Calling for Backup

by | Aug 28, 2019 | Cybersecurity, Incidence Response

It’s common knowledge that we should all be backing up our data. It’s important not only in case of system errors, but also in the event of stolen data and other security breaches. But what isn’t talked about as often is testing these backups.  

This is something that Arizona Beverages found out the hard way. Earlier this year, the company found themselves victim to a ransomware attack that wiped information on more than 200 servers and networked computers. But the real trouble began when IT staff realized that their backup systems where misconfigured, effectively making it impossible to recover their data without outside help. Because of the mistake, the company spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on new hardware, software, and recovery services.  

While there is nothing good about suffering a ransomware attack, having backups of your data can severely limit the consequences of the attack — as long those backups actually work. This is why it’s essential to regularly test your backup systems. 

In order to ensure their systems are backed up frequently, organizations will often automate this process. And while this can be useful, it’s important to not just assume that everything is working as expected.  

And there is more to backing up your data then the actual backup process. You want to make sure that not only that you properly backed–up targeted data, but that it can be successfully restored. This includes ensuring that no file corruption occurs in the process of backing up and restoring that data. There’s no worse feeling than restoring your data only to find it completely useless.  

How frequently you test your backups should be decided by each organization depending on regulatory constraints, risk-assessment, and business strategy. However, whatever is decided should be incorporated into your cybersecurity policy and carried out consistently.  

Nothing keeps IT professionals up at night like the thought of irredeemably losing system data. Not only could months or years’ worth of work vanish in an instant, but it could end up costing tons in regulatory fines and recovery services. 

Simply put: test your backups, sleep easy.  

 

Reducing the Cost of a Breach

by | Aug 16, 2019 | Incidence Response

The thought of a data breach is enough to send a chill down any business owner’s spine. And rightly so. Last month The Ponemon Institute released its annual Cost of a Data Breach Report, showing that the cost for companies that experience a breach continues to rise. According to the report, data breaches cost U.S. companies an average of $8.19 million per breach — far above the global average of $3.92 million.  

And the news is even worse for small businesses. The report found that smaller organizations suffer higher costs relative to larger ones. While a data breach will cost a large organization $204 per employee, smaller organization see that cost jump up to $3,533 per employee.  

The report also shows that a single breach can have a long-term impact on a business. New in this year’s report is an analysis of so-called “longtail costs” that show how organizations feel the impact or the breach years after it occurred. It turns out that only 67% of the cost of a breach comes in the first year, with 22% in the second year, and 11% in the third.  

Reducing the Cost of a Breach

So that’s the bad news. Luckily, the report also lays out a number of steps that have proven to significantly reduce the cost of a breach.  

Incident Response Plan and Simulation 

By far, the most effective way to reduce breach costs is to respond quickly. The report found that on average it took companies 206 days to identify a breach and another 73 days to contain it. However, those that were able to find and stop a breach in under 200 days saved a whopping $1.2 million.  

The best way to ensure you’re able to response fast is to have a detailed incident response team in place and conduct periodic tests of your response plan. According to the report, the combination of an IR plan and regular incident simulations leads to greater cost savings than any single security process — saving an organization an average of $1.23 million 

Encryption 

The report also shows that properly encrypting your most sensitive data will help reduce the cost of a breach. Encrypting data essentially scrambles up your information so that it can’t be read without a key to unencrypt it. According to the report, companies that encrypt their data on premise, at the endpoint, in transit, and in the cloud reduced the cost of a breach by an average of $360,000. 

Security Automation 

More and more organizations are using security automation such as machine learning, analytics, and incident response orchestration to fast identify and contain system vulnerabilities. According to the report, the cost of a data breach is 95% higher for organizations without security automation in place. There are a number of automated security processes available, but even just conducting regular vulnerability scans will go a long way toward reducing the cost of a breach.  

Customer-Centric Governance

The report also found that companies with effective governance and leadership in place, such as a chief privacy officer or chief information security officer who focuses on preserving customer trust is a key driver in reducing breach costs and maintaining a companies key asset:  it’s reputation.

Keep Things Simple  

Another interesting aspect of the report is that it shows that, when it comes to security technology, more is not always better. Excessive use of third parties, extensive cloud migration, and system complexity all increase the cost of a data breach. It’s therefore important to minimize the complexity of your security technologies where possible.  

Conclusion

All in all, business owners can’t just cross their fingers and hope nothing bad happens. This past year, the chances of a company experiencing a breach in within two years increased to nearly 30% — a statistic that has jumped up by a third in just five years. As the report shows, preparing now can greatly reduce the financial impact if the worst does happen. The thought of experiencing a data breach is enough to make anyone feel powerless, but, from impact reduction to a fully prepared incident response team, there are concrete steps anyone can take to take back control of the situation.  

Invasion of the Data Snatchers

by | Jul 31, 2019 | Data Breach, Incidence Response

As you’ve probably heard by now, this week Capital One became the latest company to experience a massive breach of consumer information. According to the company, the breach includes the compromised data of over 100 million individuals. Those effected includes both Capital One customers and those who submitted a credit card application within the past 14 years. Most notably, the information stolen includes about 140,000 Social Security number and 80,000 bank account numbers. However, information such as names, addresses, reported income, and credit scores were also compromised in the attack.  

One of the most interesting aspects of the breach is that the hacker reportedly responsible for breach, once worked for Amazon Web Services, which hosts the Capital One database that was compromised. Paige Thompson, the woman allegedly responsible for the attack, gained access to the database by making use of credentials for the web application’s firewall. This makes the attack just the latest in a long list of breaches involving insider threats via a third-party.  It is also the latest in a long line of breaches where the access was gained through a web application.

Too Early for Key Takeaways Except for One Big Takeaway

A lot remains unknown about the role Ms. Paige was playing, how she moved through the AWS space (Capital One was not the only company she gained access to) and what her motives were.  However, it does show that Capital One’s Incidence Response team was prepared to move quickly once the incident was made known.  In some cases, being very good at dealing with a crisis is perhaps your strongest (and maybe only) defense.

Practice Makes Perfect

by | Jul 12, 2019 | Cybersecurity, Data Breach, Incidence Response

Given the increased threat of cyber-attacks facing organizations today, it’s not only important to have protections in place to prevent attacks, but also make sure you’re prepared if the worst actually happens. Having an incident response plan is an important first step, but frankly it’s not enough. You don’t want the first time you need your response plan to be the first time you use it. Running periodic incident response simulations is therefore a must. 

Here are some steps you can take to perform your own incident response simulation: 

Review Your Plan 

  • Identify a response team. Make sure a you’ve designated a team to respond to any incidents and that every member knows their role within the overall response procedure. 
  • Conduct an inventory of your data. Make sure you know where your data is and what types are most sensitive. If you collect personally identifiable information or personal health information, for instance, you’ll definitely want to know where to find it in the event of a breach. 
  • Know what regulation and contractual requirements will govern your response. This often entails prompt notice of a breach to certain entities outside your organization. Insurance carriers, forensics teams, states attorney generals, and clients might need to be notified should something happen. Moreover, regulations vary from state to state and country to country, so it’s important to understand where your clients are located in order to know how to respond accordingly.  
  • Know who you need to contact that is outside of the organization.  Your insurance carrier?  Forensics?  Clients?  The FBI?  Make sure those contacts are documented so you do not have to hunt for them when the malware hits the fan.

Run Through a Scenario 

  • Malicious insider action, breach of sensitive data, host application compromise, denial of service attack; lost or stolen IT assets, and ransomware attack. are all examples of possible scenarios you could face. Of course, not all organizations will be vunerable to the same types of incidents, so take some time to identify the scenarios that could responsibly happen to you.  
  • Bring your response team together and walk through what steps need to be taken for every possible scenario, and make sure everyone know who will be responsible for what.  
  • After a run-through, note any questions or issues what need to be resolved. For example, are you unable to know if your backup works because they haven’t been tested? Are you capable of identifying exactly what data was exposed? Do you need a retainer for a forensics company to ensure prompt help? Comb through every detail and make sure every question is answered.  

Rinse and Repeat 

You’re probably not going to nail the response on your first try. That’s why it’s important to keep practicing these simulations until you feel confident that you and your team will be ready to respond quickly and effective should the worst happen.  

 

Doing simulations can actually help save costs in the event a breach occurs. According to The Ponemon Institute’s 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study, a fully functional response teams save on average 14% of total data breach costs, and fast responses to a breach can save up to 26% of response costs. Taking the time now to make sure you’re prepared can save time, money, and your reputation.