Cyberattack Response Best Practices: Protecting Your Organization from Cyber Threats

If you are one of the lucky few who has avoided a cyberattack, now is the time to prepare for the day one comes along. We know from experience that having solid strategies for properly responding to a cyberattack plays an important role in reducing the damage these attacks wreak on businesses, as well as the fallout affecting your reputation after the event. Some of us can forgive a business that has fallen victim to a cyberattack (providing they have not been negligent) because it can happen to anyone. But rarely do we forgive a business that botches their response or, worse, tries to cover up the attack and fails to inform their consumers or clients. While avoiding attacks is the goal, there is no such thing as perfect security. How you respond in a crisis helps determine the future of your organization, with that in mind lets take a look at some best practices.

Cyberattacks have become an ever-present threat in today’s digital age. With more and more organizations relying on technology to operate their businesses, the risk of a cyberattack has increased significantly. A cyberattack can cause significant damage to an organization, ranging from financial losses to reputational damage and even legal liabilities. Therefore, it is crucial for organizations to have a well-defined cyberattack response plan in place to ensure they can respond quickly and effectively to mitigate the impact of an attack. In this article, we will explore the best practices for cyberattack response, which can help organizations improve their cybersecurity posture and protect their assets from cyber threats.

How NOT To Respond To A Cyberattack

In this article we cover the key fundamentals to a proper cyberattack response, but lets begin with some common mistakes that organizations make when they respond to cyberattacks.

1. Slow to React – If your business is unprepared, it takes far too long to properly react to the incident. This occurs perhaps because of embarrassment, but usually because of panic. Trying to avoid a cybersecurity incident by failing to tackle it head-on can lead to seriously damaging outcomes where your business tries to downplay the incident or even cover it up. This of course leads to deeper scrutiny from your customers, regulators, and the public when the truth emerges.
2. Responding Too Quickly – If your business is unprepared you can find yourself knee-jerking to a serious cybersecurity incident by shutting down IT operations. In the process, you are accidentally deleting critical evidence used in investigations or damaging IT assets that you could have recovered. It is important not to compromise any potential investigation before it begins. In this situation, your business will be forced to guess and assume the worst rather than accurately report on the extent of the breach and the damage it caused to your data and IT infrastructure.
3. Failure to Coordinate – When expectations, priorities, and channels of communication are not properly managed in a crisis, the reporting that feeds back up to senior management can become inconsistent as response decisions are made in a vacuum. This leads to inconsistency in the way you communicate externally with your public and legal notifications. Handle it poorly, and various compliance and legal penalties will result.

Fail to Prepare & You Prepare to Fail

The common theme is that the organizations that made these mistakes were unprepared. They lacked plans and processes to properly respond to an attack and they failed to communicate both internally and externally after the attack. All of this can be avoided with essential planning and training.It was Benjamin Franklin who first said “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail” and this is doubly so when it comes to cyberattacks. While it’s always preferable to avoid cyberattacks, you must have a proper cyber incident response plan in place. Not only should you have a plan in place, but you should also practice working through the plan so that you are better able to respond while maintaining business operations. Being ready to respond in a comprehensive and well thought out way reduces the overall risks to your business and it sends a strong, positive signal to your customers. Preparing for a serious cyberattack is not that much different from the preparations you make for other incidents (natural disasters) which could damage your business. It also taps into your organization’s operational experience and knowledge. But what should your plan include?

1. Consider the Incident – Consider what kind of events should be classified as a cybersecurity incident. For example, if your website is brought down would that be categorized as a cybersecurity incident? Information theft certainly would be. It’s different for every business and you should develop a response plan for each category of incident.
2. Consider the ‘Who’ – Draw up an emergency contact list. It’s essential that your employees know who makes decisions around the recovery processes should a crisis strike. Decide who will make the determination if an event is a cybersecurity incident or not. They also need to know who will initiate contact and liaise with law enforcement.
3. Consider the ‘What’ – Have a plan which lays out what happens to data in an emergency. This could include locking or shutting down IT infrastructure or migrating data to an off-site backup.
4. Consider the ‘When’ – Work out when your executives, board, legal council and emergency personnel need alerting to an incident, and what the baseline threshold is. Include everyone concerned from your service providers, legal representatives, and even your insurance provider.
5. Consider If I Your Plan Is Sound – Before you can rely on your plan in a crisis, you absolutely need to test its robustness. A great way to do this is to run a mock cybersecurity incident event to test your plan and make sure that everyone knows their roles and who is responsible for what. You can include external resources and stakeholders in this exercise too, it lets everyone concerned know that you are serious about planning for a future crisis and stress tests your plan before one occurs.

How You Should Respond to a Cybersecurity Incident?

You are the Chief Executive Officer and you were just told that your business has suffered a potentially catastrophic data breach. The hackers infiltrated your IT infrastructure and exfiltrated data from your corporate servers. They took your customer data, including credit card and personally identifiable information. You need to know what to do next.

First order of business – don’t panic!

The next actions you will take determine how your business is perceived once the incident becomes public knowledge. You must be seen making the right moves. As we established, people can forgive a cyberattack because it happens to the best of us.

You need to move quickly to secure your IT infrastructure and immediately engage a forensic investigation team to help you identify the source of the attack and its cause. This involves mobilizing your cybersecurity team (if you have one) and instructing them to start work on the forensics side of the investigation while the evidence is still fresh. The next step is to mobilize your incident response team, including your legal council, forensics specialists, information security professionals, and senior management. Working together, this team will deliver your initial response to the crisis.

1. Hire a Data Forensics Team – Hiring a third-party forensics investigation will help you to work out the size, scope, and source of the attack. The forensic team gathers evidence, analyzes it, and outlines your remediation steps. The forensic team and your legal council will advise you on how to proceed with your response and disclosure of the breach.
2. Notify Law Enforcement – Report the incident to your local law enforcement if recommended by your legal counsel. The quicker they know, the more they can do to help. If you find that the local police are not experienced with data breaches, notify your local FBI office.
3. Secure Physical Access – You never know if a breach stemmed from an insider threat. Secure areas potentially related to the attack and restrict access to them until the forensics team and law enforcement let you know you can resume regular operations.
4. Prevent Additional Data Loss – You shouldn’t shut down any systems until your forensics team tells you, but you need to be closely monitoring potential infiltration points to see if the attackers still have access. Force password resets of the users who had access to the compromised system. If the attackers used stolen login credentials it will deny them further access.
5. Conduct Interviews – Quickly interview the employees who first discovered the breach while their memory is still fresh. Let your staff know where to forward information that may help and document absolutely everything from interviews and conversations.
6. Don’t Destroy Evidence – This may go without saying, but do not destroy any forensic evidence while you investigate and remediate the incident.
7. Work Out Your Legal Requirements – The majority of states have some kind of cyber breach legislation requiring you to notify stakeholders and the state government following a data breach. There may also be other regulations you need to follow. Check federal, state, and compliance regulations to see which apply to your business.
8. Notify Affected Organizations – If any other businesses have been affected, notify them. This includes your bank, financial services partners, and the credit bureaus that can monitor your accounts for fraud resulting from the breach.
9. Notify Affected Individuals – Notify the individuals affected by the breach so they can take steps to ensure their data is not used fraudulently (like freezing their credit cards and credit records).
10. Designate A Contact – Designate a contact from your organization to release the notifications when appropriate. That person should have all the latest news on the breach, those affected, and your current response activities. You can also give out a toll-free number so those affected can call you for further information.
11. Engage Public Relations – Work out a public relations plan to properly communicate your response via press releases. This way, you get in front and ahead of any media reports on the incident. Think about offering those affected free credit monitoring. In general, you will want to clearly articulate what you know about the data breach.

Implementing Access Controls and Monitoring

Implementing access controls and monitoring is a critical best practice for cyberattack response. Access controls limit access to systems and data, ensuring that only authorized personnel can access them. Monitoring tools detect and alert your team to potential threats, allowing you to take prompt action to mitigate the impact of an attack. Here are some tips for implementing access controls and monitoring:

1. Develop an Access Control Policy

Developing an access control policy is the first step in implementing access controls. This policy should define who has access to what systems and data, based on the principle of least privilege. This means that individuals should only have access to the systems and data that they need to perform their job functions. Access should be granted on a need-to-know basis, and access rights should be reviewed and updated regularly.

2. Implement Two-Factor Authentication

Implementing two-factor authentication (2FA) can significantly improve your access controls. 2FA requires users to provide two forms of authentication, such as a password and a code sent to their phone or email, before they can access a system or data. This adds an extra layer of security and makes it much more challenging for cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access.

3. Use Encryption

Encrypting your data can help protect it from unauthorized access. Encryption ensures that data is only accessible to authorized users who have the decryption key. This can help prevent data breaches and protect sensitive data from cybercriminals.

4. Implement Network Segmentation

Implementing network segmentation can help limit the impact of a cyberattack. Network segmentation involves dividing your network into smaller, isolated segments, which can help contain an attack and prevent it from spreading to other parts of your network.

5. Implement Monitoring Tools

Implementing monitoring tools is crucial for detecting and alerting your team to potential threats. These tools can detect anomalous behavior and alert your team to potential threats, allowing you to take prompt action to mitigate the impact of an attack. You should also conduct regular audits of your access controls and monitoring tools to ensure that they are working correctly.

By implementing access controls and monitoring, you can significantly improve your organization’s cybersecurity posture and protect your assets from cyber threats.

Engaging External Experts

Engaging external experts is a best practice for cyberattack response, as it can help organizations identify and mitigate the impact of a cyberattack more effectively. External experts can bring a fresh perspective, specialized skills, and experience to the table, which can help organizations improve their cybersecurity posture and better protect their assets from cyber threats. Here are some tips for engaging external experts:

1. Choose the Right Expert

Choosing the right external expert is crucial. You should look for someone with experience in your industry and with the specific type of cyber threat you are facing. You should also look for someone who has a track record of success and who can work well with your team.

2. Develop a Scope of Work

Developing a scope of work is essential to ensure that the external expert understands what you expect them to do. The scope of work should include details such as the objectives of the engagement, the expected deliverables, the timeframe, and the budget.

3. Ensure Confidentiality

Cybersecurity is a sensitive topic, and it is crucial to ensure confidentiality when engaging external experts. You should have a nondisclosure agreement in place to protect your organization’s sensitive information and ensure that the external expert does not disclose any confidential information to third parties.

4. Establish Communication Protocols

Establishing communication protocols is crucial to ensure that the external expert can work effectively with your team. You should agree on how often you will communicate, what information will be shared, and how progress will be reported.

5. Conduct a Post-Mortem

Conducting a post-mortem after engaging external experts is essential to ensure that you learn from the experience. You should evaluate the engagement, identify areas for improvement, and take action to address any issues identified.

By engaging external experts, organizations can improve their cybersecurity posture and better protect their assets from cyber threats. External experts can provide a fresh perspective, specialized skills, and experience, which can help organizations respond to cyberattacks more effectively.

Additional Resources and Recommendations

In addition to the best practices outlined in this article, there are several other resources and recommendations that organizations can use to improve their cybersecurity posture and better respond to cyberattacks. Here are some additional resources and recommendations:

1. Stay Informed

Staying informed about the latest cybersecurity threats and trends is crucial. Organizations should regularly read cybersecurity news and follow reputable sources such as the US-CERT, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

2. Conduct Risk Assessments

Conducting regular risk assessments can help organizations identify and prioritize their cybersecurity risks. Risk assessments can help organizations understand their vulnerabilities and take action to mitigate them.

3. Implement a Cybersecurity Framework

Implementing a cybersecurity framework such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework can help organizations improve their cybersecurity posture. These frameworks provide a structured approach to cybersecurity, with guidelines for identifying, protecting, detecting, responding, and recovering from cyber threats.

4. Develop an Incident Response Plan

Developing an incident response plan is crucial to ensure that organizations can respond quickly and effectively to a cyberattack. An incident response plan should define roles and responsibilities, establish communication protocols, and outline the steps to be taken in the event of a cyberattack.

5. Regularly Train and Educate Employees

Regularly training and educating employees on cybersecurity best practices is essential. Employees are often the weakest link in an organization’s cybersecurity, and cybercriminals often target them with phishing emails and social engineering tactics.

6. Conduct Regular Penetration Testing

Conducting regular penetration testing can help organizations identify vulnerabilities in their systems and infrastructure. Penetration testing involves simulating a cyberattack to identify weaknesses in an organization’s cybersecurity defenses.

Conclusion

In conclusion, cyberattacks continue to be a significant threat to organizations of all sizes and industries. However, implementing best practices for cyberattack response can help organizations reduce the impact of a cyberattack and better protect their assets. Some of the best practices for cyberattack response include implementing access controls and monitoring, engaging external experts, developing an incident response plan, regularly training and educating employees, and conducting regular risk assessments and penetration testing. Organizations should also stay informed about the latest cybersecurity threats and trends, and consider implementing a cybersecurity framework to guide their cybersecurity efforts. By following these best practices and taking a proactive approach to cybersecurity, organizations can significantly reduce the risk of a successful cyberattack and protect their assets and reputation.