One Ponemon Institute study found 90 percent of businesses that suffer a data loss close their doors within two years. 80 percent fail within 13 months.
Develop a "when not if" mindset
Cybercrime will be responsible for 6 trillion dollars in damages by 2021. Shift from reactive to proactive.
Build the right team
Seasoned IR leads with skills in pen testing, hunt team work, log analysis, host and network forensics, memory analysis, threat intelligence.
Track KPIs
- Time taken for detection
- Success rate of detection by tools versus users
- Decision speed
- Number of false positives
- Nature of the attack
- Type of tool that led to detection
Champion continuous testing
Test frequently. Simulate a full breach. The average cost of a full-scale breach is 3.62 million dollars; testing is well worth it.
Clear incident taxonomy
Learn what is and is not an incident.
Remove the silo
PR, marketing, customer support, legal, and HR may all be affected by a leak.
Originally published 26 September 2017. Migrated to the new IRC site in 2026.