What should businesses do immediately after a data breach?

A data breach occurs when an unauthorized person gains access to sensitive data through hacking, phishing, or malware. It’s therefore important for a company to have a decisive data breach response plan or the repercussions could be devastating.

What are the potential negative impacts of a data breach?

A data breach can have many consequences for your organization, including:

• Operational disruption – A data breach can halt business operations, especially if critical systems are impacted. 
• Financial losses – Data loss and recovery can cost you upwards of $4 million, which is catastrophic to any company’s bottom line. 
• Noncompliance – If the data breach results in the loss or theft of personal data, your business may be subject to fines and other penalties for violating data compliance regulations like HIPAA or PCI DSS. 
• Reputational damage – A data breach can damage a company’s reputation, making it harder to attract new customers and business partners. Current customers may also take their business elsewhere if they lose trust in your company.

How should you respond to a breach?

There are five essential steps that your company should take in the wake of a data breach:

1. Confirm the breach and determine what was compromised

It’s important to have concrete evidence of a data breach before taking any action. Telltale signs of a breach include strange login attempts, sudden network slowdowns, abnormal account activity, critical file changes, and data access from unusual locations. A data breach is also imminent when devices are lost or stolen or when third-party vendors have had their systems breached. 

You must then determine what information was hacked. This will largely determine your response strategy. For instance, if an executive manager’s account was hacked, all the data they have access to may be compromised. Alternatively, if financial information was stolen, you may need to roll back or freeze certain transactions to minimize fraudulent activity.

2. Contain the threat

When there’s a data breach, you must act quickly to contain the threat and prevent further damage to your business. Start by disabling your network, disconnecting affected systems, and limiting access to sensitive information. Secure and isolate any physical devices related to the breach, such as computers, server hardware, and internet routers. 

Taking your operations temporarily offline and running your computers in safe mode will buy you some time to analyze and mitigate the data breach. During this time, you’ll want to conduct a comprehensive security scan to root out any malicious code in your systems. 

If you suspect that user accounts are compromised, everyone will need to update their login credentials as soon as possible. In fact, the longer you wait to change passwords, the greater the chance that your systems will remain vulnerable to future attacks. 

3. Investigate the breach

Working with cybersecurity experts to understand how the breach occurred is absolutely critical to improving your company’s defenses. The first thing you should do is interview the people who discovered the breach. They may have seen something or know of a suspicious event that took place before the breach. You should also review login and account records to determine who had access to the data at the time of the breach. This can help you rule out the possibility of insider threats.

What’s more, you must document any poignant technical details leading up to the incident. Check network performance logs for any spikes in bandwidth consumption, as this may point to some type of network intrusion. Another important element to investigate is whether certain security configurations like hardware encryption or access restrictions were disabled prior to the breach. 

4. Secure any vulnerabilities

Once you’ve investigated the source of the breach, you need to patch up any holes in your organization’s security. This usually involves installing software updates, reconfiguring access restrictions, and backing up your data. You may also have to deploy new security measures like intrusion prevention systems and advanced threat protection software to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. 

If the data breach was caused by a phishing attack or human error, you’ll need to retrain your employees on security best practices. Your training syllabus should cover proper handling of sensitive data, recognizing phishing emails, and using strong passwords. 

5. Notify authorities and affected parties

Depending on the type and scope of the data breach, you may be legally obligated to notify the relevant authorities. In most cases, you’ll have to report to a local FBI office or cybercrime unit as soon as you learn of the breach. If the breach involves industry-specific data like credit card numbers or healthcare records, you’ll also need to alert the appropriate regulatory bodies like the Federal Trade Commission.  

You should also reach out to any business partners or customers who may have been affected by the data breach. Direct email notifications and public press releases are a great way to disseminate this information. Be sure to provide them with updates on the situation and what you’re doing to mitigate the damage. Communicating the incident early and often will help you maintain your customers’ trust and confidence in your company. 

6. Perform a post-breach review

When you’ve fully recovered from a breach, you must reflect on your incident response strategy with a post-breach review. Some key questions you should ask during the review include:

• How did the data breach occur and what could have been done to prevent it?
• What went well during the response and what could have been improved?
• What can be done to better protect against future threats?

Answering these questions can help you fine-tune your security protocols and increase your organization’s resilience against cyberattacks. 

Of course, having an impartial consultant review your incident response strategy can be invaluable. That’s why you should consider working with managed IT services providers like Dynamic Solutions Group. Not only do we provide world-class security solutions and support, but we also give you professional recommendations on protecting your company’s data. Contact us now to get started.