What to Do After a Data Breach

The first initial hours, or possibly even days after a data breach is identified are filled with all kinds of activity to simply get through the data breach event. These moments are vital to protect your business, your customers, your employees, and your reputation. However, once the dust of the initial event begins to settle, there is still much left to do.

Fix the Issue that Caused the Breach

At first, your primary concern is isolating the breach so that it cannot affect more systems and information or do more damage. Now you need to turn your attention towards fixing the issue that allowed the breach to happen.

For this job, you’ll need to work closely with your computer forensics team.

  • Remove the tools the hackers used to gain access to your system in the first place.
  • Take steps to ensure that this type of breach will not happen again within your organization.
  • Investigate potential security gaps and change policies so that future breaches will be less likely to occur.
  • Replace affected machines with clean ones.
  • Document everything.

Work with Your Attorney

To some degree, the World Wide Web is the new Wild Wild West. Hackers are wreaking havoc faster than laws and lawmakers can keep up. Unfortunately, that doesn’t diminish the responsibilities businesses have to protect the private information you have regarding your clients, customers, and employees.

You must work with your attorney to determine regulatory requirements according to the laws in your state. While national laws have been stunningly slow to keep up with the ever-changing Internet landscape, many states are taking swifter action. The result is laws that offer stiffer protection for consumers and harsher penalties for businesses in some states than in others.

Your attorney can help you determine your potential level of exposure according to the laws in your state and develop an appropriate response.

Contact Your Cyber Liability Insurance Agent

Cyber liability is now one of the most important types of insurance small business owners can invest in. The hours and days after a data breach occurs may be filled with activity, but one of those activities needs to be to contact your insurance agent to report the event and find out which steps you need to take to file your claim.

Cyber liability insurance coverage helps to offset many of the costs involved in a data breach according to the limits of your policy. This includes things like attorney’s fees, credit monitoring, crisis management or public relations firms, notification expenses, forensic recovery costs, and more – expenses that could otherwise cripple a small business.

Taking these steps in the aftermath of a data breach can help you move forward after a data breach so that you can get your small business back to business as normal as quickly as possible.