

8. Assess the risk

A risk assessment—the process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risk—should be completed when a new serious vulnerability emerges. You will want to take a look at your systems and determine what data may be exposed if the system was breached. This will include any PII (Personally Identifiable Information), privileged accounts, or other business-critical data. Afterward, implement cybersecurity controls to ensure those particular risks are eliminated or minimized in the future.

9. Mitigate the damage

In the case of high-profile vulnerabilities, it is best to stay up to date by following researchers, security updates, and other trusted sources such as the company whose product or system may be affected. In many cases, these sources of information will update you on any temporary mitigation techniques found when no official mitigation is possible. The best-known example of this is the kill switch for the WannaCry ransomware attack which was to sinkhole a certain DNS domain.

10. Track your changes

When new critical vulnerabilities are announced, it can be easy to just change things as you go to secure the systems in question. Nevertheless, you should always track the changes made, especially any temporary mitigations that are made. You will need the records to reevaluate those temporary measures when official mitigations or patches have been released. This reevaluation will help you to gain knowledge and confidence that the problem is indeed resolved.

Planning ahead is the best preparation for cybersecurity attacks

These steps are all geared toward helping aid you in what to start thinking about when a critical severity vulnerability or zero day is released. Taking some time to think through this list should help you and your organization jump into action when such a situation arises.

RELATED: Consider These Factors Before Investing in Cyber Insurance for Your Business