Thousands of breaches happen yearly. So, what should a company do after a data breach?
Let’s find out!
Introduction
During the first half of 2019, there are almost 4,000 data breaches. Worse, there is a 54% increase in 2020.
Thus, cybersecurity became more important every day. Besides, hackers always find new ways to get information.
Unfortunately, cyberattacks like breaches can damage a company. In fact, 60% of small businesses closed because of it.
So, companies must know how to respond to breaches. But, how?
Keep reading to find out!
What is a Data Breach?
A breach is breaking through something. In the real world, it’s like breaking a wall or barrier.
In IT, a data breach means the illegal leaking of private information. It is illegal because an untrusted person or group accessed the data.
Moreover, it occurs in small businesses to large organizations. So, it is critical to have a data breach response plan.
Yet, most data breaches happen because of human mistakes.
What does this mean?
Let’s say an employee opened the wrong email. Then, it downloaded a malicious file which causes the leak.
Or an employee mistakenly provided private information to an unauthorized person. It can be as simple as posting on a social media account.
Besides, more than 500 million files were breached through Facebook. And it happened all because of poor security.
This also shows that no matter how big a company is, it can still be affected by data breaches.
So, what should a company do after a data breach?
What a Company Should Do
Here are a few things any company should do. It is also critical to do this immediately after the breach.
Follow data breach laws
A company should review the breach notification laws of their country. So, you can always comply with the legal system.
These laws include the requirements of responding. Also, it involves notifying your customers about the incident.
In addition, it tells when you should report the breach to the local and state authorities.
Still, following the law is not enough. You surely want to keep your customers, not lose them.
So, what can you do?
Don’t hide from your customers
You owe an explanation to your customers. So, you’ll have to communicate and be transparent to them.
Some businesses make the mistake of avoiding their customers. They thought that it is a way of protecting their relationships with them.
But, it puts your business’ reputation at risk. So, don’t downplay it.
What should you do?
Face what happened. Do not hide from your customers.
Also, it’s better to tell them and then lose them. Instead of hiding from them without letting them know what has happened.
Finally, inform them about the steps they can do to take precautions.
Find out why it happened
A data breach is not an inevitability. So, it would not happen if there are proper security measures.
But now that it had happened, what can you do?
First, you should make sure that it never happens again. Then, learn why it happened in the first place.
Second, you can improve your security measures. IT experts can help you with this matter.
Lastly, educating your staff about the best practices will protect your company from insider threats.
