Digital security is important for businesses of all sizes and in all industries. However, those that fail to plan for a data breach or other cyber incident are risking their businesses. Nashville-based cybersecurity service ImageQuest says those that have plans but failed to test them with practice drills could be no better off than those with no plan at all. In light of many recent data breach events, we reached out to ImageQuest. What we learned was that it’s best to practice what you’ve prepared.   What Is A Security Incident Response Plan? One of the first questions we had for the cybersecurity service provider was what, exactly, a Security Incident Response Plan is. They told us this is simply a planned series of events that a company’s leadership and IT staff would take in case of a digital compromise. This plan is put into place to both protect a company from financial losses and to ensure that its clients’ data remains safe.

Tabletop Exercises

A cybersecurity incident response plan does not look the same for each business. However, the cybersecurity service tells us that all companies can benefit from running what’s called tabletop exercises. This is a chance to test the efficiency and effectiveness of the response strategy. More importantly, it gives business leaders a valuable opportunity to identify weaknesses in the plan. 

Weaknesses that tabletop exercises can shed light on include when steps are taken prematurely and must be reordered. It can also pinpoint additional company executives or contacts that must get involved.

Why So Important?

Cybersecurity service advisors from the Nashville company use the following example of a potential cybersecurity incident at a large accounting firm. We will call it Acme Accounting. Imagine this scenario:

You are an executive at Acme Accounting. You’re coming up on tax filing season and are consumed with work on multi-million-dollar client projects. Suddenly, you are interrupted by your IT manager, who tells you one of your vendors has experienced a data breach. You realize immediately that this means that your clients’ sensitive information may have been compromised. You have planned for this, so you are not that worried.

Unfortunately, you have never practiced your plan. Shortly after your IT Manager’s alert, you realize your plan does not work as envisioned. You are now scrambling to decide what to tell your customers while simultaneously trying to figure out how to deal with the problem. Now you must figure out how to mitigate damage for the affected clients while retaining the trust of your entire client base.

Had your management team simply taken the time to run a series of security drills, you could have avoided your current state of panic and corrected the gaps and mistakes. You would have known exactly what to do, when to do it, and who within your organization would lead each step of your response plan.

A Better Way

ImageQuest’s cybersecurity service offerings can help businesses in Nashville and beyond create and practice their Security Incident Response Plans. This may include everything from how to save data in the critical first moments to what to say to your clients when it is time to issue a statement. By running routine drills, your workers will be ready to handle the unexpected.

It may not be possible to prevent every security incident. But our conversation with ImageQuest has helped us better understand that having a plan in place and practicing each step of that plan before a disaster occurs is the best way to prevent serious ramifications.

If you are looking for a cybersecurity service in Nashville, Louisville, or Bowling Green, visit ImageQuest online at ImageQuest.com or call 888.979.2679 for more information.

When it is time to protect your business, it is dangerous to have too little security. This is especially true as it relates to your and your customers’ sensitive data. A single breach of your systems can result in significant financial losses, reputation damage, even business bankruptcy or closure. But there are ways to avoid this situation. Keep reading as ImageQuest offers information on how a layered cybersecurity service plan can stop intruders on the path to your data.

Q: What does it mean to have layered cybersecurity defense?

ImageQuest: This simply means to have multiple levels of protection in place. A well-implemented cybersecurity service plan for a Nashville business will focus on three areas: prevention, detection, and response. Each of these aspects of your business’s digital security works on a different level to give your business comprehensive coverage.

Q: Can you explain how to prevent online security threats?

ImageQuest: Specific to businesses, the first step is to ensure that your employees are trained in ways to both spot and avoid cyber attacks. As part of our cybersecurity service, we offer Nashville businesses Security Awareness training. This covers a broad spectrum of policies and practices that put your employees in a better position to keep your company safe.

Another important facet of prevention is ensuring that your systems remain up-to-date. A consistent patching strategy can help fill gaps where hackers might see an easy opening. There have been many incidents over the last decade of major attacks happening because businesses failed to apply the most recent security updates to their operating systems. The 2017 “WannaCry” ransomware attack is a good example that affected FedEx and other large corporations.

Q: What is the next step?

ImageQuest: Beyond prevention, there is detection. Detecting a cybersecurity threat is in itself a layered strategy. It includes things like IP access restrictions, multiple log-in attempt block out, and multi-factor authentication. ImageQuest’s Nashville-based cybersecurity service experts can use these tools to identify areas of your business’s strategy that needs to be upgraded or changed to meet current needs. Cyber threat detection is one of the best ways to alert individual employees as well as your IT department to potentially malicious access attempts.

Taking your detection strategy even further, ImageQuest’s managed detection and response program utilizes the latest advances in artificial intelligence coupled with the knowledge of expert security engineers to monitor for threats around the clock. Our Security Operations Center (SOC) in Nashville specializes in proactive cybersecurity service methods to stop attacks before they happen.

Q: How can I mitigate damage in case of a breach?

ImageQuest: How you respond to a security incident is essential to your business. The final piece of the cybersecurity puzzle is to implement procedures that allow for a swift response. Keep in mind that the sooner you take action, the less likely your business will be adversely affected.

ImageQuest can help you implement incident documentation procedures that allows you to track exactly what happened that left your business vulnerable in the first place. This is important because it gives you an opportunity to access real-world data that can lead to significant improvements in your security operations. Having a consistent incident documentation procedure is looked upon favorably by regulators.

No matter how many security measures you have in place, your company should routinely practice how an incident will be handled. ImageQuest’s experts can walk you through your entire cybersecurity infrastructure and help you better understand how your organization’s actions might affect your stakeholders in the event of a security incident. By testing your processes now, your systems and employees will be better able to respond quickly and efficiently under the duress of a cybersecurity emergency.