What Should A Company Do After a Data Breach?

Amid all the craziness in the world, the news that data breaches are on the rise probably isn’t the best news for your business. Data breaches only continue to increase. Most recently, it happened in major companies like Colonial Pipeline, and JBS, a major meatpacker.

These were just two of numerous throughout this year, so far. And it’s not just big companies experiencing data breaches. Mid-sized and smaller companies also face the same issue every year.

What if it happens to you? We’ve compiled 7 steps to take after a data breach on what you should do after discovering your company’s sensitive data became compromised.

What Should A Company Do After a Data Breach: 7 Steps To Take

1. Let Your Company’s Employees & Clients Know About the Data Breach

Never keep the information about a data breach secret. After all, your business is all about serving customers or clients. When their data gets breached, they need to know about it to protect themselves.

The same can be said for your internal employees. Their personal information may have also been breached, leading to possible identity theft and other criminal activity.

Always make an effort to let everyone in your company and your clients know exactly what happened. Letting customers know the details allows them to take action with the credit bureaus in the event someone tries to use their financial information. Your employees would take the same actions to protect themselves, unless you already have data security back in place.

Keeping this data breach information private could end up haunting your company after the fact. It could lead to lawsuits for allowing private data to get into the wrong hands. You could also lose many of your valued employees (and customers) due to a lack of trust.

2. Secure Your Systems

Where did the data breach occur in your IT systems? Get to work fixing where the breach happened without delays. More than one breach might have occurred, leaving you wide open to further breaches if you don’t stop them now.

After a data breach your company should attempt to change your access codes/passwords for a while until you get everything sorted out. Whoever it was that did the breach has those codes and can do whatever they want until you block them. Also, it’s a good idea to temporarily shut down all remote access to your systems out of precaution.

It’s also smart to put together a mobile breach team to respond as soon as possible. What that team looks like may entail more than just your on-site IT experts. This may involve lawyers, human resources, your communications department, and management as just a few.

3. Determine What Was Breached

What kind of data was breached in your business? Was it the financial information of your customers? Or did the hackers steal other information that could still give them the ability to steal identities? These are important questions for a company to ask after a data breach.

Merely stealing something as insignificant as birthday information is enough for a criminal to find personal information on someone. Even mailing addresses being compromised can bring a domino effect of personal data being stolen.

Email accounts can also be easily breached if passwords become hacked. Worst of all is the credit card information of your customers or employees being taken.

Despite being easy to have credit bureaus put up red flags on stolen cards, you need to find out exactly how many credit card numbers were stolen. You need to get your IT team on that now to pinpoint every detail and not place ambiguous statements in calls or letters.

4. Test to Make Sure Your New Cybersecurity Defenses Work

Once your company has addressed what happened in your data breach, it’s time to make sure any cybersecurity patches or procedures you put in place really work. A rush job on getting your IT security back in shape could mean missing a few things.

Most important is to do a test and make sure the method the hacker used to gain access to your data can’t happen the same way all over again. Without doing a thorough test, it definitely could happen again hours or days later.

This is why you need to trust your IT team to find out the source of the breach and exactly how it happened. A reliable security team can weed this out immediately.

Make sure all your servers and virtual machines are tested as well as part of your penetration testing process. These are usually the most vulnerable tech areas where data breaches happen. Your prior vulnerability should be thoroughly patched, including any other security vulnerabilities found during an inspection.

5. Update All Data Breach Protocols

It might be time to update the protocols you used to alert your staff about data breaches. How well-educated are they on what to do when it happens? Perhaps you found out your staff was caught off-guard on how to handle it since it never happened before.

Complacency is a major problem with many businesses that have no prior security breach experience. Take time to set up new procedures and educate your staff on the realities of what’s going on in the world.

Outsourcing a reliable IT team is also a good idea after a data breach so they can place new security technologies in place. They can teach you and your staff about the importance of watching out for phishing emails, including creating unique passwords not easily compromised.

Education and acute awareness are the best deterrents against data breaches today. The less you know, the more hackers win in finding gateways toward infiltrating your data.

6. Consider Getting Cyber Liability Insurance

To protect yourself further, it’s a good idea to look into cyber liability insurance policies that can protect any data losses. Losing data may mean big money losses over time, not including maybe paying settlements to those with compromised information.

Fully protecting your company now after a data breach should become an essential activity. If you went through a data breach recently, it might not be your last one during the life of your business.

7. Get Expert IT Help

As the world continues to navigate the complexities of a distributed workforce, Toniolo is here to support your organization. Toniolo can work closely to help you push security policies and configurations that adhere to industry best practices across your entire company to help prevent a data breach.

Our commitment to architecting IT infrastructure security starts at the core of your business. That’s why we unify security at the device, application, and network levels.

What is Identity Access Management? Solutions & Benefits to Know

Identity management may sound like the process of simply recording employee details and credentials. However, if performed correctly, it facilitates so much more than that. Identity access management allows for centralized control over who can access which company resources at any given time. In the context of today’s increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks, it is an invaluable tool for minimizing and containing potential threats. This article walks through the features of identity management solutions, and outlines the benefits of implementing such a tool.  

What is Identity Management?

Identity management is the practice of creating a unique digital identity for each employee, which is then used to identify, authenticate, and authorize their access to the organization’s IT resources. The digital attributes of an employee’s identity are stored in a central database, making it easier to instantly and securely verify their access and activities. 

Identity management is most useful when used in tandem with access management, which we’ll dive into below. It is particularly valuable for maintaining security in remote or hybrid work environments, where employees may be accessing company assets from a variety of locations and devices.  

What is Identity Access Management?

Identity Access Management (IAM) is the practice of providing employees with access to company resources based on their digital identity profile. Identity management and identity access management are two terms that are often used interchangeably. However, the main difference between the two is that identity management focuses on the user’s identity, while identity access management determines what resources each identity has access to. Rather than giving all employees access to all areas, this allows for a more secure approach of only granting access to what each individual needs. 

The identity access management framework is comprised of two access components. The first part is authentication, which deals with issues like managing active sessions, sign-on options, and providing strong authentication through biometrics or token-based algorithms.

The second component is authorization, which involves a user record that defines attributes, roles, and rules to ensure a particular user, application, or device has the necessary permissions to access a resource. 

Top 3 Identity Access Management Solutions

The following are the top 3 types of user authentication that identity access management solutions rely on:

1. Single Sign On (SSO): These identity access management solutions help improve productivity and reduce friction for employees. The user has one set of credentials for authentication and only uses the username and password once in order to access several platforms, making it easy to switch between different systems seamlessly.

2. Multi Factor Authentication: Popularly known as MFA, multi factor authentication creates an additional layer of security, requiring employees to present additional identifying credentials on top of their login before accessing information. For example, the system sends a code to your email or phone after entering your login credentials.    

3. Risk-based Authentication: Also known as adaptive authentication, this identity access management solution requests additional multi factor authentication when it detects suspicious users trying to access the organization’s information. For instance, when the employee’s IP reads from a different location than usual, it requests the user to provide further authentication. 

Why Do You Need Identity Access Management?

Most employees alternate between two and four passwords to access over 100 platforms and applications. This means IT administrators in small and medium-sized businesses have their hands full managing employee credentials in a secure way.

It is widely acknowledged that a significant proportion of cybersecurity breaches are caused by identity access issues such as hacked or stolen credentials. Adopting an identity management system reduces this risk and ensures identity access is centralized and automated to reduce errors. 

Using identity management solutions also helps your IT team to control, track, and monitor users that have access to the organization’s sensitive data while maintaining highly secure authentication protocols. As well as adding a layer of protection, this process improves collaboration and efficiency at your organization.  

4 Benefits of Identity Management Systems and Solutions

Security, productivity, and regulatory compliance are among the main reasons most businesses adopt identity management systems. However, these identity access management solutions can sometimes be complex to implement and manage in-house, particularly if your organization is operating with limited resources. By outsourcing to a managed IT solution, you can realize the following additional benefits of identity management:

1. Simplified user experience

Managed IT providers are well versed in the various approaches to setting up a successful identity management solution. Leveraging their experience will benefit your organization and employees through easy-to-use identity management processes. They can also create a custom solution that will meet the requirements of any employee while consolidating logins and making the sign-in process easy and fast. 

2. Saves costs and time

Developing and maintaining an identity management system for your company can be a time-consuming and expensive process. Outsourcing this service to experts who have access to the latest technologies is typically more cost-effective, plus they will be able to guide you on the most appropriate solution and service levels for your needs.   

3. Uphold regulatory compliance

In a world where data security standards are updated regularly, you need to ensure your business upholds the required measures. This can be challenging for small and medium-sized companies that don’t have a dedicated IT team to focus on compliance issues. Third-party identity management specialists can alleviate this stress, as they are more likely to be up to date with the latest regulatory compliance requirements.  

4. Reports and historical data

Without an identity access management solution, it is almost impossible for business owners to keep track of the devices and users accessing their organization’s data at specific times. Third-party solution providers generate reports based on historical data, which are highly critical when assessing data breaches or cyberattacks.

Optimize Your Identity Access Management 

At Toniolo, we can handle the administrative work involved in application and cloud management for your employees. From monitoring user permissions and fulfilling employee file-sharing policy requests, to providing full visibility into access configurations, you’ll enjoy streamlined identity management and a lighter internal workload. Contact us today to learn more.

Cybersecurity Incident Response: How to Make a Plan

Cyber attacks are an ever-growing threat for businesses of all sizes. While attempted attacks are almost inevitable, there are steps that organizations can take to prevent and mitigate damage as a result. Being prepared is crucial in order to successfully respond to a potential cyber breach, and that means having a documented cybersecurity incident response plan. This article covers the resources, people, and steps that all businesses should include in their cybersecurity incident response planning. 

What is a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan?

A cybersecurity incident response plan (CIRP) is a written document that outlines the steps a company should take when a cyber attack, data leak, breach, or other security incident occurs. Your incident response plan should include guidelines on how to handle specific attack scenarios, minimize the recovery time needed, protect key infrastructure against further damage, and mitigate the cybersecurity risk. 

All of a business’s employees should be familiar with the cybersecurity incident response plan so they are informed of what to do if they detect a suspected attack. Without a defined CIRP in place, your organization is unlikely to respond quickly and effectively to such attacks, and could suffer a wide range of financial, reputational, and legal consequences as a result.

4 Benefits of a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan

1. Organized Approach to Threat Management

Incident planning enables your organization to take a structured approach to the handling of cyber attacks, data leaks, data breaches, and other security incidents. A CIRP enables you to minimize the recovery time needed, protect key infrastructure against further damages, and mitigate any cybersecurity risk.

2. Trust Building

When stakeholders know that your organization maintains an updated response plan, they will have higher levels of confidence in the company. The planning process helps you to develop best practices for managing future threats and create relevant communication plans to improve stakeholder trust. 

3. Compliance Improvement

Cybersecurity incident response planning also helps your business to align with regulatory requirements. Industries such as finance and healthcare are particularly strict on issues like data protection, and incident response planning can help you meet your obligations in this area. Examples of such regulations are the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Healthcare Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

4. Quicker Mitigation

The final benefit of cybersecurity incident response planning is that your company can greatly reduce operational downtime in the event of an attack. When you maintain a formal approach to the handling of security incidents, you minimize the time it takes to get your systems back online.

What is a Cybersecurity Incident Response Team?

Although technology plays a vital role in your cybersecurity incident response, it shouldn’t be relied on to take care of everything. Ideally, you should also bring together knowledgeable professionals who can form an incident response team.

So, who are the people involved in incident planning, and what are their roles? A good cybersecurity incident response team should have a team leader, a lead investigator, a communications lead, a legal representative, and a documentation and timeline lead.

• Team leader: Tasked with driving and coordinating all activities involved in incident response. The team leader also maintains team members’ focus to enhance recovery and reduce overall damage.

• Lead investigator: Responsible for collecting and analyzing evidence. The lead investigator also determines the causes of cyber attacks, manages company security analysts, and spearheads service and rapid system recovery.

• Communications lead: Tasked with sending regular updates and communications to all stakeholders.

• Legal representative: This team member helps your business to align with the relevant regulatory guidelines and deal with any legal implications post-attack.

• Documentation and timeline lead: Tasked with documenting all processes, tasks, and findings, and ensuring all documentation is always up to date.

6 Things You Need in a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan

There are six phases involved in a CIRP: preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery, and lessons learned. These phases form the foundation of a continuous incident response cycle.

Let’s cover each phase in depth to help build your cybersecurity incident response policy:

1. Preparation: The first phase of the CIRP takes place before an attack ever arises. The main activities in this stage of your plan are employee training on cybersecurity best practices, performing a risk assessment, and developing drill scenarios. Having a business cyber security checklist would be useful.

2. Identification: If an attack or attempted attack occurs, employees should be in a position to identify the threat quickly. The issue should then be rapidly escalated through the appropriate channels so your response team can clarify where the attack happened, the stakeholders involved in its discovery, the scope, areas that have been affected, and the point of entry.

3. Containment: The third step is utilizing your predetermined containment strategies. At this stage, you should take steps to isolate any affected systems or devices while investigations are ongoing. In the medium to long term, this can also involve temporary fixes to allow work to continue as normal elsewhere.

4. Eradication: The next phase involves purging the root cause of an attack. A key issue to consider is the extent of the damage caused by the breach, as this will inform whether you need to enlist additional or external resources for assistance. You should also patch and update any identified cybersecurity vulnerabilities at this stage.

5. Recovery: The fifth step is recovery. Here, you should restore the affected systems to their usual environments. You should also aim to return to normal operations while assessing the need for any ongoing monitoring.

6. Lessons learned: In the final phase, you should assemble all of the cybersecurity incident response team members and discuss lessons learned. The aim is to ensure that vulnerabilities have been recorded and that your systems are now better placed to prevent and contain future security incidents. It’s also helpful to identify any next steps that may be needed, such as refreshed employee training or additional security software.

Get Expert Help with your Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan

Maintaining an updated cybersecurity incident response plan within your company is the first step toward dealing with a cyber attack. If you wait for a breach to occur before thinking about your response, it’s already too late. Toniolo offers businesses robust cybersecurity at the device, application, and network levels. Get in touch to learn more about protecting your business. 

Everything You Need to Know About Cybersecurity Insurance

As the cyber threats faced by small businesses continue to grow, taking out cybersecurity insurance is a worthwhile investment. Many small business owners mistakenly assume that their company is too small to be at risk of cyber attack. However, almost all organizations are now susceptible, and the costs of recovery can be significant enough to put you out of business. 

Cybersecurity insurance provides a safety net to help you deal with the financial repercussions of an attack, and return to normal operations as quickly as possible. Keep reading for everything you need to know about cybersecurity insurance, including what it covers and who needs it.

What Is Cybersecurity Insurance?

Also known as cyber insurance or cyber liability insurance, cybersecurity insurance is a policy that protects organizations in the event of high cost data breaches and cyber-related crimes. 

With cybersecurity insurance coverage, you can reduce business disruption during and after cyber attacks, and cover some or all of the financial implications of an attack. With the evolution in cyber threats, this coverage is vital for small businesses that record their employees’ and customers’ personally identifiable information (PII).  

Who Needs Cybersecurity Insurance?

Any business that stores or processes confidential data should have cybersecurity insurance in place. If you handle data such as names, addresses, financial information, medical records, social security numbers, etc., cybersecurity coverage is essential. 

Regardless of your company size, you will find value in cybersecurity insurance. When it comes to coverage, you have two different options: first-party coverage and third-party coverage. A business that stores financial and customer data should at least have first-party coverage. In the case of a ransomware attack, for example, the insurer can step in to cover some or all of the ransom payment.  

Businesses that store more sensitive customer data like social security numbers should also consider third-party coverage. This kind of information has more significant consequences for your customers if it is stolen, since it can lead to identity theft. Third-party insurance covers the legal fees and judgments if you are sued for damages resulting from a cyber attack. This is also a viable option for small businesses that work with the data of other companies.

What is Covered by Cybersecurity Insurance Policies?

It is worth noting that a cybersecurity insurance policy does not cover every potential eventuality related to cyber threats. However, good cybersecurity insurance should support the recovery basics from cyber attacks. The following are the key elements to look out for when seeking cybersecurity coverage for your business. 

Legal Expenses

Legal representation is vital in the event of a significant breach, especially if a suit is filed against your organization. Check that your cybersecurity insurance policy covers the applicable legal costs in this scenario. 

Cyber Extortions

Cyber insurance will sometimes cover financial payments and response costs associated with ransom demands. Currently, network-based extortion demands are on the rise following the proliferation of ransomware and anonymous currencies. Cyber extortion coverage is crucial if you experience an attack that threatens to divulge sensitive information or shut down a system if a ransom is not paid. 

Forensic Expenses

In the event that you discover sensitive data has been compromised, you will need to dig deeper into what information was accessed and how it happened. Cyber insurance should cover the expenses of hiring a forensic team from outside your organization to carry out the investigation.

Business Interruption

Businesses that rely heavily on technology for their day-to-day operations should seek a policy with a business interruption provision. Such a policy protects your business when a cyber attack affects daily operations through tech failures, viruses, hacking, and more.  

Public Relations Expenses

The way in which a data breach is reported to the media is critical for reputational restoration for your company. You will also need to focus on maintaining relationships with your business associates, vendors, clients, and partners. To achieve this in a cost-effective manner, look for a policy that will cover public relations expenses following an attack.

Data Recovery

Cyber insurance should cover the replacement, restoration, and repair costs for any damaged data or software. It may also cover the cost of defending and resolving claims regarding the handling of confidential personal and corporate data. 

Digital Media

Cybersecurity insurance should cover any costs for defending and resolving claims related to online content such as trademark or copyright infringement, defamation, privacy invasion, unfair practices, etc. Any cost of settling claims made against you in your media activities, including in social media, will ideally be covered. 

Cybersecurity Business Insurance Requirements

Cybersecurity insurance providers will typically require you to have certain security measures in place in order to be eligible for coverage. These requirements vary from provider to provider, but the steps outlined below are a good place to start when seeking cybersecurity insurance:

• Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for employees who access email through web apps or non-corporate devices.

• Implement an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) product throughout your enterprise.

• Implement business-wide Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) software.

• Encrypt your company’s backups.

• Enforce MFA for protection of privileged user accounts.

• Ensure your backups are detached from your network (offline) or in a cloud service

For more in-depth preparation, download Toniolo’s Cybersecurity Checklist!

Protect your Business from Cyber Attack

The process of taking out cybersecurity insurance that adequately protects your business starts with analysing your needs and risks. At Toniolo, we provide small businesses with the support and solutions you need to reduce the risk of data breaches and cyber attacks. Contact us today to learn more about implementing a robust cybersecurity strategy in your organization.

Why is Encryption Important? Every Reason It’s Necessary

As a business leader, you know the importance of protecting sensitive information from hackers, identity thieves, and other threat actors. These criminals target unsuspecting businesses every day, compromising or stealing sensitive data such as customer details, financial records, intellectual property, and more. 

Data is the world’s most valuable (and vulnerable) resource. It can either make or break your business, depending on how well you manage and use it. To combat the associated threats, organizations must encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transit. But what exactly is encryption, and why is it important to your business? 

What is Encryption?

Encryption is the process of converting data into an unreadable format using mathematical algorithms. In simple terms, this means that when someone tries to read encrypted data, they won’t be able to interpret what it says. The only way to decrypt the data is through a key – a secret number used to convert the encrypted data back into its original form. 

Encryption occurs between two parties: the sender and the recipient. When sending sensitive data over public networks, such as the internet, both parties must ensure the data remains secure. For example, the sender and receiver can share a unique code called an asymmetric key. Once the sender generates the key, they send it to the receiver, who uses it to decrypt the data. 

Why is Encryption Important?

Without encryption, your sensitive data could be vulnerable to attack. For instance, if you store credit card numbers on a server, anyone with physical access to the server could potentially steal those numbers. If your website gets hacked, malicious software could capture the credit card numbers stored in your database. 

To further understand the need to implement strong encryption practices across your organization, we’ve listed the various types of encryption, and why they matter, below.

Why File Encryption is Important

File encryption ensures that your files remain safe while in storage or transit. Here is why file encryption software is important:

• Data stored on servers and computers is often exposed to hacking attacks, so file encryption protects your data from unauthorized users.

• When you create a new document or spreadsheet, you might include personal information, including your name, address, phone number, social security number, etc. You never want to leave this information unprotected, especially if you plan to give it to third parties.

• When you transfer files between devices, you may not always know where the files will end up. For example, you might copy a file from one computer to another, but you’re unsure whether the destination device will be connected to the network. If that happens, you’ll need to encrypt the files before transferring them. This prevents others from accessing the files even if they get intercepted during transmission.

Why Encryption is Important in Data Security

As mentioned above, encryption helps prevent unauthorized access to data. But it also protects against other threats. For example:

• Encryption makes it harder for cybercriminals to intercept your data. They would need to break into your system first, then crack your encryption algorithm, which makes you a less appealing target.

• If someone accesses your system unlawfully, they won’t be able to see anything substantial unless they employ brute force methods. Brute force methods involve guessing passwords until the correct one is found. However, these methods take a lot longer than breaking the encryption algorithm.

• Encryption helps protect your business reputation. When you store sensitive data in an encrypted format, no one can read it unless they have the proper decryption key, making disruption to your customers much less likely.

Why Email Encryption is Important

Email encryption helps ensure that your sensitive email messages stay private. Here are some reasons why you should consider using email encryption:

• Your email messages contain valuable information. For example, you may send an employee a file containing sensitive financial details. Or, you may share a document with a client that has proprietary information. Email encryption helps keep this information safe.

• Spam emails are more than an inconvenience in your inbox, hackers can use sophisticated spamming techniques to install malware on your system. With email encryption, you can authenticate email senders, eliminating the likelihood that an employee will click on a malicious link.

• You may want to forward an email to multiple recipients. To do this securely, you must ensure that each recipient receives a unique copy of the original message. Otherwise, all copies will become encrypted and unusable.

Why End-to-End Encryption is Important

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a feature that ensures that no one besides the sender and receiver have access to your messages. E2EE uses public-key cryptography, which involves two keys. One key belongs to you, and the other to the person you want to communicate with. Once you’re done sending the message, you destroy the key used to encrypt the message. This prevents anyone else from reading the message except for the intended recipient.

Here are a few reasons why you should consider end-to-end encryption:

• It keeps your personal information secure. With end-to-end encrypted messaging, you know that no one but the intended recipient can read your messages. And because the messages are in the cloud, they’re not left unsecured on your computer.

• It makes it harder for hackers to steal your data. Hackers often target small businesses because they don’t have strong cybersecurity protections in place. But if your company sends sensitive data via end-to-end protected messaging, then hackers have less opportunity to steal it.

• Identity thieves can intercept your unencrypted messages to impersonate you and make purchases in your name. However, when you use end-to-end secured messaging, only the intended recipient can view your messages.

Ensure Your Business is Using Encryption Effectively

Protecting sensitive company data is key to your business’s success. Using encryption ensures you remain compliant with consumer protection laws, prevents costly cyber attacks, and protects your brand reputation. At Toniolo, we’re proud to offer unparalleled cybersecurity support. Contact us today to learn more about protecting your business.