Cybercrime aftermath: How to recover from a cyberattack

How likely is your business to experience a cyberattack? Chances are, it’s much more likely than you think. In the last few years, cyberattacks have increased in both frequency and severity, making it all the more important for businesses to have a proper cyberattack recovery plan in place.

It takes just one tiny gap in your cybersecurity system or a single click on a wrong link to grant cybercriminals access to your business’ computer systems — and potentially sensitive digital data.

If you haven’t considered the importance of a recovery plan for your business yet, now may be the right time to change that. Whether you’re putting together a team of cyber experts in-house or outsourcing help, don’t underestimate the importance of having someone within your organization who will be able to help your business recover from a cyberattack when one occurs. In this article, we’ll break down in detail what to do in the aftermath of a cyber incident giving you all of the necessary steps to take to recover from a cyberattack.

Understanding cyberattacks

Before we dive into the steps to recover from an attack, let’s take a closer look at these incidents and their impact. Some cyberattacks can immediately cripple your networks, whereas others stay hidden for weeks or even months until they are discovered. One thing that all cyberattacks have in common is that they can all cause serious damage to your business, potentially leading to financial loss and irreparable harm to your reputation.

There are many types of cybercrime out there, each posing significant threats to your business. Here are a few of the most common and damaging cyberattacks:

• Malware: Malicious software designed to harm, exploit, or compromise your computers and network, often by stealing data, disrupting operations, or gaining unauthorized access.
• Ransomware: A specific type of malware that essentially takes your files hostage. Hackers use it to encrypt your files or lock you out of your computer system. The cybercriminal will demand a ransom payment to restore access or decrypt the files.
• Social engineering: A manipulation tactic in which cyberattackers attempt to deceive you or your team into providing confidential information or performing actions that compromise security. Phishing is the most common type of social engineering.
• DNS tunneling: A technique that uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to secretly transfer data from your system to the attacker’s own servers, often without being detected by your security tools.

What is the difference between cyber recovery and disaster recovery?

Both cyber and disaster recovery systems are designed to help your company recover from the consequences of a cyberattack or a data breach. Even though they overlap to a certain extent, they have different purposes and designs. A disaster recovery plan aims to ensure business continuity following a cyberattack. On the other hand, cyber recovery provides data asset protection and prevents potential data loss in the future. Let’s take a closer look at these two recovery systems and how they differ.

Disaster recovery

Planning for disaster recovery means that you will be better prepared to act if you discover a breach in your cybersecurity network. Since this plan focuses on business continuity, it should help you repair your system and resume operations as soon as possible to avoid financial losses from business interruption.

However, if a ransomware attack were to occur and you haven’t prepared for the consequences properly or if your cyber recovery protocols are not up to par, there is a very good chance that the compromised data would be synced with your backup servers. The result would be that your most recent data backup would also be damaged by malware.

Cyber recovery

A cyber recovery system requires a cyber vault that is both physically and virtually isolated and functions as a data center. It is automated to control the gap between a disaster recovery system and a cyber recovery system by leaving the link open or closing it when necessary. The vault storage backup system is immutable, meaning that the data cannot be modified or compromised by crypto-locking — leaving it safe for you to restore once your network is clean.

Given that recent trends show a surge in the number of ransomware attacks on businesses, it is better to have both disaster and cyber recovery protocols in place to ensure that you can protect your data and restore it without paying the ransom. It would also allow you to resume your business processes faster and reinforce your networks to help avoid similar attacks from compromising your networks in the future.

How to recover from a cyberattack: A step-by-step guide

Cyberattacks can be devastating for a business, big and small. Having an effective plan for recovering from a cybersecurity incident and designing both incident response and recovery scenarios for different types of attacks can be a major lifesaver for your company. That said, according to a 2023 study, nearly a third of companies haven’t updated their recovery plans in the last year, which highlights that many businesses are at an elevated risk of an attack.

The latest data breach report by IBM indicates that the average cost of a data breach in 2024 rose to the incredible figure of $4.88 million per incident, the highest average cost in the history of this report.

This number is frightening, and when coupled with the fact that, according to Net Set Security research, malware attacks increased by almost 30% in the first half of 2024, it is clear that companies need to take these risks very seriously.

Here are some steps your business can take to recover from a cyberattack:

1. Follow your cyber incident response plan

Have a detailed cyber incident response plan you can follow to make your recovery process less tedious. The incident response plan should clearly assign responsibilities to teams and individuals and contain all the necessary steps your organization should take to recover as painlessly as possible. You can think of your cyber incident response plan as your blueprint for effectively handling an attack and recovering from the damage caused.

2. Create a business continuity plan

If you absolutely need to resume operations while your system is still compromised, you should devise an action plan based on the situation. Find alternatives for the critical processes that were interrupted by the incident and instruct your employees on how to adjust to the new working conditions. For example, you might have to instruct your customer service department to call customers instead of emailing them, or your employees may need to use personal computers that your cybersecurity department has approved while work computers are being restored to working order.

A business continuity plan can save your organization lots of money that would otherwise be lost while your systems are down or compromised.

3. Contain the threat

Before you do anything else, you’ll first need to contain the threat to stop it from spreading further. Start by isolating infected systems — disconnecting compromised devices from the network or, in severe cases, powering them down to prevent further harm. Block all unauthorized access, reset passwords, and enforce multi-factor authentication across critical systems.

If your security team notices any vulnerabilities exploited during the attack, make sure to patch them right away. That said, this may not be possible until a thorough security audit has been done.

4. Access the damage

It is pretty unlikely that your company will come out of a cyberattack completely unscathed. So, one of the first things you should do in the aftermath of an incident is look at the extent of the damage and determine what your company’s losses are. This involves examining whether sensitive data has been compromised, such as customer information, intellectual property, or financial records. 

Check for corrupted or encrypted files, identifying any disruptions to critical operations, such as email servers, customer-facing portals, or supply chain systems. You’ll also need to consider the financial impact, which could include the cost of ransom payments, theft, or revenue lost due to operational downtime.

5. Use safe backups to resume operations

Data loss is one of the most serious threats of a cyberattack and can cause significant damage to your company. A secure backup is essentially a copy of your data that is stored in a separate location (either physically or virtually) and acts as a safety net for data breaches. This can help you resume operations much quicker and respond to data breaches quickly and effectively. However, you will need to wait until your network is clean and completely restored before you can restore your data.

6. Recover or rebuild the lost data

If you haven’t installed a cyber recovery system but you do keep backups as a part of your disaster recovery system, you will only need to rebuild the data that you stored after the most recent clean backup. If that data was irreparably damaged, you would need to enlist expert help to rebuild it.

7. Investigate the cause of the attack

Once your business has resumed operations and recovered your data, it is time to carry out an investigation to determine how the attack occurred, why your cybersecurity system failed, and what the motive behind the attack was. This will not only help your business recover from the current attack but also give you the information you need to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

8. Analyze and improve your cybersecurity procedures

One of the most important steps you should take after a cyber incident is to audit your security gaps and learn what you can improve to prevent a repeat of the incident. Strengthen your security protocols, change all the passwords, and instruct your employees on cyber hygiene and prevention methods. Educating your staff is the best method for preventing future attacks from infiltrating your systems.

The risks of not having a disaster recovery plan

Imagine a situation where you have just discovered that your business was hacked. You have no idea about the source of the attack, the extent of damage, or how much it’s going to cost to recover from it. On top of that, you don’t have a cyber incident response plan or disaster recovery plan for your company in place either.

A disaster recovery plan is crucial to have because it enables you and your team to carry out a swift and organized plan for solving the crisis. Without a disaster recovery plan, Any successful cyberattack can cause chaos in your network and among your staff, leading to a much slower response time and, in turn, more damage.

To understand why having a disaster recovery plan is so important, let’s take a look at some of the possible consequences of not having one.

Data loss

If your company suffers a cyberattack, all of your business sensitive data can be compromised. In such a situation, it is crucial to act quickly and isolate the source of the attack and all affected systems.

Simply put, companies that don’t have a recovery plan will take more time to react to a data breach than ones that do. The longer it takes to identify and isolate an attack, the harder it will be to protect your data, meaning that sensitive customer and partner information may have already fallen into the wrong hands. If you aren’t backing up your data securely, the damage caused by a data breach can be irreparable.

Business interruption

Without a proper plan, serious cyber incidents would inevitably bring your daily business operations to a halt. Having a recovery plan in place helps you resume operations much faster. A disorganized and chaotic reaction to the incident could make the situation even worse and significantly increase the amount of time, effort, and money needed for recovery.

Any downtime would result in your company losing money both in terms of revenue and employee productivity. This can be especially damaging to smaller companies, who generally cannot afford to be non-operational for an extended period.

Expensive recovery

The more time it takes to recover from a cyberattack, the more money a company loses. Business owners sometimes don’t realize how much it costs to recover or recreate the lost data in a data breach.

That doesn’t even include the costs associated with loss of profit, potential losses stemming from expensive lawsuits, and the cost of potential system overhauls that require all new hardware and infrastructure to be purchased and installed. The fact that many businesses, regardless of size, might never be able to financially recover from a cyberattack if they are caught completely unprepared can’t be stressed enough.

Reputational damage

A longer and messier recovery from a cyberattack can harm your company’s reputation, causing you to lose clients, employees, and partnerships. In the modern era, news of a breach or system downtime spreads quickly, and clients or customers may perceive your company as unreliable or insecure. Trust is a cornerstone in any business relationship, and mismanaging a cyberattack is a surefire way to lose the trust of clients and customers. Of course, cyberattacks can still cause a lot of damage when businesses have disaster recovery plans in place. But, having a plan can keep your business more organized and efficient when handling the crisis.

In fact, your disaster recovery plan can even give you “bragging rights” that can help you land more clients. Just like businesses will always ask for proof of insurance before agreeing on a partnership of any kind, clients and new partners will almost certainly want to know about your cybersecurity preparedness.

Regulatory fines and legal consequences

Businesses that do not have a proper disaster recovery plan not only face more severe damages but also put themselves at risk of facing regulatory fines and legal repercussions. Regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) require companies to protect sensitive data and have protocols in place to respond to breaches. Failure to comply can result in hefty fines, which can quickly add up, particularly if multiple violations are identified.

A well-organized disaster recovery plan can prove to these organizations that your company did its due diligence and had procedures in place to protect company data. This can prevent lawsuits and hefty regulatory fines.

How to recover from a cyberattack without a disaster recovery plan

As you now know, not having a disaster recovery plan can be catastrophic, but it might not be the end of the world. Assuming that you act quickly and are prepared to make the necessary financial and operational sacrifices, here are some steps you can take to recover even when you’ve been caught unprepared for a cyberattack:

Allocate more resources to the recovery process

React swiftly to allocate all available human and financial resources to resolve the crisis. Some of your other business processes might suffer, but recovery must be your number one priority.

Hire experts to help you

Ask people from your business network to recommend cybersecurity and crisis management experts who can assist you with managing your response to the incident. Ensure that you get all the help you need to act promptly.

Contact your insurer for assistance

Hopefully, you have business insurance. Your insurer is one of your best allies in a crisis like this because they most likely have other clients who have gone through the same type of scenario. Report your cyberattack to your insurer right away so that your policy (which you’ve hopefully purchased to protect you in such situations) can kick in right away and prevent you from having to pay the myriad costs associated with a cyberattack on your own.

Design an ad-hoc recovery plan and implement it

When you gather all the help you can get, it’s time to create your emergency recovery plan and start implementing it as soon as possible. An ad-hoc plan is still better than not having one at all. You can then use the ad-hoc plan as a starting point for designing your official and much-needed risk management, cyber incident response, and disaster recovery plans.

Minimizing the impact of a cyberattack

The reality is that cyberattacks are a common occurrence, and they are only becoming more prevalent. So, the question isn’t if you’ll face a cyber threat but when. This is why it is crucial to have a proper plan in place for recovering and minimizing the scale of incidents. Here are some of our top recommendations:

Employee training and awareness

The best you can do to minimize your risks is to establish robust security protocols and educate your employees. According to a recent study by Usecure, a solid cybersecurity training program can reduce your company’s cyber risk by up to 50%.

Data encryption

Data encryption is an excellent tool for minimizing cyber risks and shielding sensitive information. By converting data into an unreadable format, encryption makes the information hackers obtain useless without the decryption key. So, even if an attacker gains access to your system, this additional layer of security helps safeguard sensitive data such as customer information and financial records.

Prevent incidents from occurring

Obviously, the absolute best way to minimize the impact of cyberattacks is to prevent them from occurring altogether. While this is easier said than done, there are several things you can do to significantly reduce your likelihood of becoming the victim of a cyberattack. You should implement a strong security system, train staff on cyber best practices, and conduct penetration tests to find vulnerabilities in your cybersecurity.

For more tips on avoiding cybercrime, head over to our post on how to prevent a data breach.

How insurance can help you recover

Transferring a significant part of the financial burden of a cyberattack to your insurer could be the difference between staying in business and bankruptcy. Cyber liability insurance is dynamic coverage that can be crafted to fit the needs and specific exposures of any business. Here are just some of the costs that a comprehensive cyber liability insurance policy covers:

• Loss of revenue due to a data breach
• Data recreation and recovery
• Cyber extortion as a result of a ransomware attack
• Computer fraud

Cyber insurance also cover third-party costs such as the costs of notifying affected customers and partners, credit monitoring, civil damages from resulting lawsuits, and even PR services required to mend your damaged reputation following the cyberattack.

Sign up for an Embroker account and get your cyber liability insurance quote in as little as 10 minutes.