When you’re dealing with sensitive information, the last thing you want to deal with is a data breach and the possible aftermath. Data breaches are often thought of as acts of malicious hacking performed to steal important bits of data, like credit card information and more. In reality, the definition of a data breach is far more extensive. While data breaches can involve stolen information, a data breach can also be declared if any of the information is viewed by an unauthorized user, or worse, used.
When you look at the true definition of a data breach, it becomes clear that businesses handling sensitive information must be diligent in protecting their data from both internal and external factors. Whether an unauthorized employee views an electronic health record they weren’t meant to, or worse, your clients’ credit card information is stolen from your database — you need to have a strong data breach response plan to mend the situation. Here are the building blocks for creating yours.
Common causes of a data breach include:
- Employee incompetence
- Malicious attacks
- Hacked database
- Accidental leaks
- Electronic file share transfers
- Accessing lost or stolen devices
- Unsecure email, and more.
How to build your data breach response plan:
The data breach response plan your organization deploys will depend on the type of information that was compromised, how the breach occurred, which agencies regulate your industry, and the severity of the breach.
Your plan should include actionable steps that can be implemented based off of all possible breach scenarios.
The first step in your plan should be notifying your response team about the breach. Larger organizations may have an entire team, smaller businesses may have only one or two people. Your plan should include the contact information for these individuals. Including this as your first step will allow your response team to take steps in mitigating further compromised information, and in getting the rest of the response plan underway.
Your plan should also give your data breach response team a plan of action for how to handle the breach. This section should indicate the proper procedures for analyzing and containing the breach. Mapping out a response for each type of scenario will keep your team quick on their feet so the breach can be handled as quickly as possible. This section may include updating passwords, and notifying the appropriate agencies of the breach.
The next step should include remediation measures that will stop further damage from occurring. If sensitive client or patient information is compromised, the next step of your response plan should include steps on how to notify these individuals that their data was seen, stolen, or used by an unauthorized individual.
During the Target credit card breach of 2013, notifying affected individuals was a large part of their data breach response plan. Not only did they notify shoppers, but they also informed credit card companies about the breach so that they too could implement security measures for their cardholders. As another part of their remediation plan, they notified a third-party forensics firm to investigate the breach. This remediation section in your response plan should include the contact information for agencies who may need to be notified and involved in the event that a breach takes place. Some examples may include forensics teams, lawyers, the credit bureau, and more.
The more thorough you make your response plan, the more equipped your organization will be in repairing the damages. Once the worst of the breach has passed, your organization should focus on how to prevent a similar breach from occurring in the future.
If your information was hijacked in transit during a file share, or stolen from a physical storage device, you should invest in a cloud backup solution with end-to-end encryption to keep your data in safe hands. These solutions offer unlimited cloud storage with military-grade security features, are low in cost, and can save your organization thousands of dollars.
Along with protecting against some of the instances of data breaches, cloud backup can also be used to completely recover lost or deleted data. It’s not uncommon during a data breach for hackers to either delete your data, or take it hostage by encrypting it. While containing the breach is important, it’s equally important to get your data back so you can limit any slow downs in the running of your business.
Having a cloud backup plan in place will ensure you can recover your data quickly, whether that means recovering unencrypted versions of your files, or rescuing information the hackers have deleted. The speed and control cloud backup gives businesses to recover any file makes it a critical and essential element of a data breach response plan. It can mean the difference between a quick and painless data recovery, versus days of lost work due to the inability to retrieve the files and data needed to continue working.
Whether you’ve lost one file, or your whole computer crashes, cloud backup can save your organization time and money in recovering it all.
Ensure your company’s ability to retrieve data quickly and efficiently after a data breach by getting cloud backup today. For a cloud backup provider with military level security, end-to-end encryption, unlimited previous file versions, continuous syncing, unlimited storage, and more, try Nordic Backup free for 30 days. At Nordic Backup, the privacy, security and recoverability of your company’s data is our priority. Safeguard your data now and have your data breach response plan prepared by adding cloud backup to your business’ line of defense.
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