How To Recover Your Online Reputation After a Cyber Attack Experience

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CYBER ATTACK: Regardless of how strong your company’s protections are, someone will eventually manage to breach your security. Any defence can be overwhelmed by a skilled and determined attacker (or group of attackers).

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, 60 per cent of small businesses close after discovering an information security compromise.,

Even if it feels like it, a security compromise is not the end of the world – no matter what you think. When you have a plan in place to recover from a security breach and be ready to move on, you can get back to business as normal after an attack

What is the definition of a cyber attack?

Simply put, a cyber attack occurs when someone gains unauthorized access to a system by exploiting cybersecurity flaws or circumventing security protections. Cyber hackers are the most likely perpetrators, however, self-directed programs like viruses or malware could also be involved.

One could carry out an attack either intentionally or unintentionally. Intentional cyber attacks are usually motivated by one of two factors. Attackers attempting to break into secure information or crash the network result in data breaches or crypto-jacking assaults (which use computing resources for their goals).

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Even though these attacks are terrifying, they are easier to recognize and prepare for than mishaps caused by human error, ignorance, or other factors.

Cyberattacks and their Types

Despite their ubiquitous use, cyberattacks and security breaches are not the same. It’s not always accurate that a security breach or lack of cybersecurity measures resulted in the compromise of private or confidential information. Unauthorized users get access to or leak confidential information in an untrustworthy environment, which is referred to as a “cyberattack.”

Cyberattacks are divided into seven categories:

The following sorts of cyber security dangers should be well-understood by cyber security professionals and not taken lightly .

1. Insider Threat

Insider assaults are especially harmful since the employee (or vendor) willfully compromises data or gains access to data for personal gain.

2. Hacking Intrusions

Cybercriminals utilize phishing scams, brute force attacks, ransomware, stalker were, and other methods to get access to secure data.

3. Physical Theft

Despite having a secure network infrastructure protected by firewalls and cybersecurity software, some businesses are concerned about non-authorized individuals leaving the facility with important data on their laptops. A thief might also acquire access to a protected place, download data, and transfer files using this drive.

4. Accidental Internet Exposure

Data that is exposed to the public internet can be accessed by unauthorized persons and exposed in a significant way. Organizations used to be less concerned about securing data when it was accessed over LAN connections and stored on-premises servers, but as cloud computing has grown in popularity, companies have been much more aggressive about protecting data when it is accessed over the internet.

Data can be mistakenly disclosed or compromised by a “man in the middle” cyberattack if you connect to the public internet.

5. Human Error

It’s not uncommon for people to make mistakes. Data handling is no exception when it comes to cybersecurity vulnerabilities. According to the Information Commissioner’s Office, human error was responsible for nearly 90% of all data breaches in the United Kingdom in 2019. (ICO).

6. Unauthorized Access

People who do not have suitable access restrictions, such as poorly monitored admin rights and insufficient user segmentation, may feel compelled to treat information as confidential or share it with the wrong people. If not addressed, poor access control may lead to additional sorts of security breaches and costly data breaches.

7. Data On-Move

Hard drives, backup tapes, and flash drives can be used to physically transport data between places, but they are constantly at risk of being lost or damaged while in transit.

A Guide to Dealing with Cyber attack

When a cyberattack happens, a clear plan of action must be devised. The incident response plan should be followed in these scenarios. Cybersecurity incident management strategies should have been widely shared throughout the firm so that everyone is aware of their roles and responsibilities.

#Step1: Combating the Attack

Recognizing that an incident had occurred was the first step toward recovery. If you notice a security breach as soon as possible when it occurred, your firm will benefit. It will take some time to bring down the first hacked system; hackers will have to exploit its flaws to target the rest of your systems.

In the second step, we isolate the compromised system(s) or disable the administrator account’s access privileges, effectively preventing the attacker from gaining access.

Finally, the threat must be removed. The methods of elimination may differ depending on the type of attack that happened. It may be essential to completely format (or even remove and replace) all afflicted media in order to remove ransomware. It’s possible that the corrupted data can be restored from a remote backup (assuming one is available).

The damage produced by a breach can be minimized if an attacker is prevented from leaving the system that they have hacked before the breach occurs.

After the source of the attack has been removed, the only way to recover is to remove the source of the attack.

#Step2: Exploring the Method of Cyber Attack

It is critical to understand how the attack occurred in order to prevent attackers from just replicating the same attack approach. Further examination into compromised systems is also suggested, as the attacker may have left further malware on the machine. Activity logs must be retained in the case of a breach for later forensic investigation. You’ll be able to find the source of the assault and prevent it from happening again this way.

#Step3: Notifying Potentially Affected Parties

It’s critical to figure out which computer systems have been hacked and what information is at risk when performing your investigation. If your system has been compromised, notify all affected parties as quickly as feasible.

After a cyber attack, you must defend your company’s reputation by sending these types of notices. A commitment to protecting your clients in the event of a data breach, as well as prompt and honest behaviour, demonstrates your dedication to their data’s security. A serious data security breach can result in a significant reaction. A big breach can be avoided by decreasing the reaction.

To aid in the investigation and comply with security breach notification regulations, cyber security authorities should be notified as soon as possible.

#Step4: Using Your Network to Restore Assets

If your network has been breached, you can restore the assets that have been compromised based on your preparedness. Some IT assets may be deleted or replaced, and any lost data could be recovered from a backup.

By activating whole cloud-based replicas of the network environment, you may be able to restore your business’ network to normal very rapidly as you investigate the intrusion.

The optimum technique to restore assets on a network is usually determined by business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) strategies. You need a strategy to keep your business functioning if one of your assets fails and you don’t have access to the other. To avoid failures, create a BC/DR plan ahead of time.

If your production environment is being isolated for more extensive repairs, you may wish to turn on a cloud-based replica to utilize while your original environment is being repaired.

Remember to keep track of which assets have been deleted from your network and which ones should be added based on a recent discovery. You may rest assured that you haven’t forgotten anything and that your network is free of surprises.

#Step5: Making Preparations for the Next Attack

It’s time to prepare for the next attack after you’ve implemented a BC/DR plan and recovered from the last one. There’s a considerable probability you’ll be targeted again if you’ve been hit by a group or attacked by others utilizing the same attack tactic.

If you look into the attack, you might be able to help a lot. You can repair the cybersecurity holes that allowed the attack to happen by identifying how the attacker(s) obtained access and how they got inside. It is feasible to prevent future breaches by doing so.

Studying the implementation of your BC/DR strategy can also help you enhance future BC/DR plans. These enhancements may result in faster response times and less disruption, lowering the impact of an attack.

Conclusion

Because many firms don’t know where to start when it comes to defending their systems from security breaches, creating an incident response plan for when problems do occur can be tough. Having a managed cybersecurity service provider (MSSP) on your side can be extremely beneficial both before and during a crisis. Whether doing vulnerability assessments, penetration testing or monitoring SEIM solutions, a good cybersecurity firm can help ensure business continuity.

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