You’ve Been HACKED! What Should You Do?

January 31, 2020 Blog
You Have Been Hacked

Sadly there is always a chance that IT security will be breached.  So what should you do when you’ve been hacked?  One way to make a bad situation worse is not knowing what you should do first when it happens.

First and Foremost: STAY CALM!

Take advice from those “Keep Calm and… blank” T-shirts your staff wears on casual Fridays. Reacting impulsively in the face of internal panic could do more harm than good. Focus on minimizing the issues by taking thoughtful actions to the problem at hand.

Second: Respond Quickly:

The sooner you respond, the more money you can save. According to a 2016 IBM & Ponemon Institute study, “leveraging an incident response team was the single biggest factor associated with reducing the cost of a data breach – saving companies nearly $400,000 on average (or $16 per record).” Start with Verifying the attack:

  • Identify which systems have been hit
  • Determine which IP addresses were used in the attack
  • Confirm the type of attack (Malware? Virus? Remote Access? Something else?)

Don’t Feel Comfortable with this? That’s okay J Contact your IT person. The faster they can address the breach and figure out its extent, the better served you’ll be.

Third Step: Quarantine the Problem

Much like you keep a sick kid away from others, isolate infected computers. Act fast to take the infected source or impacted applications off of the network, doing this can better contain the breach and prevent any virus or malware from spreading further.

Fourth Step: Allow Time for Recovery

  The attacked computers or servers will need some down time, just like your sick kid. Prioritize the order for cleaning and restoring based on how critical each computer and server is to the business. You will want to install your most recent backup and change all passwords for all users and systems.

Step 5: Disclose breach to affected parties

Step 6: Plan for the Next attack.

Oh yes! They will come at you again and they will sell your info to their buddy’s that will also try and come after you now.  Try to learn as much as possible about the attack. Was the hacker trying to gain access to specific information, disrupt your business, or take control of the systems to enact a larger attack? Understanding the breach can help you improve your security plan.

Lastly: Educate Your Staff

New training for employees to avoid putting your business’s data and sensitive information in danger. Plan to address:

  • Passwords Security
  • Don’t share personal information
  • Don’t click on links and downloads if you are not 100% sure
  • Keep antivirus and malware protections up to date

As Always 🙂  If you need IT help, We’ve got your back 🙂  Please call us to schedule a FREE IT Consult at 937-291-9900. We’ll be happy to give you a free evaluation on your overall network and device security as well as advise you on if you have any risk areas.

You may also like