A lot of small business owners assume that most cyber-criminals will target the big companies because they hold more data and they have a lot more money. But in reality, it’s the smaller businesses that are the biggest target. A big business has the capital to invest huge amounts of money in cyber-security, which means that they’re a much harder target for criminals. But smaller businesses often lack the funds or maybe they just neglect security because they don’t think that they’re a likely target, which means that hackers will go for them. Even if you have security measures in place, there is always the risk of a data breach, so it’s important that you have a plan in place to deal with it. Here’s what you need to do if you are the victim of a cyber-attack.
Secure Your Systems
The first thing that you need to do is secure your systems so no more data can be taken. The sooner you can identify how somebody gained access to your data and plug that gap, the more data you can save. A quick response here can limit the damage in a big way and you may not lose too much sensitive data if you are lucky.
Assess The Damage
Once you have secured your systems, you need to start rebuilding things. A cyber-attack can impact your business in a lot of different ways, and you need to work out the full extent of the damage. It’s important that you know exactly what data has been stolen because if you have lost customer data, they will need to know. An attack could also be used as a way to shut down your website as well, so check that everything is still online. Once you know exactly what damage has been done, you can start repairing it.
Restore Files
If you have lost files in the attack, they need to be restored so you can get things up and running and the business can continue operating as normal. It’s important that you have everything backed up properly so it’s simple to restore. If you don’t already have a backup, you need to find out more about setting one up from your IT services. Without a backup, your files will be lost for good and that will cause you no end of problems in the future.
Inform Customers
This is the worst part of the process for you, but it’s something that you can’t avoid. If customer data has been stolen, it puts them at risk of fraud, so they need to know about it. If they don’t contact their bank quickly, they may have money stolen from their account and that is going to make things a lot worse for you. If you call up customers right away, inform them of the situation, and apologize, you may be able to salvage the relationship and retain those customers.
As long as you take these steps immediately after a cyber-attack happens, you will be able to limit the damage and rebuild your business.
Hire (or train) Cyber Security Experts
Once you’ve done all that you can to mitigate a cyber attack, the next step is to make sure it never happens again. Preventing data theft and preserving data integrity needs to be a priority moving forward. Nothing is worse or more damaging to a business than a second cyber attack. Hire an experienced cyber security expert to join your team so you can put the right safeguards, processes and procedures in place. Or, consider sending a current employee back to school so they get the training they need to properly protect your business in 2019 and beyond.
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