No business is too small or clever to be hit by a cyber attack. Everyone’s vulnerable, so if you’ve made the grown-up decision to invest in cybersecurity, here are our top seven tasks for your “How To Prepare For A Cyber Attack” checklist.

1. Know Your Enemy

The first step in how to prepare for a cyber attack is to understand what it means. The term “cyber attack” is a bit unclear. What happens during a cyber attack? Here’s where you get familiar with the types of attacks that exist and how they exploit vulnerabilities. Your research will also give you the lowdown on your business’s key attack vectors, A.K.A., the various paths hackers use to access your stuff. Our favorite resource is Verizon’s very readable Data Breach Investigation Report, which outlines what’s hot and trending in cyber-attackery. 

2. Conduct a Comprehensive Risk Assessment

Identify your critical assets, potential vulnerabilities, and evaluate the impact of various cyber threats on your organization. This assessment will help you prioritize security measures and allocate your resources more effectively.

3. Develop a Robust Incident Response Plan

You won’t get caught on the hop without a well-defined incident response plan. This outlines the steps you’ll take in case of a security breach. Don’t forget to decide and communicate who does what and how you’ll communicate. Regularly test, review, and update the plan to address new or emerging threats.

4. Educate and Train Employees

Human error is still a dominant trend in successful cyberattacks. But this is good news because you can do something about this by influencing your people’s behavior through acceptable use policies, expectations of strong password hygiene, and phishing training. Make data security part of everybody’s role, and give your people the time and resources for it. Practice what you preach, too. 

5. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA adds an extra layer of protection by requiring your people to prove who they say they are. They’ll need to provide at least two identity factors, such as passwords, and one-time codes, to access sensitive information. This significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access.

6. Regularly Update and Patch Systems

Outdated software and unpatched systems are a welcome mat for cybercriminals because cybercriminals love to exploit known (and sometimes not-yet-known) vulnerabilities in the software you’re running. Patches from the software developer fix these vulnerabilities, so it’s important to update your software as soon as a patch becomes available. The patch management process should be a normal part of your data security routine.

7. Backup and Recovery Strategies

It’s important to regularly back up critical data using the industry-standard 3-2-1 methodology and to test the restoration process to ensure its integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness. If you have a secure backup on hand, you can recover quickly.

Overwhelmed? We’ll Help You Learn How to Prepare For A Cyber Attack

The ROI of cybersecurity spending isn’t obvious at first because what you’re aiming for is nothing happening: no successful attack, no breach, and no ransomware locking you out. But it’s an investment that keeps on giving because, when you’ve taken actionable steps on how to prepare for a cyber attack, you’re no longer an easy target. Hackers are lazy — why make an effort to breach a well-secured business when there are millions of vulnerable organizations just waiting to be accessed? Need help with your cyber attack prep checklist? Give us a call. We’re here to help.

Ignition is Silicon Valley’s best (and friendliest) IT security, compliance, and support team. Contact us now – chatting about IT support and cybersecurity is our favorite thing to do!