Security breaches are one of the biggest concerns that businesses of all sizes have to worry about. How companies who have had their businesses security system compromised react can play an essential role in how the business moves forward and how their customers are affected.
Business security systems refer to the security systems that businesses have to protect their property, workers, and inventory. The features that the system contains will depend on the security needs that the company has.
A business security system is designed to detect any intruders on the property and sound an alarm. Whenever the alarm is triggered in the monitoring system, it sends a signal to the monitoring station where the security personnel or the authorities are dispatched. The noise that the system creates can also be enough to scare off intruders.
The chances of having your business security system compromised are very high, and you must take the necessary steps required to respond adequately. Below are some of the steps that you can follow to avoid unnecessary business harm that might negatively affect the reputation of your business.
- Assemble a taskforce
Mitigating the damage from the compromised security system requires clear thinking and quick action. There needs to be a pre-determined and clear response protocol in place that people will follow in managing the incident.
You must have the right team at hand for the job. This team should include an appointed leader who will be responsible for responding to the security breach. Some of the best choices for this role would be the chief risk officer or your CIO. The chosen leader should directly communicate with top-level management, allowing for a quicker decision-making process.
The team should also include members from all relevant areas in the organization, including IT, as they would be able to effectively trace and deal with the technical flaws that lead to the breach. The members that are responsible for corporate affairs would be able to manage media and customer communications. The chief privacy officer would also have to deal with any legal issues and advise the business on potential exposure.
- Containment
Once the team has identified the cause of the security breach, they would be able to ensure that it is contained. Some of the steps to manage the security breach include:
Installing patches: Security patches can be effective in resolving viruses and any technology flaws.
Resetting passwords: passwords should be reset for user accounts that might have been compromised. Other users should also be advised to change their accounts that might use the same password.
Recalling or deleting information: This process entails recalling information, such as recalling emails from unintended recipients and asking them to delete copies or disabling links that might have been mistakenly posted.
- Identify the severity of the breach
You should also assess the extent of the breach as the assessment results will determine steps that will follow in your response. To do a thorough assessment will require you to do the following:
- Identify what and who has been affected: The process requires you to determine what data has been compromised, which can be done through a conservative approach to estimation.
- Assess how the data can potentially be used against the victims: The data that has been accessed can be used for identity theft or other forms of criminal activity. It should be treated as being more severe. However, if the data was anonymised or encrypted, then it has a lower risk of harm.
- Consider the context of the breach: The consequences of a deliberate and inadvertent security breach will differ significantly. The consequences of an intentional security breach for the individuals or organizations would be more significant. Understanding the context of the breach will determine how you respond to it as well.
- Notification
After a security breach, you must notify internal and external players. You should communicate with the internal departments and external players, such as clients and partners. Ensure that you have an outlined transparent communication chain before you detect the breach and after the breach. You should communicate with the victims that might be affected to take the necessary steps to protect themselves like changing their passwords and cancelling their credit cards.
- Plan ahead
Once you have addressed the threat of the breach, then it is essential to take steps to ensure that you prevent the breach from occurring again in the future. Prevention of future breaches can be done by conducting post-breach audits to determine any security practices that you can improve. Some of these practices include:
- Speak with the data security consultant to understand your existing practices and reassure your customers and any other parties that you do business with.
- Ensure that you quickly fix any security flaws that you might have, which should be reflected in security policies relating to data and training documents.
- Conduct training to the relevant workers to ensure that they are aware of the latest policies.
Have a look at the 6 Common Crimes to be Aware of Committed Within South African Businesses.
