“A company like ours got hit.”
If it happened to them, could it happen to you?
You cannot answer that question right now. That is why it is bothering you, and the discomfort is a reasonable response to genuinely not knowing.
When a business in your industry or your town gets hit, the useful reaction is not fear. It is the recognition that you have been relying on an assumption you have never checked.
The good news, such as it is: attacks on businesses your size are rarely sophisticated. They are opportunistic, and they succeed through the same handful of ordinary gaps almost every time. Which means the fixes are also ordinary.
Right now
What is probably true today.
Based on what we find in businesses that arrive this way. Not all of it will apply. Enough of it usually does.
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Whatever happened to them almost certainly started with a person, a password, or a system nobody had updated.
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You have at least two of the six gaps we find in nearly every business we assess.
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Your recovery plan is an assumption about how long things would take, not a tested figure.
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Nobody has ever tried to break in on purpose to find out what would work.
Regardless of who you hire
What to do this week.
None of this requires us. Do it yourself, or hand it to whoever helps you with technology.
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1
Find out what actually happened to them, if you can
Industry peers are often surprisingly open about it afterwards, particularly if you ask privately. The specific route in is usually more instructive than any general advice.
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2
Check whether every single person has multi-factor authentication
Every person, every system, no exceptions. This one control blocks the majority of the attacks that hit businesses your size, and partial coverage is close to none.
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3
Take the self-assessment honestly
Fifteen minutes, no email required. It will tell you whether your discomfort is proportionate, and it might tell you it is not, which is also worth knowing.
Worth reading next
What You Need to Know About the Prescott College Data Breach
Prescott College has suffered a data breach. We’re here to discuss what it may mean for students, staff, and you.
5 Easy Yet Powerful Steps Every Business Leader Must Take for Ultimate Cybersecurity
In our ever-changing digital world, do you ever wonder if you’re doing enough to protect your business? Perhaps, you don’t even know where to start!
If you would rather not work through it alone
Fifteen minutes, and we will tell you what we would do.
No pitch on the first call. Tell us what happened and we will tell you honestly how serious it is, what we would tackle first, and whether you need an assessment at all.
No pitch on the first call. If we are not a fit, we will say so and point you somewhere better.