Incident Response Plan: Does Your Business Have One?

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In today’s digital world, your business will inevitably face numerous cybersecurity threats. When this happens, your degree of preparation will determine whether you can thwart a potential attack or suffer a momentous data breach. 

Preparing for cybersecurity incidents is what’s known as incident response. Below, we’ll explore what incident response is, why your business needs such a plan, and how to create one. 

What Is An Incident Response Plan? 

An incident response plan is your manual for correctly and effectively handling a potential security incident. It outlines the personnel involved, the procedures to follow, along with step-by-step instructions for discovering, containing, eradicating and recovering from security incidents. 

Incident response is vital in the fight against cybercrime. Cyber-attacks, especially threats like ransomware and business email compromise, are highly stressful events. If you don’t have a plan in place to deal with these threats, your people could end up running about like headless chickens, enabling an attacker to cause plenty of damage as you scramble to contain their attack. 

What Are Security Incidents? 

Incident response plans are designed to combat security incidents your organization is likely to face. There are a number of security incident types. Some of the most common threats today are: 

  • Ransomware
  • Email spoofing
  • Phishing attacks
  • Man-in-the-middle attacks
  • Cloud misconfigurations, leading to data leakage 
  • Denial-of-service attacks
  • Supply chain security incidents

Any of these events could strike your organization at any time, which is why it’s so crucial to have an incident response plan in place. 

Do I Really Need An Incident Response Plan? 

You might think that your organization is too small to be of interest to cybercriminals. This is a risky stance to take. A single cyber-attack could be detrimental to your company. It’s better to be safe than sorry. 

Saying this, for many SMBs, building an internal incident response capability simply isn’t feasible. They don’t have the internal resources and skills to confidently create an incident response plan – yet alone manage incidents. 

In line with this, research shows 77% of companies lack a formal incident response plan. The same study also found that 65% of organizations say the frequency and severity of cyber-attacks against their companies are increasing. 

Clearly, something needs to change. Organizations that bury their heads in the sand about incident response are likely to suffer grave consequences. After all, cyber attacks are a case of when, not if. 

The Way Forward: Outsourcing Incident Response 

Creating an incident response plan, putting together a specialist team, and managing the incident process requires highly specialist skills and experience. You’ll need to tap into the expertise of individuals who are skilled in digital forensics, investigative work, data analytics and reporting, and much more. 

While you could look to hire such personnel in-house, this would be very expensive. Moreover, cybersecurity skills are notoriously in short supply. 

The best way forward, then, is to look to your managed services provider to build and manage your incident response capability for you. By going down this route, you’ll unlock a number of benefits, including: 

Reduce Time And Costs 

Forget about spending a fortune on hiring in-house security staff. Your MSP will give you access to a complete team of IT experts, at the fraction of the cost of hiring a singular individual full-time. Moreover, you’ll no longer have to spend time thinking about IT and security. Your partner will monitor, identify and mitigate threats for you 24/7, so you can focus on running your company without worrying about cybersecurity. 

Prevent Security Incidents  

Undoubtedly, one of the main benefits of working with an MSP is enhanced security. Your company will be protected by the latest security tools, while your partner will work tirelessly to discover and block potential threats before they cause any disruption. 

Protect Your Data 

One of the biggest risks associated with security incidents is the loss of sensitive data. In the age of regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), putting in adequate safeguards to protect personal information is paramount to avoiding costly compliance fines and maintaining customer loyalty. A singular security incident could completely ruin your company’s reputation. Your MSP will make sure this never happens. 

Unlock additional support and innovation

Your MSP’s business model is based on providing a superior service to customers. As well as supporting with incident response, a good partner will also help you with modernizing your IT infrastructure, helping you to reduce costs and uncover new efficiencies. In short, they’ll help you to improve your business through technology, while also keeping hackers at bay! 

We’re Your Incident Response and Innovation Partner! 

At C Solutions, we are committed to providing effective IT and security solutions for business owners in Florida. Let us design and manage your incident response capability for you. 

Contact us for more inquiries or to book a consultation.