What should a company do after a data breach?

What should a company do after a data breach?

Are you aware of the consequences of a data breach? Do you know what to do if you have been a direct hit in the event of a breach to your company? In today’s day and age, a lot of company information all around the world is being compromised in data breaches, and we are falling victim to these risks. It seems like our businesses are living in a world where these cybersecurity threats are almost becoming habitual and routine-like. Although we, as a business may be taking precautions to try and ensure that our personal information is kept private, these third-party personnel that are holding your business information can also become the victim of a data breach. This in turn exposes your data, which results in all parties being negatively affected by the breach. The risk of a data breach to a company is at an all-time high with the current fast-paced innovation of technology, and the consequences and the cost of a data breach can be absolutely detrimental to not only your business, but you as a person as well. This should get our gears turning when thinking about what a company should do after a data breach.

If you have recently learned that your company has experienced a data breach, meaning that hackers either took personal information, that information was exposed, or purely that an insider stole customer information, you are probably wondering what the next steps are, or what to do in the event of a breach. You may wonder if you are doing everything you can to protect yourself or your company against a data breach. Do you happen to know who to contact if personal information has been exposed? Many questions revolve around the aftermath procedures when it comes to a data breach! With that being said, let’s explore some more information together for what to do after a data breach to keep yourself and your company at less risk.

Your Company Data Breach Response Checklist:

  1. Get information about the breach, and confirm if your information was revealed:

Step one for when it comes to your breach, is to confirm if the breach has actually occurred. Just because you have received an email that said there was a breach, does not mean that you should believe this right away. When a data breach happens, cyber scammers are sneaky! They can potentially reach out to you, posing as the breached company to try and obtain more of your own personal information. Do NOT fall for fake emails! You should ensure that you are going to the company’s safe website and are calling the company to confirm the breach, and whether or not your information was related to the breach.

  1. Contact the correct individuals and take added action:

Again, the type of data that was stolen from your company especially comes into play when it comes to the nature of the breach. You should quickly notify all of the correct groups such as law enforcement, other businesses affected, and individuals affected. People have the right to know that their personal information has been compromised, and with knowing, they have a better chance to diminish the probability of their information being misused. If debit or credit card information has been stolen, you should respond by reaching out to your financial institutions to cancel your card, and then request a new one. 

  1. Decipher the source and scope of the breach and what has been compromised in the data breach

First and foremost, ask yourself why the type of exposed information matters to you. Well simply put, something like a stolen credit card can be canceled and replaced, but it is quite the process when it comes to obtaining a new social security number. Additionally, scammers can do MUCH more with your social security number rather than with an e-mail or a soon to be cancelled credit card account. Another consideration to make or recommend to others, is to possibly place a credit freeze, as this makes it much harder for someone to open a new account in someone else’s name.

  1. Secure Your Operations:

Whatever the cause of the breach, ensure that you are quickly securing your information systems and fix the weaknesses that may have been the cause of the breach. Can you imagine shortly after your first breach, you are exposed to another! When you take the correct approaches, and hire a team of experts to conduct an inclusive breach response, you are more likely to get to the bottom of the breach, and can begin to work on the recovery. Additionally, when yourself and your team strengthens and changes all passwords, logins and security questions/answers to log in, this will help mitigate the limit of reach that the hacker has access to. This step is extremely important for the victims of the web provider’s data breach due to pinched email accounts. Another technique for strengthening your security would be to take the next step of precautions, which include turning on a two-factor authentication to protect from further potential risk.

  1. Stay on top of your accounts and monitor these extremely close:

When a breach has occurred, one of the most important things you can do is to stay on top of your accounts and watch for signs of new activity. This message should especially be relayed to individuals who have fallen victim to a data breach. If you are staying alert on your accounts, this can never be a bad thing! Especially when you have been subject to a data breach. Imagine if your social security number was stolen… You don’t know an exact time frame as to when the hacker will use this information. They could use it tomorrow, or perhaps in the next three years when you are less likely to expect suspicious activity on your account.

  1. Accept the offered help of the breached company/ Offer help to those who have been exposed in your company:

If your company has been victim to a data breach, you should offer free credit reports to those who have been affected. Or when it comes to the breached companies offering help to repair the damage that has been done to your company, you should most definitely accept the help. The company may propose to protect you for a certain amount of time, such as offering individuals in your company free credit monitoring.

In the event of a data breach, it is important to keep in mind that the breach alone does not essentially mean that you are immediately a victim. But be aware if sensitive data such as a social security number has been compromised, you could easily become a victim down the road, at any given point. Unfortunately, the scary truth behind your social security card being stolen is that the risk of identity theft continues to remain. Some of the most important things your company can do after a data breach is to know what to look for, continue to stay alert, and continue to keep your personal information as secure as possible. If you do happen to see red flags, ensure that you are ready to take the appropriate actions that have been outlined above to help protect yourself or your business. RMS identifies theft protection and can see threats when it comes to your identity. Our goal is to increase more awareness around cyber safety, and if you happen to become a victim of identity theft, we have dedicated identity restoration agents who will work around the clock to fix this for you. START your protection today, and contact RMS for more information to protect yourself against data breaches and cyber criminals!

source https://rmsatl.com/2020/10/19/what-should-a-company-do-after-a-data-breach/



source https://rmsassociatesinc.wordpress.com/2020/10/19/what-should-a-company-do-after-a-data-breach/

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