On April 25, 2019, the Atlanta Hawks’ online store was hacked, compromising the personal information of anyone who happened to shop on that website.
Considering the team’s 29-53 record for this season, a cyberattack was just piling on – talk about kicking an organization when they’re down!
The thing is, cyber criminals don’t care what you do or what kind of year you’re having.
Whether you’re in the business of healing the sick, educating young minds, or the developing next great tech gadget – you’re still vulnerable to cyberattacks, ransomware, data breaches and other cybersecurity events that can turn a good year into a bad one for your organization; or like the hapless Hawks, make a bad year even worse.
With cybercriminals increasingly on the offense, organizations need to have a solid game plan in place to be ready when an incident occurs – with a response equivalent to a full court press.
With a solid plan in place for a proactive response, the Hawks will bounce back from the cyber breach (and hopefully their season), and so can you.
You’re Already Playing From Behind
Hackers are more sophisticated than ever, always changing their tactics to find new ways to get at your data, and what’s really scary is that your organization may have already been hit without you knowing it.
- A study by the Ponemon Institute found that it takes around 191 days for businesses to discover that they’ve been hacked.
After having your systems compromised for more than half a year, a quick, decisive response is crucial to isolate the threat and mitigate the damage.
While companies are spending more than ever on cybersecurity, generally most don’t allocate nearly the amount of resources to planning and response that’s commensurate in scale with the amount of damage a cyberattack could cause.
This is true especially considering:
- Cyberattacks are the fastest-growing crime in the U.S.
- The cost of cybercrime is estimated to hit $6 trillion worldwide by 2021.
What’s Your Plan for Responding to a Cyberattack?
Despite the dire outlook, you’re still in the game. The faster you respond to a cyberattack, the less costly it will be. So, taking a proactive approach and focusing on some fundamentals can save your organization millions.
Our Quick Guide on cybersecurity goes into 5 of these fundamental actions that can help you:
- improve communications with your cybersecurity response team
- increase your organization’s situational awareness
- make faster and better decisions fast and efficient communications and connectedness
- respond quickly and decisively
For more about how cyberattacks can affect corporations, healthcare companies, and higher education institutions – and 5 things you should be doing to be prepared for a cyberattack, download our Quick Guide: What is Your Plan? The Enormous Cost of Cyberattacks.
