So there you are, sitting down at your laptop and up pops a ransomware notice filling your screen. You go to check on your digital inventory system and there’s nothing there or there’s way too much there. An application you use every day just stops working. A fire or storm destroys the building where your entire digital life’s work is stored. Any of these or other issues can make you dizzy and you don’t know what to do. All of these are what we call “cybersecurity incidents” and you need a cybersecurity professional to respond.  

Let’s talk about incident response plans. Prior preparation is always the best place to start. According to a CNBC survey of small businesses, 56% of small business owners said they are not concerned about being the victim of a hack in the next 12 months and 59% say they can quickly resolve any cyberattack. Yet only 28% have a cybersecurity incident response plan in place (CNBC Momentive Small Business Survey). Plan on various types of incidents and decide how you will respond if they occur. In your planning, consider scenarios such as a building fire, a system crash, ransomware attack, theft of IT systems, news of a data breach impacting your business or suppliers, a system virus, etc. Without a plan you lose precious hours and days of down time. Know who, in your organization, will be assigned recovery tasks. Make sure they’re aware of their assigned tasks and trained to accomplish them. Have a communication plan including people that need to know (authorities, staff and management, property owner, etc.) including how to reach them. Backup all systems and encrypt data you need to protect. Make sure at least one full backup is stored off-site. Then test your incident response plan and backup restoration procedures. These are some ways you can prepare for disasters by yourself. 

Better still, consult with a cybersecurity expert that can find risks you can’t see without their expertise. We Know Cyber brings expertise in both preparing for incidents as well as responding to unprepared for incidents. Our cybersecurity professionals identify your existing risks and potential future risks. Using specialized tools and years of experience, our staff finds everything. We report our findings and make recommendations based on priorities (ranked by severity and what you value most) then provide guidance and support to mitigate those risks.  We offer a wide variety of services to keep you secure and even monitor your business security in real time. Should malicious actors try to attack you, you’ll be well prepared. Every We Know Cyber customer gets our local skilled engineers with pre-planned incident response playbooks ready to recover from any incident fast and keep your business running. 

Reach out to us for a free initial consultation and vulnerability scan today. Facing a cyber-attack well prepared is always easier. If you’re facing one unprepared though, you need experts like us. We’ll save the day!