- Introduction
- What is a cyber attack?
- How to survive a cyber attack?
- Post-attack remedial mechanisms
- How Kaseya, a software service provider, survive a cyber attack?
- What to do after a cyber attack?
- Concluding thoughts
Introduction
Just imagine, it’s a usual workday. You get ready for work and open your laptop. Suddenly, you see a bizarre activity on your system. The passwords have changed, files deleted, etc., and a message flashes across your screen, “You’ve been hacked!”.
Welcome to the world of cyberattacks, and you’re a victim now. For sure, even the thought of it can bring chills down your spine.
A study conducted by the University of Maryland found out that a cyberattack is carried out every 39 seconds.
Cyberattacks have become pretty common these days due to the rise in technology and its related services. Also, do not even console yourself by thinking that only the Fortune 100 or 500 are bound to face an attack. If a $45 billion IT giant like Accenture is vulnerable to cyber attacks, then so is everyone. Even small and mid-sized businesses are prone to cyberattacks more often than large organizations.
What is a cyber attack?
If an unknown entity or organization attempts to disable your electronic device or steal your data stored in the device by unethical means not authorized by you, then it is called a cyber attack. The person responsible for carrying out this unethical process is called a hacker.
How to survive a cyber attack?
Despite various defense mechanisms in place, the frequency of cyberattacks hasn’t reduced, forcing individuals and organizations to set up remedial measures. In this article, we will be discussing the various survival mechanisms that an organization or an individual can adhere to post a cyberattack, ensuring no further damage is caused.
Post-attack remedial mechanisms
Every second, post the attack, is critical. There are two mechanisms that organizations follow post the attack- one is remediation, and the other is mitigation. If the attack is detected initially, the damages can be reduced by using mitigation techniques, and the threat can be eradicated.
Unfortunately, if the threat has not been detected during the early stages of the attack, it penetrates deep into the system and cannot be eradicated. That’s when remediation comes into the picture, where different strategies and techniques are used to minimize the overall damage.
How Kaseya, a software service provider, survive a cyber attack?
Let’s look at how the US software giant Kaseya handled one of the biggest cyberattacks with its defense mechanism and presence of mind. The cyberattack was carried out by Russia-linked ransomware group REvil in July 2021 and is estimated to have affected up to 2,000 global organizations.
Here is what they did right!
Step 1: Mitigation
One hour after the attack: Kaseya immediately shut down all the access to the affected sources. The mitigation protocol helped the company to minimize the impact of the attack and save thousands of small and medium-sized businesses from devastating consequences.
Step 2: Remediation
Post mitigation, Kaseya activated its internal incident response team, which had partnerships with industry-leading cybercrime experts. As soon as the company confirmed the attack was threatening, the government cybersecurity and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, CISA, and the White House, were immediately notified within an hour.
Within a day, a security patch was created to counteract the attack. But, Kaseya’s CEO made a wise and tough call to keep the affected system down for a few more days to ensure that the threat is eradicated.
The timely reaction and wise decisions post the attack helped Kaseya protect data of 36,950/ 37,000 of its core customer base from being breached and affected. It means that 99% of Kaseya’s clients were saved, and only less than 1,500 of the 9,00,000+ local and small businesses handled by Kaseya’s customers were affected.
Now that you’ve seen how a company survived a cyberattack and maintained its business continuity, it’s your turn to safeguard your organization’s and your digital assets.
What to do after a cyber attack? How to survive the attack?
With a cyberattack more imminent, it’s better to have remedial measures at hand rather than being unprepared for such an incident. Moreover, implementing measures as soon as possible reduces the downtime the business has to go through and saves you from dire losses financially and customer-wise.
Step 1: Identity what caused the attack and where the attack came from!
It is of prime importance to have an incident response team in place that can swiftly spring into action once the attack is detected. Swift action and timely response are essential for limiting damages. Also, an incident response team can save up to $400,000 for affected companies on average. Below are some crucial initial steps you can take:
- Identify and isolate the affected systems
- Investigate the source of the attacks like the IP address, source, etc.
- Determine the nature of the attack. Understand if it is a virus, malware, ransomware, etc.
Once you identify these details, you can set in process the remedial measures to contain the attack.
Step 2: Set into damage control mode
No matter how serious the attack is, you should never panic. You might think shutting down the entire system will control the cyberattack, but no. Doing so will affect the entire business process, and could cost you your clients.
The best you can do is:
- Bring in the incident response team to detect the reason for the breach and rectify it
- Identify the affected system and use the mitigation techniques by isolating them, to keep the virus from spreading further and attacking the other systems.
- Keep the non-affected systems running, ensuring that business continuity is maintained in non-affected servers.
- Quarantine all the systems that have been affected, and release the security patch.
- Never resume the activities in the affected systems until and unless you are completely sure that the threat has been eliminated.
- Immediately notify the management and your customers about this breach. Keeping this news away from them can cost the company its integrity and values.
Step 3: Adopt the best Cyber Security practices
Now it’s time to take some proactive measures. Change the passwords of all the systems and networks across the organization. Being in the world of cloud computing, you are bound to have a data backup. If not, try getting a cloud data backup storage for yourself or your organization to not lose critical data. Restore the backup data, and ensure that there is no way that the hackers can gain access to them a second time.
Next, train all your employees occasionally to let them know about the recent cyber security threats and best practices to avoid these threats. Also, educate them about keeping their passwords secure and avoiding third-party links received via emails, messages, etc.
Step 4: Establish partnerships with firms providing IT security services
The recent trends have witnessed a growing number of startups and small businesses forging partnerships with cybersecurity service providers. If you’re running a company with a large customer base, you must consider this option. This step can save money as partnering with a firm specializing in cybersecurity can be less expensive than hiring full-time employees, and you can get access to end-to-end security solutions.
Concluding thoughts
No matter how robust your defenses are, hackers somehow find a way to penetrate your systems. Hence it is advisable to have remedial measures beforehand, and I hope these points find good use to you.
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