3 Reasons Why Every Business Should Have an Incident Response Plan

Are you ready to mount an incident response? In today’s volatile cybercrime landscape, every organization needs to be able to answer “yes”. 

Surging cybercrime rates including record-high phishing numbers make it clear that businesses are under siege by cybercrime, and it only takes one attack that penetrates security to start a company down the long road to an expensive incident response and recovery process. That’s a prospect that no one wants to face.  It’s also a slippery slope that often ends with a company going under. Falling victim to a cyberattack can put an organization out of business fast – 60% of companies shutter within 6 months of a successful cyberattack against them.

Making an incident response plan is essential for preventing that kind of grim result as well as gaining some budgetary benefits right now.  

An incident response plan is a low-cost, high-benefit security secret weapon that many companies overlook, and that’s a huge mistake when you’re looking for ways to make affordable and fast-acting security improvements. It brings unexpected bonuses to the table that provide great value. Incident response planning empowers businesses to maintain stronger security now, come out of an incident with more cash and prevent another incident in the future.

Laying out the budgetary impact of an incident and demonstrating the need to be financially prepared can help win the argument for putting funds in reserve in case of trouble. 

3 Smart  Reasons Why Every Business Needs an Incident Response Plan 

1. Reduce Incident Investigation Expenses and Incident Costs 

Just creating and drilling an incident response plan can provide a sharp reduction in the number of security incidents that a prepared business faces overall. IBM researchers determined that 39% of organizations with a formal, tested incident response plan experienced an incident, compared to 62% of those who didn’t have a plan. Every incident a company doesn’t have to investigate is a chunk of change that can be better spent on other security measures. It’s also an impressive reduction in risk just from being prepared. 

2. Quickly Find Unnecessary Security Expenditures  

No business can afford to spend money on things that it doesn’t need, especially in challenging economic times like these. Considering possible cyberattack scenarios and the tools that the company would need to take care of them when engaging in incident response planning can uncover areas of waste and shake out much-needed funds to be diverted to other security needs.

3. Strengthen Compliance Across the Board    

Most compliance requirements include a requirement to perform security assessments. That dovetails nicely with the assessments that companies perform when making or reviewing incident response plans. Companies with incident response plans also have a better eye on compliance and data handling practices which enables them to spot and fix vulnerabilities efficiently.

Time is of the essence when dealing with a cyberattack, and without a plan, companies can be left floundering when they need to be agile. It can take time to even find the problem, leaving very little left on the clock for fixing the problem before it does too much damage. If you think your company needs help  Contact us today or book a discovery session.