Now that you know what you have, confirm what is in place to protect it. All sensitive data should be encrypted and should be accessible only by the staff who need to use it. This will lessen your exposure should a breach occur. Two-factor authentication (2FA) can be put into place to require something in addition to a log in and password to gain access.
A strong multi-factor authentication program will require at least two of the three forms of authentication:
Additionally, it’s a wise idea to invest in additional security measures such as firewalls and endpoint protection, patch management, and more. If your organization doesn’t have the in-house staff to set up and maintain these tools, consider working with a cybersecurity firm.
Before an incident ever occurs, it’s crucial to have a response plan in place. Do you have the expertise on staff to quickly identify threats, know what action to take, and how to remediate without compromising logs or other evidence that could be needed if litigation occurs? Do you know who will be responsible for leading the efforts? What if the incident occurs outside of normal business hours? Unless you have a 24/7/365 IT security team in place, it’s a smart idea to work with an incident response team to quickly mitigate and remediate the damage from a breach.
In addition to your technical response, you’ll also likely have a public relations or reporting response. You may be required to notify regulators in the event of a breach. In November 2021, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) issued a final rule on how banks need to handle and report cybersecurity-related incidents. The proposed SEC rules would expand this ruling to all publicly traded companies.