Cyber attacks. Infrastructure failures. Natural disasters. Warfare. In today’s digital landscape, it’s not a question of if something will disrupt your company’s operations or compromise its data—it’s a question of when.

Of course, it doesn’t serve to live in fear of the next attack, scheme, or scam. Instead, it is crucial that you develop and implement an effective incident response strategy now, while things are good, so that you will be ready when disaster strikes. Such a strategy can both mitigate risks and limit the damage should an incident occur.

Below, we’ll discuss how you can use data and experience to build your response strategy. Then we’ll talk about training your team to respond promptly and tools that can make your job easier.

Risk Assessment and Building Your Strategy

One of Aesop’s famous fables involves an ant who busily prepared for the changing seasons and a grasshopper who did not. When the event—the changing of the seasons—happened, the ants were prepared and survived. The grasshopper found himself faced with starvation.

This children’s story well illustrates the need to assess, to develop strategies, and prepare for incidents. What, though, should you prepare for? As mentioned above, incidents can include cyber attacks and disruptions caused by human conflict, natural disasters, and infrastructure outages. The likelihood of each event may depend on the type of business and its geographic location.

Consider your own work experience examples, especially if you have been in the industry for some time. What incidents has your company faced in the past? What incidents have other companies in your industry or location faced?

For example, organizations that handle large amounts of personal information may be subject to data breach attacks. Hospitals and financial institutions are often targeted by ransomware attacks. In the United States, businesses on the Gulf Coast are most likely to be crippled by hurricanes, while those on the West Coast may face wildfires. Future pandemics may disrupt local, national, and international supply chains.

If, after considering historical data for your industry and location, you’re still unsure as to which incidents you are most likely to encounter, you might hire a certified risk management professional to perform an assessment. Or, you could enable a member of your team to pursue this certification. We’ll talk more about team training in the next section.

Train Your Team

Once you’ve identified potential risks, training your team on how to handle them is one of the most critical and helpful steps you can take.

Scams become more sophisticated with each passing week. Invest in requisite digital literacy and fraud literacy programs. Help your team understand the importance of authentication measures your company has in place, how to create a strong password, and the need to protect access to physical devices connected to the company’s network. Give them the tools they need to recognize phishing and other scams. Give clear direction on how to report potential threats, and help employees to feel comfortable doing so.

Some organizations take training a step further by periodically “testing” employees with an unannounced mock scam email, phone call, or text message. Those who do not report it or who respond in a risky manner are required to retake the company’s fraud awareness curriculum.

Streamline Response With Tools and Technology

You’ve trained your team how to spot potential incidents, and you’ve got strategies in place for reporting, investigating, and handling the fallout of a breach. Is there anything else you can do? Yes! Consider automating some of these tasks with an incident response platform.

No matter how good your team is, they can’t conceivably find every weakness or monitor every communication and transaction. Platforms with monitoring, incident detection, and alerting abilities can fill this gap.

Workflows can be automated to respond quickly—more quickly than your team could alone—to any incident or data breach that is detected. One of the best benefits of these automated actions is that they can be initiated 24/7, even when your employees are off-duty.

Further, such platforms often provide tools for collecting and analyzing data, containing breaches, eradicating computer-based threats, and identifying the root cause of a problem. Some even offer cyber security insurance, which can help offset the financial costs and provide additional recovery services in the event of a cyber attack. This complements other types of insurance that can help your company recover from losses to buildings and property from natural disasters and similar physical incidents.

Key Takeaways

Data, property, and time loss incidents are nothing short of inevitable for most organizations. Rather than worry, channel your energies into appropriate preparations. Call on your own experience and geographic or historical data to determine what incident types your company is likely to face. Hire professionals or train up your own to assess the risks and create personalized strategies. Train your team, and lean into the latest technologies to streamline your indecent responses.