As a business owner, you’ve probably thought a lot about how you can prevent a cyber breach. You’ve done your risk assessment and implemented best practices, but a hacker can still break through. If the worst happens, are you prepared with a cyber incident response plan?

All Businesses Are at Risk

Based on a recent study of their own claims data, Chubb identified their top three cyber risk triggers over the last decade: 28 percent of their claims were the result of hackers, 20 percent were attributable to human error, and 14 percent arose from lost or stolen devices. The study also found that the top five industries facing cyberattacks are healthcare, professional services, technology, retail, and education.

Unfortunately, however, no industry is immune to cyber criminals and all businesses must be prepared for a breach situation.

You Need a Cyber Incident Response Plan

Since most businesses are at risk, you should have an appropriate cyber incident response plan in place. Often this isn’t the case for a variety of reasons. Organizations may push this planning off in favor of more pressing matters or the resources just aren’t available. Others have gone through the steps of creating a plan, only to have that plan become outdated or forgotten through turnover and personnel changes.

Sound familiar? If so, it’s time to create that response plan before you need it.

Elements of a Cyber Incident Response Plan

A comprehensive response plan can help mitigate the damage to your business as a result of a cyberattack. The components are fairly simple and should be

• tailored specifically to your organization;
• tested repeatedly throughout the year;
• communicated to all individuals across the organization; and
• updated regularly as needed.

Like any plan, you need to specify who is accountable or in charge of overseeing your post-breach response. Employees should be aware of their roles and how they’ll be notified into action. Your plan should include a list of phone numbers of employees and who will serve as part of your team in order to stop the fallout from spreading. In addition to employees, you’ll also want to prepare a list of who to call in the event of a breach such as key company personnel, as well as your IT vendor, attorney, accountant, and insurance broker or carrier.

In the event a breach does occur, be sure to have steps in place to identify the compromise of your system, isolate the incident to prevent the spread of damage, identify what data has been compromised, and know the regulatory requirements of your state as well as any state in which you do business.

Know Your Limitations

If you’re not prepared to handle this important task on your own, employ the services of someone who can advise you. Experts can help identify vulnerabilities and assist in creating your plan, including the purchase of suitable cyber liability insurance to financially protect your operations.

A cyber incident response plan is key to the sustainability of your business. The likelihood your business will face some type of cyber-attack is high and preparation is essential. You may not know exactly what or when something will happen, but when it does, you’ll be ready.

All insurance policies are different. Be sure to review your insurance policy for specific information about coverages available to you. Nothing in this post is meant to suggest a guarantee of coverage.