Smart Ways to Lower the Cost of a Potential Data Breach
According to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022, data breach costs have increased to $4.35m in 2022 – indicating almost 13% increase from 2020. This is an extremely large amount of money, especially for startups and small to medium-sized businesses, who may not be able to bounce back from a breach that surpasses the million dollar mark.
Of course, not all data breaches are created equal. To payout in the millions, the breach will have to involve either sensitive information or confidential info. Remember, too, that breach costs don’t just mean compliance fines or downtime. They also take into account a loss of customer trust, which can hamper the bottom line for years.
Given the expensive nature of data breaches, it’s wise for organizations to do their best to reduce potential costs and put a strategy in place. While one some factors remain out of the control of organizations, some factors can be acted upon, and greatly reduce the fallout of a data breach should it happen.
With that in mind, here are a few ways to reduce the potential impact and cost of a data breach within your company.
Carve Out An Incident Response Plan
Your incident response plan is the step-by-step guidance you follow in the event of a breach, giving much needed clarity and order to an otherwise stressful situation. Your plan should contain detailed guidance of what to do in the event of various security incidents, such as a phishing attack, ransomware attack and so on.
As well as a plan, you’ll need a team who can invoke the plan. This involves identifying the threat, quarantining it and eradicating it from your systems and applications. Given the technical nature of incident response, many SMBs may feel at a loss on where to begin. The good news is you don’t need to handle incident response by yourself.
A good managed service provider (MSP) can take on the responsibilities of incident response for you, creating a plan and becoming your virtual incident response team, so you no longer need to worry about what to do in the event of a cyber attack.
Give Your Employees The Knowledge To Spot Cyber Attacks
It’s a well known fact that many breaches result from human error. Cloud misconfigurations, phishing attacks and stolen mobile phones can all lead to data breaches or cyber-attacks. So, it makes sense to reduce your risk by training your employees on security best practice.
To begin with, start by creating security policies for your employees to follow, or ask your MSP to create them for you. Then, educate your employees on these policies so they know what is expected of them.
As well as providing your employees with policies to read through, it’s also wise to offer cybersecurity awareness training on topics like phishing, so your users can become better educated on cybersecurity risks in an engaging way. Using tools like quizzes and eLearning can be a great way to improve security awareness.
Use The Right Defense Tools
A huge part of reducing the cost of a data breach is hindering the impact a cyber-attacker could have once in your network. If they can roam about without being caught, they can get away with more data and do more damage.
To that end, you need tools that will quickly find a cyber-attacker the moment they manage to break in. We advise using a mixture of data loss prevention (DLP), user behavior analytics and a zero trust architecture to prevent attackers from causing damage should they manage to get a foothold in your infrastructure.
Combined these tools make it extremely difficult for malicious actors to steal your data, even if they manage to break into the company walls.
Of course, as well as using these tools, you should also employ solutions that prevent attackers from getting into your network in the first place. We assist our clients with a range of best-in-class security solutions that reduce the likelihood of malicious intrusions.
Look Into Cyber Insurance Protection
It’s always good to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Increasingly, organizations are turning to cyber insurance as part of their defense against the cost of a hefty data breach. While cyber insurance can’t actually prevent breaches in any way, it can help you to recover financially.
One thing to note is that cyber insurance is getting more expensive as it becomes more popular. To get cover without breaking the bank, you’ll need to have a thorough security strategy in place. Otherwise, insurers will view your company as too high-risk, leading to super high insurance premiums.
Ready To Boost Your Cyber Resilience And Lower Your Data Breach Risks? We Can Assist!
Unbound Digital can help your Johnson City, Tennessee business reduce your risk of a costly data breach by assessing your current security posture and providing helpful feedback to address any vulnerabilities and bolster resilience.
Contact us today to schedule a consultation. Call 423-335-2461 or reach us online.