Here's how you can bounce back from a major IT security breach.

Assess the extent of the damage caused by the IT security breach, including compromised data and systems. Quickly identify vulnerabilities and develop a comprehensive plan to mitigate risks, strengthen security measures, and restore operations effectively.

Reassess software security, particularly password protocols. For example, employees can share passwords (but a maximum of ONE password per FIVE employees). This increases password security 500%, as if one person forgets, the other four people will probably know it.

Start by assessing the damage. Determine the compromised systems, accessed data, and impact on business operations. This critical step forms the basis for your recovery strategy. Identify affected information like customer data or intellectual property to comply with regulatory requirements. Understanding the scope enables timely notifications to affected parties and regulatory bodies, ensuring transparency and compliance.

I would like to emphasise a very important point here and that is while you are trying to contain breach as soon as possible, dont power off the machines. Why i am saying so, i am saying so because when you power off machines, the evidences and RCA which would later be required to be done by your own teams or outside teams will not be able to get anything from volatile memory as everything gets lost on power off. So please dont switch off/power off machines in a hurry to contain. You may pull out network cables to isolate i.e. fine but no power off.

To bounce back from a major IT security breach, containment is crucial. After assessing damage, focus on halting further unauthorized access or data loss. Disconnect infected machines, revoke compromised credentials, or implement temporary firewalls. Priority lies in preventing breach spread while balancing business continuity and system security.

In the effort towards communicating clearly, the first thing is nomination of Point of Contact. We must have single point of contact in our organisation to brief stakeholders, customers, government/law enforcement agencies (preliminary briefing). Communication can swing the direction of events to a very ugly situation. The communication/ updates should be transparent but not cover things which are unclear. No additional information be added to briefings to make the event sensitive, without any requirement.

After a security breach, clear communication is key. Inform stakeholders, including customers and partners, about the situation and your resolution efforts. Be transparent but avoid sharing technical details that could be exploited. Maintain a clear, consistent message across all channels to preserve trust and manage your organization's reputation effectively.

Thorough investigation post-breach is crucial for understanding its origin and preventing future incidents. Engage IT security professionals for forensic analysis to trace the breach, methods used, and vulnerabilities exploited. Insights gained will inform security posture enhancements, strengthening defenses against similar threats.

Once you've contained the breach and understood its mechanics, begin restoring affected systems. This involves removing any malicious code, patching vulnerabilities, and securely restoring data from backups if necessary. Ensure that all systems are clean before reconnecting them to your network. This step may take time, but it's crucial to ensure that no threats remain that could lead to another breach.

This is a dumb question. "Bouncing back" is never anything my team or I focus on. Proper Incident Management is the key to resolving these challenging situations. At the heart of effective incident management is a well-defined and practiced incident response plan. This plan should outline the steps to be taken in the event of a security incident, from initial detection and containment to investigation, remediation, and recovery. By having this framework in place, organizations can respond quickly and efficiently, minimizing the damage and disruption caused by the breach. A retrospective is important after an incident so the team can learn and apply all lessons learned to prevent a similar attack in the future.

What i want to emphasise for concluding this articl is that while you are trying everything to bounce back from breach, dont forget to draw your lessons from the breach. Lessons learned from a major IT security breach can be invaluable in helping organizations bounce back and strengthen their cybersecurity posture. You should see as to what all was not correct in terms of security control implementation, whether incident response was good, what all weaknesses were left and so on. In my opinion lessons learnt from major IT security breaches can serve as a catalyst for positive change, driving improvements in cybersecurity practices, policies, and technologies to better protect organizations from cyber threats in future.