What To Do If Your Data Was Breached? Have You Become a Victim?

April 21, 2020, Kathmandu

Data breach in a company can become a burden to the growing business. It not only damages the reputation of the company but can sometimes cost the company financial damage. A data breach can be an intentional or unintentional attack on the company. A data breach can happen due to several reasons; not a secured network is one of the main reasons hackers can get into your confidential data.

But for now, let’s not talk about the network security or prevention of data breach.

Let’s talk about what to do if you ever had a data breach. Here are some steps you can follow to tackle a data breach you have had or in case you have.

1. Notify the affected

As a company, holding personal information and data of various people, you must notify those who are affected by the breach and what data was stolen. They can be notified by direct messages, or via social media. An official press release is considered as the most professional way to communicate about the data breach, but you want to do it as quickly as possible. So first posting on social media and then providing a press release would be fine as well

2. Notify what information has been breached

As mentioned earlier, notifying the customers or employees about the data breach is necessary. Informing how much data has been compromised and what data has been compromised is essential to be informed so that they could secure their information if needed.

3. Request to apply protective measures

After the data breach, your customers might get affected by the data leaked. To prevent them from having further problems due to data leak from your company, request them to reset their password. Inform them to change their other confidential information as well or contact respective concerning bodies (like government office, banks) if data were compassionate.

4. Investigating the data breach

If the data breach was done on a considerable scale, the government body could intervene in your further actions, which can be of help. Nonetheless, you have to investigate the data breach How, when, and why it happened is necessary to understand. Contact legal authority or cybersecurity company to investigate the data breach.

5. Find and Mitigate Vulnerabilities

After investigation, once you find out the vulnerabilities on your software or system, you should patch them immediately. Also, inform your customers or employee that the data has been secured and the loopholes have been fixed.

6. Protection against future attacks

After you have secured your data, you should understand it is not over yet. These kinds of attacks can repeat shortly. To prevent such attacks perform Penetration testing of your application or system. Hire hackers or cybersecurity experts to find other possible loopholes and secure it.

As a company, holding sensitive data of many people, you need to secure your system and prevent any further data breaches.

Everything you need to know about the data breach and its prevention

What is a data breach you have been hearing about a lot this time?

The data breach is the intentional or unintentional release of secured or confidential information to the public where anyone can access the data. The data can be anything that the company has about customers or employees. It can be personal information, Date of birth, confidential documents or conversation, or in some cases, back details as well. Data Breach can cause someone emotional or financial damage, so it is a significant thing of concern in today’s digital world.

If you are an average citizen who thinks that he/she has nothing confidential or financially affecting data, data breach should not be taken lightly. If you are a more significant or small start-up company, still data breaches should not be taken lightly.

Data breach should be prevented as much as possible to ensure your company’s reputation and safeguard your customers or employee details.

So first, let’s understand who can cause data breaches.

1. A Malicious Insider: If someone purposely accesses or shares data with the internet or public with the intent of causing harm to an individual or a company, these are considered malicious insiders.
2. Lost or Stolen Device: In case of someone with the access of data losses their unencrypted and unlocked laptop or the external hard drive of a company. The sensitive data contained in it is easily accessible to others. This can result in harmful use or making public of these data.
3. Malicious Hacker: These are the hackers who use various kinds of attack vectors to gather information from the system. They can exploit the system to get internal access to some sensitive data.

As mentioned earlier, a data breach can cause you emotional or financial damage. It can cause damage to your company; this can affect your company for a long time in the future as well. Here are the ways which can help you to prevent data breaches.

Update software regularly

Updating software is an easy and cost-effective method to prevent attacks. Updating software regularly to fix bugs can help a lot to avoid a security breach. Make sure all the programs are patched and updated daily because the networks are sensitive if not repaired, which can cause data breaches.

Limit access to the confidential data

Limiting access to the most valuable data helps to reduce the chances of the data breach. As the data have limited access, sensitive data can be accessed through a few of the users, and that can be made secured rather than every employee in the office.

Train the employee about security threats

Training your employees about the data breach is as necessary as teaching them about office works. Despite having a strong Security team, educating the employee about the data breach and security importance can help a lot to prevent a data breach. The team should also inform the employees about the potential risks, and hacking attempts of the information can be made through them as well.

Regular Vulnerability and Compliance Management

Performing vulnerability assessment and penetration testing on your system can help to identify weaknesses inside your order. It enables you to detect the gaps and security misconfiguration. It also helps you to monitor and safeguard infrastructure continuously and protect the system by fixing the loophole

Observe the Third-party vendors

It is essential to have data and information about the people you are working with as a company. Before getting connected with any third party, check their background and reputation. Ask for transparency if you are allowing the company access to your data

Monitor the devices connected in the system

Most companies nowadays ask their employees to use their own devices at work. But this can cause a high risk to the system, as most of the employees use the tool for both office and personal reasons. Many companies have a culture of asking their employees to use their tools at work. It is crucial to monitor those devices to ensure there are no security threats that can be caused by the devices after connecting to the system.

Notify in case of an unusual act

In case someone realizes the data breach, it is necessary to inform the security team as soon as possible. If the offense is acknowledged at an early stage, it has a higher chance to control it or at least minimize the loss. Even if someone notices any sort of suspicious act or any unusual act, it is better to report to the concerned body.

By applying these steps, there can still be chances of data breaches. To ensure your customer’s data safety, consult security experts, or hire a security expert to the company to prevent a data breach.

Best Security Practices for Employees and users for making a safe and secure workplace

Recently there are many cases of data breaches and hacking are coming to the news headlines. Despite the widespread infection of COVID-19 and offices following the Work From Home system for their business, employees or any users should be aware of a data breach. A data breach is the intentional or unintentional release of secured or confidential information to the public where anyone can access the data. The data can be anything that the company has about customers or employees. It can be personal information, Date of birth, confidential documents or conversation, or in some cases, back details as well. Data Breach can cause someone emotional or financial damage, so employees should be careful while working from home.

Here are some measures to follow safe working environment:

• Do not open any links or downloads and attachments on your mails: Mails related to COVID-19 or lottery can be sent to you, which can contain viruses that can affect your system.
• Do not click on pop-ups: While you use a personal pc for office work, the infection in your pc can affect your office system as well. Clicking on pop-ups can also result in your pc being affected. Most of the time, they will try installing malware or adware on your device.
• Do not disable the firewall: Firewall is the main line of defense in your system from malware. In-build firewalls should be kept activated to protect your pc against malicious affecting your pc.
• Enable multi-factor authentication: Enabling multi-factor authentication provides an extra layer of security to your login during the system and prevents unauthorized access to the system.
• Update your pc: Update your device to the latest security patches.
• Use Enterprise Virtual Private Network (VPN): If needed to access organizational resources and verify it’s up to date use enterprise VPN.
• Use Screen-Lock and password: You need to secure your phone by keeping a lock on your devices. This does not completely secure your device, but it is better to have to rather than having it accessible to anyone.
• Enable auto-lock on your device after a short duration of inactivity.
• Use End to End (E2E) Encrypted messaging: This provides security to your confidential
• Have complex passwords: For your official accounts, it is better to use complex passwords. You can use a complex password in a personal social media account as well, but it depends upon you.
• Be aware of the environment: Be conscious about the situation where you are using your devices. Be mindful about Shoulder surfing; other might be able to see/listen to your sensitive information

These methods do provide you a safe working environment but do not entirely prevent you from hacking or data breaches. In case you get any spam calls or phishing emails that might be suspicious, report to the police or cybersecurity body. Also, in case you find any suspicious activity in the office system, contacts your concerned official or security experts.