There’s no question whether or not your company needs an effective cybersecurity incident response(IR) plan. You need one. Every business needs one. Not convinced? Check out this sobering statistic from the Ponemon Institute: “90% of organizations that go offline due to a cyber-attack shutter their windows in the following two years.” Need more evidence? Remember the recent WannaCry ransomware attack and the Google Docs phishing scam? Exactly. Christie Terrill reminds us, “Having a tested incident response plan in your back pocket can make the difference between a swift recovery or a high-stress situation where every minute the incident remains unresolved results in more financial or reputational damage.” Sadly, for those companies who do have an IR plan,  it often amounts to nothing more than a bare-bones, poorly-thought-out set-up that fails to involve any department but the IT team. And that’s a major faux pas. A security crisis deserves a team approach, a team effort. A breach or loss of information must have a coordinated effort that reaches across the various departments. Folks who are decisive, have demonstrated problem-solving skills, who can keep their wits about them in an emergency-like setting. And, of course, someone needs to head up that team. A proven leader who’s been at the helm, successfully, in the past will be a tremendous asset. This team’s mission? To get crackin’ to coordinate resources to minimize losses - financial, reputational, and customer base - and to restore operations as quickly as possible, in the event of a security breach. An October 2015 Experian data breach preparedness study found 35% of organizations admitted to not having reviewed or updated their response plan, even once since putting it in place. It’s easy to understand the appeal of a “Thank goodness THAT’S taken care of!” attitude. To pat the company’s collective back all the way to the filing cabinet where the plan will be safely tucked, hopefully never, ever, to be needed. But keep in mind the premise behind an incident response plan is to test your company’s ability to respond to a security incident. So that should a situation arise, it could be handled in a way that limits damage to the business, speeds recovery time, and reduces the financial impact. Sadly, most IR plans fail to deliver on this promise. But it doesn’t have to remain like that. Next week we’ll tackle the specifics of creating a dynamo IR plan. At MPS Technical, we’re proud to share that 90% of our candidates give MPS credit for “getting them well-prepared for their first day.” Our new start orientation process ensures a smooth transition for all involved. Contact our team today to see how a partnership with MPS can streamline the hiring of qualified employees.