[BreachExchange] The ins and outs of risk managing a breach

[Audrey McNeil]

https://www.cso.com.au/article/620478/ins-outs-risk-managing-breach/

It’s not surprising that data breaches are slowly making their way up the
list of business executives’ biggest fears. Even for a small organisation,
having to announce to your client base that their data has been leaked is a
nightmare. Although it’s scary, one positive outcome is that businesses are
becoming more aware of the risks involved with a breach. So with risk
management on the rise, what do you really need to know?

Preventative risk management

Preventative actions are just as important as reactive actions, if not more
so. It’s vital for businesses to implement strategies to deter cyber
attacks as much as possible and it’s potentially even more effective than
trying to backtrack once the damage has been done.

Although as a solution on its own this might sound vague, a recent study
found that over 70% of executives reported that their businesses didn’t
fully understand the consequences of a data breach. That’s an enormous
number of organisations that could potentially face legal action because
they had no active measures in place to prevent a breach.

There are a few measures you can take within your organisation to ensure
your team is educated and understands the risks. A big point is to make
sure that solutions are discussed from the top down. The board of directors
should discuss the risks and implement or approve incident response plans.
Executives should participate as much as possible within their knowledge
and jurisdiction to establish clear cross-team communication channels
before a breach takes place. That way, if something does happen, reactions
will be solid and unified.

The second preventative measure lies within D&T and involves any
technological protective measures that you can implement without damaging
or slowing down your website or processes. Implement fraud prevention. This
means any technology that is capable of providing device intelligence, risk
assessments, a layered authentication strategy, traditional personally
identifiable information (PII), validation and verification, as well as any
other contextual information management you may require.

Reactive risk management

This occurs after the breach has taken place. Communication is especially
important from this point onwards. Whether addressing internal stakeholders
to inform them of a breach or alerting external clients, it’s vital that
you are sensitive about the situation.

If your customer base has been affected by the breach, the initial reaction
will likely be one of mistrust. It’s important that whoever communicates
the issue to them displays empathy and is apologetic. The business should
provide a potential solution or offer some form of rectification or
potentially even reimbursement where possible.

This is where business insurance comes in. Although it is a preventative
measure, its benefits are typically reaped after the event. Risk management
can be expensive, but most cyber liability insurance policies will provide
cover for the costs involved in alerting clientele. In fact, most cyber
liability insurers will help you to work out your strategy and ensure that
you have the adequate protection in place to secure your digital systems
after the event.

If you’re unlucky enough to find yourself in the middle of a cyber breach,
the most important thing to do is to take a step back and breathe and
handle the situation in a calm and professional manner.
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