Cyberattacks Are Inevitable – 9 Steps Businesses Must Take to Prepare

With cyber threats rapidly escalating, businesses can no longer cling to the fantasy that they won’t be attacked. High-profile breaches across industries make it clear – sophisticated threat actors are coming for your data, systems and operations.

Rather than ineffective “it can’t happen here” thinking, organisations must accept that a successful cyberattack or data breach will inevitably occur eventually, despite best efforts. Proactive preparation is essential for managing the aftermath of an inevitable intrusion.

This article outlines 9 key steps businesses should undertake now to get ready for the cyber incidents ahead:

• Develop comprehensive response plans detailing roles, actions and communications
• Conduct frequent incident response exercises to test and refine plans
• Build security team capabilities with skilled staff and external partners
• Implement ongoing coaching to keep employees vigilant
• Maintain offline backups of critical data and systems
• Construct redundancies and failovers for continuity of operations
• Secure remote access and limit lateral movement
• Audit vendor/partner security to close third-party risks
• Prepare ransomware-specific protections and response
• Have crisis communication templates ready for timely notifications

By investing in resilience capabilities and planning ahead for effective breach response, companies can significantly reduce damages and recover more quickly when an incident occurs. Don't wait for the crisis to start preparing – act now to implement response readiness.