How To Create A Data Breach Response Policy For Business

As cybercrime rates continue to rise, data breach response policies are becoming more crucial for companies. As a business owner, you need more than just data breach insurance to stand up against hackers. You also need to build a data breach response plan. When companies that do not have response plans get hacked, they usually lose even more customer information. This leads to a massive decrease in customer satisfaction rates and, sometimes, hefty fines. Avoid these outcomes by learning how to create a data breach response policy for business below.

Define “Data Breach” For Your Company

The first step to creating an effective data breach response policy for business is to define what a data breach is to your company. Each company handles different customer information and, therefore, requires different data breach definitions. If you own a retail shop, you likely do not have any of your customers’ social security numbers stored in your system. Therefore, you will not need to include social security numbers in your data breach policy like other types of businesses would. Instead, you can include the loss of credit card information in your definition. By creating a specific definition, you eliminate any confusion for employees. This step is crucial for creating a data breach response policy for business.

Establish A Response Team

Another important step to take when developing a policy is to establish a response team. Your response team should consist of well-trusted employees from relevant departments of your business. Recruit honest workers from your human resources, information technology and risk management departments. Then, designate individuals from your communications, legal and senior management teams as well. Large companies may need more than one representative from each department, so keep your business size in mind when forming your team. Use this advice to establish a response team successfully and build an effective data breach response plan.

Make Training A Requirement

Next, make training a requirement in your data breach response policy. You need to teach the members of your response team how to handle data breaches in a fast yet cautious way. More so, you need to train them to teach their colleagues what steps to take when a data breach occurs. Use a variety of training techniques to ensure that you prepare your response team properly. Commonly used techniques include in-house seminars and online staff training sessions. Choose the training processes that work best for your business to create an effective data breach response policy.

Determine Information To Collect

In order to build a data breach response policy, you also need to determine what information needs to be collected during an incident. Most policies include five information areas. These areas are timing, causation, depth of breach, company actions and legal. When a data breach occurs, the workers on your response team will be responsible for recording this data. With this information on hand, you can stay organized during the breach and solve the issue quickly. You can even use the information to better prepare for the next time you get hacked. Hence, this is a crucial step to take when creating your data breach response policy for business.

Decide On A Plan Of Action

Finally, decide on a plan of action to create a data breach response policy. The plan of action is a critical section of your response plan. It outlines the steps that your response team will take when a breach occurs. Include procedures for analyzing the breach. Then, specify the steps needed for containing it. Containment strategies often include updating passwords and reaching out to any involved agencies. Many business owners create plans of action for several types of scenarios. That way, they can ensure that their response teams are prepared for any attack. If you want to create a highly effective data breach response policy, it is a good idea for you to do the same.

In order to avoid losing large amounts of information when affected by cybercrime, you need to establish a data breach policy. Start creating your policy by defining what a data breach is to your business. Then, form a response team of responsible, well-trusted employees. Make training a requirement in your plan as well. You also need to determine the information that your response team needs to collect during a breach. Lastly, decide on a plan of action for your response team to follow. Take these steps to create a data breach response policy for business.

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