That’s a problem because when a cyber incident happens, the clock starts immediately.
Your employees can’t access systems. Customers begin asking questions. Emails stop working. Funds may have been transferred fraudulently. Sensitive information could be exposed. And while leadership is scrambling to understand what happened, every minute of downtime becomes more expensive.
If you got hacked today, who would you call?
If you’re not sure, now is the time to find out.
The First Call After a Breach Sets the Tone for Recovery
Imagine it’s 8:15am on a Tuesday.
An employee reports that every file on the network is encrypted. A ransom demand appears on multiple screens and operations have stopped.
Who owns the response?
- Your IT vendor?
- Internal IT staff?
- The FBI?
- Your cyber insurance carrier?
- A public relations firm?
The answer is often “all of the above.” The challenge is knowing who to call first and how to coordinate the response.
Many organizations discover during a cyber event that they do not have a clear incident response plan, defined responsibilities, or the right resources on standby.
Unfortunately, that’s not the time to start building a team.
A Cyber Incident is No Longer Just an IT Problem
One of the biggest misconceptions about cyber risk is that it’s a technology issue.
In reality, a cyber event can quickly affect every part of your organization, creating financial, legal, regulatory, customer service, public relations, and business continuity challenges.
For many organizations, the largest losses result from operational disruption, lost revenue, contractural obligations, legal expenses, and reputational damage rather than from restoring systems.
We’ve seen incidents where businesses were unable to process orders, access accounting systems, receive payments, or communicate with customers. Some were affected by ransomware. Others were victims of business email compromise or fraudulent wire transfers.
The common theme is that consequences extend far beyond the IT department.
The Most Valuable Part of Cyber Insurance Isn’t Always the Coverage
When business leaders evaluate cyber insurance, they often focus on policy limits and premiums.
Those factors matter. But one of the greatest benefits of a quality cyber insurance policy is immediate access to a coordinated incident response team. Cyber insurance can provide access to specialists such as digital forensics investigators, breach counsel, ransomware negotiators, public relations professionals, and recovery experts who help organizations respond to and recover from cyber incidents.
Instead of spending hours trying to identify and hire experts in the middle of a crisis, organizations can activate a pre-established network of professionals who handle cyber events every day. Cyber insurance can help organizations recover financially and operationally after a cyber incident.
That can significantly reduce response times and improve outcomes.
Your Incident Response Plan Is Only as Good as Your Last Review
A surprising number of companies have incident response plans that haven’t been updated in years.
Key questions every business should be able to answer include:
- Who has authority to make decisions during a cyber event?
- How will employees communicate if email is unavailable?
- Who contacts customers, vendors, and stakeholders?
- What systems are most critical to operations?
- Do you have offline backups?
- When was the plan last tested?
- Do key executives know exactly what to do?
If leadership cannot confidently answer these questions, there is work to be done before the next incident occurs.
Don’t Wait Until You’re Under Attack
Cybercriminals aren’t just targeting large enterprises. Organizations of all sizes are attractive targets because nearly every business relies on email, cloud systems, electronic payments, and digital data to operate.
The reality is that a cyber event will never arrive at a convenient time. The businesses that recover most effectively are usually not the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones that prepared in advance and they know who to call.
Start Building Cyber Resilience Now
Cyber resilience depends not only on having controls in place to prevents attacks but also on having a plan to respond quickly and effectively when they happen.
Because when a cyber incident occurs, the first few hours can determine the financial, operational, and reputational impact of the event.
So ask yourself:
If you got hacked today, who would you call?
If that answer isn’t immediately clear, now is the right time to review your incident response plan, evaluate your cyber insurance coverage, and ensure your organization has access to the resources it will need when every second counts.