What Should a Company Do After a Data Breach?

It’s not just big companies that experience data breaches. Mid-sized and smaller companies are also facing the same issues each year when it comes to data breaches and sensitive information becoming compromised.

Whether hackers took personal information from your corporate server, an inside employee took customer information, or information has been inadvertently exposed on your website, it’s important that every company acts fast after a data breach.

Find out the steps you should take after your company falls victim to a data breach to protect your company, employees, and customers.

4 Steps to Take After a Data Breach

1. Alert Your Employees and Clients About the Data Breach

No matter what industry you’re in, business is about serving customers and clients. When their data has been breached, you should be alerting them so they can take the necessary steps to protect themselves. The same goes for your employees. Their personal information could also be breached, leading to identity theft and other criminal activity. 

Keeping a data breach private could end up hurting your company. It can also lead to legal action or losing your valued employees and customers to a lack of trust.

2. Secure Your Operations

You’ll want to move quickly to secure all your systems and fix the vulnerabilities that may have led to the breach. The only worse thing than one data breach is multiple, so make sure you’re taking precautions so it doesn’t happen again.

Mobilize your breach response team or assemble a team of experts to conduct a comprehensive breach response. This could include forensics, legal, information security, information technology, operations, human resources, communications, investor relations, and management – all depending on the size and nature of your company.

3. Find Out What Was Breached

Find out exactly what hackers or intruders breached. Was it financial information, or did they get access to enough information that can give them the ability to steal identities? 

Even something as small as stealing someone’s birthday information is enough for a cyberattacker to find more personal information on someone. A mailing address can even lead to a domino effect of someone’s data being stolen.

Email accounts or other work-related accounts can also be breached if the passwords are hacked. The worst of it all can be the credit card information of customers and employees being stolen.

4. Make Sure Your Cybersecurity Defenses Work

Once you have addressed the breach, it’s time to make sure any cybersecurity patches or procedures you put in place to prevent another data breach actually work. Rushing your IT security could mean missing a few things.

It’s important to do tests that ensure the method the hacker used to gain access to any data will not happen again. Without thorough tests, it could happen within hours or days later. Make sure all your services and machines are tested since these are usually the most vulnerable tech areas where data breaches occur. 

Protect Your Business from a Data Breach with PacGenesis

Securing all your company’s sensitive information is critical. You must be prepared for every scenario and the unthinkable, whether it’s a result of a hacker or human error. The steps you take to ensure data security and follow best practices go a long way. At PacGenesis, we have partnered with leading cybersecurity providers to help find the best option for your business needs. For over 10 years, we work side-by-side with you to see what security practices you have in place and what you’re looking to accomplish, then find the right provider for you. Contact us today to learn more about our partners and get started.
To learn more about PacGenesis, follow @PacGenesis on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn or visit us at pacgenesis.com.

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