If you follow digital technology news, you’ll be aware that hundreds of huge firms experience significant hacks each year, and thousands of smaller firms likewise find themselves the victim of cybercrime. Most of these businesses do survive, though many of them have to work incredibly hard to recover the trust of their customers and the data that they might have lost via the hack. In this article, we’ll look at why certain companies bounce back after a security breach – and why others fail.
Backups
The most important choice you can make today to protect against a future cyber breach is to backup your data. Don’t do this on a physical hard drive that you keep in your odds-and-ends drawer; do it with a trusted, secure, cloud-based server. This is your vault – somewhere you’ll always be able to access if you’ve had your data stolen or erased from your main server. To make this data even more secure, only give the key to access it to very senior managers. Firms that have backups of their data waste less time trying to recreate lost data in the event of a damaging breach.
Insurance
Of equal importance to firms that experience a data or security breach is their access to funds to turn around their fortunes. Some businesses are lucky enough to have incredibly deep pockets to delve into. Most medium-sized firms do not, however. They need access to insurance funds to get back on their feet and avoid the terminal fate of some victims of cyber attacks. Use the cyber insurance broker at kbdinsurance.com to compare and contrast the best cyber insurance policies on the market, which could well spell the difference between your demise and your survival in the wake of a cyber attack.
Trust
When you experience a security breach, you’ll often be legally obliged to share that information with your customers and the general business landscape. You might send out an email, publish a press release, and be the subject of some media scrutiny for some time. All of these impact the trust that current and potential customers have in your brand. If trust is lost entirely, it’s difficult for a business to continue operating. But if you can work to regain trust – for instance, by showing you’re investing in cybersecurity – you stand a better chance of survival.
Sensible Policies
Cyber breaches come in all shapes and sizes. The biggest might result in your data being deleted and stolen, your software and hardware being damaged, or your website crashing for good. These are all dramatic and business-critical disasters that could spell the end of your firm as you know it. Sensible policies on cybersecurity and digital behavior within your firm can protect against the majority of catastrophic breaches. Some smaller breaches might affect your firm, but they are easier to recover from than the most serious cases of cyber attacks.
There’s no doubt that a security breach needn’t spell the end of a firm. The tips in this article will help you survive and thrive in the wake of a cyber attack against your business.