Avoiding a cyber crisis can come down to properly managing a cyber incident before, during, and after it unfolds. Multiple functions and skill sets must be highly coordinated to contain and manage crisis incidents.
Effective crisis preparation goes beyond cyber incident response to address the entire crisis management lifecycle of readiness, response, and recovery. Readiness involves not only 24/7 monitoring but also preparing team members to deal with an incident or crisis. Vigorous, coordinated responses to incidents limit damage and losses. Post-event recovery focuses on returning to normal operations, assessing the causes, and disseminating lessons learned.
Overall, the goal of cybersecurity—the main deterrent to cyber incidents— is to develop a secure, vigilant, and resilient organization.
Most organizations lack the resources to develop and maintain all necessary incident and crisis response capabilities in-house. The expertise required, the evolving risk landscape, and the resources of cybercriminals render it impractical for most organizations to go it alone. An outsourced or co-sourced approach with a provider of managed cybersecurity and response services may be the best option for most organizations.