Five key ways to effectively address cyberattacks

Cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated, meaning organizations must refresh their incident response and crisis management plans to thrive in a changing landscape.

Uncertainty is up. Innovation is soaring. And cybersecurity threats are becoming more sophisticated by the day. There’s never been a better time for organizations to refresh incident response and crisis management plans with scalability and sustainability in mind. Doing so now empowers a business to handle incidents, manage crises and limit damages effectively — even at a moment’s notice.

Why refresh cyber incident response and crisis management plans now?

In Canada and around the world, some 40% of cyber leaders are more concerned than ever about managing cyber risks. Why? Uncertainty begets new risks. From market upheaval to geopolitical unrest: today’s reality changes overnight.

Organizations are operating in an increasingly digital, hybrid space; one which opens up additional virtual gaps for bad actors to slip right through. Innovation is happening any time, anywhere, as all sectors begin to meet and engage with customers in virtual worlds (think metaverse).

Emerging business priorities — like environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments — underscore the importance of cyber defences. Meanwhile, evolving legislation and regulation is laying on additional pressure to navigate cybersecurity governance and controls. Case in point: half of Canadian execs say ensuring compliance in today’s regulatory environment is the most stressful part of their job.

Each of these factors cultivates ideal conditions for criminals to take advantage of the unknowns and unleash increasingly complex attacks. When they do, the aftershocks can extend well beyond the immediate impact. A single cyberattack has the potential to send catastrophic ripples effects across an organization, impacting processes, technology, data, employee and customer access and more. All of this is costly to the bottom line, future earnings, brand reputation and the digital trust that’s so important to stakeholders today.

It's a perfect storm. On the other hand, these tumultuous times represent a unique opportunity to transform cybersecurity for the better. Enter the urgent need to rethink incident response and crisis management strategy now.

How can cybersecurity planning balance risk and opportunity?

First things first: it’s important to distinguish between incident response and crisis management. At its core, incident response is the coordinating function that kicks in when a breach occurs, helping a business identify an incident and wrangle the organization “back to business as usual” as efficiently as possible. This is commonly more technical and tactical, but falls short of being strategic, which is the ultimate goal.

By comparison, crisis management connects the incident itself to the broader parts of the business and the multitude of activities they represent — human resources, legal, regulatory, public relations — to keep the actual attack from escalating, gain a measure of control, inform affected parties and navigate the complexities.

To be clear, organizations need complementary and interconnected incident response and crisis management plans to handle a cybersecurity incident. While many industries and organizations are investing in these priorities, gaps remain. That’s what organizations must work to close.

How can your organization kickstart a cybersecurity incident and crisis management refresh?

Keep these five guiding principles in mind as you open up the dialogue and seek to reframe incident and crisis response for the future and contribute to overall cybersecurity hygiene:

1. Be on alert. Do you have the right systems and processes in place to quickly identify signs of trouble? Whether examining data points from process changes or network trends that suggest an incident might become a crisis, establish what this looks like for your organization by outlining well-defined procedures.
   
   
2. Connect the dots. Do you have the right delegates in place? Ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly outlined and that stakeholders across the business understand the part they’ll play when — not if — a cyber incident occurs. Seamless infrastructure helps you share decision-making in a centralized fashion. Tech platforms support clear communications even in a high-stress situation. Consider them both as part of your overall planning.
   
   
3. Practice your scenarios. Are you set up to respond in a timely fashion? Playbooks are important for incident response and crisis management. But the complexity of incidents, and the increasingly interwoven nature of businesses, means a playbook for every possible scenario is downright impossible. What’s more, playbooks are only as good as the training that goes with them. Keeping folks regularly trained on incident response and crisis management plans is an important way to get everyone ready to respond quickly to a host of relevant and likely scenarios.
   
   
4. Cast broader nets. Do the necessary people understand cybersecurity? Refreshing and educating the business should also include non-traditional cyber defenders like directors. The board has a fiduciary duty to guide the business, challenge decisions and act in the best interest of shareholders. It’s time to start educating boards in earnest so they’re clear on the cyber risks organizations face and their role in protecting against threats.
   
   
5. Build in flexibility. How agile is your team? From the kinds of technology used to the kind of threats faced, change is inevitable. It’s critical to build cybersecurity into your corporate culture, make it everyone’s responsibility and keep your plans flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances. Baseline plans should build understanding. Adequate training should foster agility. Both fuel a flexible approach to cybersecurity.