The cybersecurity landscape is so uncertain. You never know when your organization will fall prey to cybercriminals. What do you do when you become a victim of a cyber attack? What if you get hacked? It is not enough for you to sit back and think cyber attacks will not happen to your business. The extensive use of technologies and networks, many organizations are getting ready for when they may be attacked, not what to do when they get attacked.

It is crucial for today’s businesses to develop and execute an incident response plan that can prepare your organization for acting swiftly and effectively in case of a cyber attack and control the damages. So, how do you make a cyber incident response plan? Here are the steps:

Locate and Prioritize Your Digital Assets

Start with the identification and classification of your digital assets. You must make it certain that you know exactly where your business stores its critical data. Once identified, you can order them on the basis of their importance and the potential risks and damages. Give each asset a numbered value and allocate budget for its security accordingly.

Identify the Possible Risks

Research is the key to identify the potential cybersecurity risks. Do your research. Take into consideration the biggest, present threats to your digital assets. For example, if you are managing huge data on the Internet, error in coding can be a threat to your business. Think about email security, phishing, social engineering, cloud security risks, IoT risks, etc.

Develop Procedures

You cannot just rest assured that you know what to do when a cyber attack happens. You must develop proper procedures that should be followed in case of a cyber breach. Your procedures and policies must be directed at identifying and containing an attack, recording information about the attack, sending warning about the attack and communicating it properly, thwarting the attack, educating your employees, and quick actions for damage control.

Make a Response Team

Your incident response plan is nothing without a robust response team. You must form a team and task it with coordinating the actions during and after a cyber attack. Also, give the team the power to allocate and coordinate resources during an incident, so the impacts of the breach are minimized. The team should comprise a lead investigator, IT professional, communication lead, legal personnel, etc.

Take Your Top Management Aboard

The incident response plan has to be implemented, and to make sure it is executed in letter; you must sell the plan to your top management. You must take the executives into confidence, so the required resources are allocated for the initiative. Communicate to the executive why the plan is required and what are the benefits.

Train Your Employees

While developing the incident response plan is critical, it must be strengthened by training your employees on how to tackle a cyber attack. Your employees must be aware of the plan and know the procedures and policies. Finally, you can test the plan after training your employees. Be sure to identify the loopholes during the testing and put things in place to close those loopholes.