Why Finance and Healthcare Companies Need a Cybersecurity Disaster Recovery Plan

Having a plan for emergencies is vital for your business, especially if you’re in the financial or healthcare industries.

You need a plan to address cyber attacks, because hackers tend to target companies in these industries. The first six months of 2023 saw a 60% year-over-year increase in cyber attacks on healthcare companies. Financial services companies are also taking a hit from hackers; in 2022, financial services was the second most impacted sector from data breaches.

[This article is part of our Guide to Cybersecurity]

Addressing Data

A data breach is a common cyber attack that is particularly damaging. When this happens, a hacker accesses your corporate database and steals sensitive information from your customers, suppliers, and employees. 

It’s a huge deal when this happens. But you can do something about it.

By creating a robust cybersecurity disaster recovery plan, complete with cybersecurity documentation, you take a proactive approach against hackers.

Understanding Why You Need a Cybersecurity Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)

Simply put, a cybersecurity DRP protects your company’s IT infrastructure.

Your IT infrastructure is made up of all the hardware, software, and networking components (and associated systems) within your organization. It’s what powers your company’s technology and corresponding tools. Keeping it running – even in the face of a cyber attack – is critical to the welfare of your business.

To maintain your IT infrastructure, you need to know what to do when you’ve been hacked. That’s the job of a cybersecurity DRP, which documents the steps you need to take during – and after – a cyber attack. 

One quick note: Incident Response Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

Before you begin tackling the huge task of developing a cybersecurity DRP for your business, you should know that it isn’t the same as an incident response plan (IRP).

An IRP focuses only on getting things back to normal as quickly as possible. A DRP also focuses on restoring things to normal, but it also takes a more long-term approach to cyber threats by documenting steps for improving your company’s cybersecurity capabilities.

Having a cybersecurity IRP is helpful to keep your business running, but it isn’t a substitute for a cybersecurity DRP.

Example of Cyber Attacks against Financial or Healthcare Companies

Let’s look at an example of a cybersecurity DRP deployment.

Suppose a hacker steals your customers’ email addresses (this is called a business email compromise (BEC) attack). Posing as someone from your organization, they can use an email address that’s nearly identical to your company’s and send out messages to convince your customers to hand over their sensitive data (this is called a spoofing attack).

If you’re a financial or healthcare company, the hackers are very aware that you deal with your customers’ sensitive information – so in many cases they may not have much trouble convincing some of those customers to send financial or health data. After all, your customers trust you (and the BEC and spoofing attacks make the hacker’s address look like yours).

If you don’t want to lose that trust, as soon as you discover an attack has occurred you need to implement your cybersecurity DRP. This roadmap will help you know how to address the attack so you can immediately take action. It will also provide you with direction on how to improve your cybersecurity and reduce the risk of it happening again.

What the roadmap includes

The key elements that go into a cybersecurity DRP include documentation on:

• Ensuring business continuity

• Minimizing losses

• Safeguarding sensitive data 

• Communicating attacks internally and externally to customers and partners

• Improving your cybersecurity capabilities

• Restoring your infrastructure back to normal 

Restoring your infrastructure back to normal is perhaps the most time-sensitive element of this documentation. There’s a term for the process and actions this restoration entails: cyber incident recovery.

Creating the steps for your cyber incident recovery process requires someone with expertise in the inner workings of cybersecurity. You have access to these experts when you work with a managed service provider (MSP) like InfoSystems.

Why You Should Work with an MSP

A proficient MSP can show you how to recover from a cyber attack by:

• Helping you develop an effective cyber attack recovery plan (AKA your cybersecurity DRP)

• Using this plan as a resource when identifying and containing the threat

And once the threat is contained, your MSP can continually monitor your IT infrastructure for cyber attacks and cybersecurity risks. 

Your MSP can also help you develop an IT disaster recovery framework that provides guidelines and best practices for responding to cyber attacks. They can then help you incorporate this framework into your cybersecurity DRP.

Your MSP can also help you use this framework when training your staff in how to respond to cyber attacks and their roles in the disaster recovery process. We recommend providing employees with cybersecurity training at least once a year.

InfoSystems Can Serve as Your MSP to Help You Plan for and Contain Cyber Attacks

We’ll work with you to develop a cybersecurity DRP that’s specific to your needs. And when a cyber attack occurs, you can count on us to address it promptly and effectively. 

Don’t wait for a cyber attack to happen before you think about cybersecurity. Ensure you have a plan in place to address emergencies and a partner who will help you resolve them. 

As a financial services or healthcare company, you’ve been entrusted with sensitive data. Don’t let hackers jeopardize that trust.

Schedule a call today to review your cybersecurity recovery strategies.

[This article is part of our Guide to Cybersecurity]