A cyber attack is a deliberate attempt to damage or disrupt a computer system or network. Cyber attacks can take many forms, including distributed denial of service attacks (also called DDoS), malware infections, and ransomware attacks.
Cyber attacks can carry serious repercussions for businesses, not the least of which are disruption of business operations and stolen intellectual property. Given that companies lost almost $1 trillion to cybercrime in 2020, it’s crucial that organizations learn how to prepare for a cyber attack.
The best way to do so is to remember the acronym AAA: Assess, Address, Assist.
- Assess your current circumstances
- Address discovered deficiencies
- Assist your employees and colleagues in maintaining your cyber security protocols and processes
Assess Your Current Circumstances
The first step in how to prepare for a cyber attack is to assess the current state of your company’s security, IT systems, and processes. It would be best if the assessment process you choose is compliance-based and backed by some kind of control, such as NIST 800, CIS, C2M2 or CMMC.
A key to consider during a cyber security assessment are assets, which can be defined as any device, program, or person that transmits or receives data. This includes hardware, such as servers, workstations, and smartphones; software, both enterprise-wide and individual, including critical access points such as VPNs; and people – your employees, contractors, and/or consultants who use the hardware and software to conduct essential business functions.
In the latter category, it’s especially important to consider both the strength of your password protocols and the susceptibility of your employees to phishing or spoofing scams.
Even a robust IT security setup may not protect your network if a misguided employee falls for a phishing scam and introduces malware into the system, or a data breach results in all of their passwords for work and home being published to the dark web and readily available to cyber criminals.
Address Discovered Deficiencies
Once you’ve performed a thorough and unbiased cyber security assessment, you need to form a plan to remediate any inefficiencies or deficiencies that you find. This includes having the capital allocation to fix the problems as well as the skillset to do so.
Depending on the size and scope of any deficiencies, these problems likely can’t be fixed overnight, or even in 30 days. Plan on needing several months, if not a year or more, for remediation.
What you can fix immediately and what you may need to postpone will be dependent on both timing and the budget you have available; however, prioritize the security flaws that are the most critical and work from there, going to the next item on your list as the resources to fix it become available.
Consider IT outsourcing if your current IT team doesn’t have the bandwidth, resources, and/or knowledge necessary to handle both (1) gauging how to prepare for a cyber attack and (2) implementing the recommended improvements.
Assist in Maintaining your Cyber Security Protocols and Processes
Once you have solid cyber security protocols in place, you need a healthy process to maintain those protocols. All software should be updated regularly, and your IT team should check daily for any new patches or fixes, as software companies will often issue them only days after new security exploits are discovered.
If you don’t already have cyber security training for all employees at every level, implement a program immediately. Among other topics, make sure your employees can recognize the signs of phishing and spoofing scams. Ensure that they know the characteristics of strong passwords and are prompted to change them regularly.
Another security feature you can implement fairly quickly, if you haven’t already, is two-factor authentication. This is especially important for email and if you have employees using remote access to log into VPNs for business purposes.
If You Need Help Learning How to Prepare for a Cyber Attack
If you know you require assistance with any of the following:
- Performing a cyber security audit
- Creating a roadmap to fix the issues found after your audit
- Implementing security solutions to address flaws in your system
- Supplementing your current IT team to help tighten cyber security protocols
contact Socium Solutions so we can discuss with you how we can best help meet your needs.