NEWS: Logpoint Acquires Muninn
Cybercrime comes in various ways. I can cause immediate disruptions like network slowdowns and unsolicited spam emails sent from your account. Data breaches or other attacks might only come to light when an external party notifies you or the cybercriminal itself contacts you. In Denmark alone, there have been over 8,000 registered data breaches annually across various industries in the past three years. Regardless of the nature, swift and strategic action is crucial. In particular small to medium-sized businesses grapple with the increasing menace of cyberattacks. Should you find yourself in a situation like this, we've have put together a guide to steer you through the aftermath of a cyberattack:
1. Mobilize Your Breach Response Team
When a cyberattack strikes, your immediate response can make all the difference. Assembling a dedicated breach response team ensures that you have experts on hand to assess and address the situation.
Actions to take:
Incident Manager: This person will spearhead the response, coordinating efforts and ensuring effective communication.
Tech Manager: As the subject matter expert, they'll delve into the technical aspects, identifying the breach's nature and extent.
Communications Manager: They'll handle both internal and external communications, ensuring transparency and clarity.
2. Detect, Assess, and Isolate
Before you can address a data breach or account hack, you need to understand its scope. Detecting and isolating affected systems and accounts prevents further damage and preserves crucial evidence.
Actions to take:
Act swiftly. The moment you suspect a breach, start the process of detection.
If possible, take the compromised network offline at the switch level. If not, disconnect ethernet cables and any hardwired devices. Also, manually disconnect wireless devices.
Your first steps might differ depending on the nature of the cybercrime:
Ransomware: Isolation is the first step because the ransomware attack spreads through your systems, devices, and networks.
Data breach: Once cybercriminals steal data, everyone is at risk. You should immediately inform affected individuals inside and outside of your organization.
Account hack: If a social page or profile is compromised, change the passwords, recover the account, and inform your network to be cautious of any suspicious messages that might be send out under your name.
3. Communicate Transparently with Your Team
In the aftermath of an attack, clear communication is the key. Your team needs to be on the same page to ensure a unified response.
Actions to take:
Switch to non-internet communication channels to prevent potential eavesdropping by malicious actors.
If the breach involved phishing emails, instruct your team to delete any suspicious messages immediately.
4. Preserve, Cleanse, and Restore
Once the immediate threat is contained, it's time to delve into recovery. This involves gathering evidence, removing malicious elements, and restoring your systems.
Actions to take:
Engage a cybersecurity expert to collect data about the breach, such as logs, memory dumps, and network traffic.
After preserving evidence, cleanse your system by removing malicious code. Then, restore your system to its pre-incident state.
5. Engage with Stakeholders and Authorities
A breach doesn't just affect your business; it impacts your stakeholders too. Transparent communication and collaboration with authorities can help rebuild trust.
Actions to take:
Collaborate with your legal team to determine the best way to notify affected parties.
Report the incident to local, state, and federal authorities. They might offer assistance or tools to help you recover.
In Denmark the Danish Data Protection Authority states that such incidents should be reported via virk.dk as well as the Danish police. Please note that if you are an organization that falls under the NIS regulatory, you will have to report the incident there as well.
Summary
Today cyberattacks are not just threats but have become everyday challenges. Yet, with tools like Network Detection and Response (NDR) such as Muninn AI Detect and AI Prevent, you can proactively tackle these cyberthreats before they escalate. By making AI-driven NDR a cornerstone of your cybersecurity strategy, you're not just protecting your current digital assets but harden your network defenses. If you haven't already integrated NDR into your cybersecurity toolkit, now is the time. After all, in the world of cybersecurity, being proactive isn't just a strategy; it's a necessity.
