FINAL WORD
Tips on how to prepare
an incident response plan
Organisations must practice how to manage a breach in
their cyber security fortress explains Sachin Bhardwaj
at eHosting DataFort.
The risks are growing in frequency
as well as in the level of complexity. It
is evident, that to curb the intensity of
cyberattacks, companies must remain
in a state of readiness to tackle targeted
attacks. In such an event, it is important
that they respond effectively to curtail
data as well economic losses. Some of the
basic aspects that need to be considered to
ensure that organisations are prepared in
the event of cyberattacks include:
Allocate proper budgets
Sachin Bhardwaj, eHosting DataFort, Director,
Marketing and Business Development.
C
loud computing, mobile usage, IoT
implementations are indicators
of the higher risks involved in
data breaches. Staying in a state of
cyber security preparedness is crucial
to any organisation that relies on data
which is critical to their business. This
is true for organisations of all sizes from
governments, to large enterprise as well
as smaller companies. And this also
cuts across the range of businesses from
banking, healthcare, retail, transport, oil
and gas, education.
Cyber incidents, according to the
Online Trust Alliance 2017 Cyber Incident
and Breach Trend Report indicates that
the numbers have doubled from around
82,000 incidents in 2016 to nearly 160,000
in 2017. What it also indicates is that 93%
of these occurrences could have been
prevented. This brings to light the gravity
of the situation where organizations must
remain focused on their cyber security
posture, processes and procedures.
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Security comes at a cost. Be it hardware,
software, constant upgrades, qualified
staff, and each of these elements must be
given their due importance and should
be considered to ensure a robust security
system. While some organisations opt
to invest internally, many organisations
today are looking to outsource their
security needs to third party providers.
Your risk profile
The risk profile outlines a company’s
known risks, policies and practices to
guide how far you need to go and are
willing to go to safeguard your assets
and data. The most basic approach to
understand your risk profile is to conduct
information gathering exercise and rely
on internal resources. A more professional
alternative that produces extensive
insights is to hire a consultant or solution
provider to conduct an external audit of
your processes and infrastructure.
Incident response plan
In case of a cyberattack, organisations
must have an incident response plan to
tackle the issue at hand effectively. The
basic goals would involve the creation of
a team that has clearly defined roles and
responsibilities. It would also be important
to preparing basic rules and instructions
in advance, which must be followed to
minimise damage.
And, in order for the information flow
to reach out in a timely and organised
manner, organisations must ensure that
the right communication is shared at the
most appropriate time across stakeholders
including, employees, supply chain,
customers, to keep them abreast of the
situation in hand as well as about the
corrective measures underway.
Minimise downtime
Data is critical and is the engine of
any business activity and it’s role and
importance must be placed at very high
level within the organisation. It’s safety
and security should play an integral role
in the overall management strategy. The
objective of any IT team at the time of
a cyber-attack is to ensure that there is
business continuity and the delivery of
ongoing services.
However, there must also be a strong
consideration by the CEO and directors
on a legal platform to ensure that their
shareholders are not at risk. Therefore,
minimising downtime during an attack
is central and can be dealt with the
right business continuity and disaster
recovery plans.
Remain proactive
Timely skills upgrades are very relevant
in today’s changing cybersecurity
environment. Training and
communication must be provided on
a regular basis not just to the IT teams
but across the spectrum of internal
departments and customers. This will help
in raising resiliency of the security for the
entire organisation.
In conclusion, develop a roadmap of
your current security factors and prepare
for future needs by bridging the gap
with clearly defined objectives to be met
within each growth phase. Following
cybersecurity best practices is a necessity
to negate cyberattacks.
Issue 17
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS